While eSports isn’t the traditional fitness kind of sports, its ever-growing popularity among youths is notable and professional gamers (as well as wannabes) often train for long hours, where pro-gamers like to draw parallels to how professional athletes also train. With a recent survey showing that gamers in Singapore spend an average of 7.44 hours per week playing online games, a rate that is among the highest in Asia, there is no denying the popularity of eSports and the viability of engaging youths through it.

(Left to right) FIFA gamer Chiang Wen Jun, SCAPE Executive Goh Kok Wee, SCAPE Chairman David Chua, Resurgence CEO Jayf Soh, Ong Wei Sheng and Samuel Chan

As such, *SCAPE has launched the first of it’s kind eSports Exposure and Xperience Programme (EXP2019) for youths aged 15 to 25 years old in Singapore where it allows youths to gain game skills, values, industry insights and foster social mixing and team bonding. This is in partnership with Resurgance, the largest eSports organisation that has a training facility and office based in Singapore, to enable top professional gamers and industry experts to act as mentors and coaches to attendees.

“In addition to game skills, youths can also learn about the many exciting possibilities within the industry and talented youths will be provided with green lane access to our industry partners to pursue their passion in eSports. Importantly, we aim to inculcate the right values and behaviours and mitigate any negative aspects of this popular youth interest such as cyber-bullying and gaming addiction,” explained *SCAPE Chairman, Mr David Chua.

Holistic Programme on eSports for youths

Designed with the help of industry professionals, EXP2019 offers specially curated 3D2N eSports camps during the upcoming June school holidays that is centred on 3 focus titles:

Mobile Legends Bang Bang (17-19 June)
FIFA (24-26 June)
League of Legends (27-29 June)

Camp activities include an introduction to the whole spectrum of the eSports landscape, challenges, team bonding exercises and outdoor learning that will foster social mixing and character development. Besides the camp, from July to December, there will be 10 workshops for each of the 3 focus titles as well as 10 workshops on live streaming and commentary. The workshop modules range from in-game skills and tactics, to mental management, cyber-wellness, content creation, engaging online audiences and much more. Driving EXP2019 will be coaches and pro-gamers from Resurgance.

Empowering youths to further expand local community

In the months to come, *SCAPEesports will also be conducting school visits island-wide to educate youths about eSports and EXP2019. Enthusiasts can also look forward to more community rallies, viewing parties and other events at *SCAPE.

“Community building is at the core of eSports engagement and we share *SCAPE’s goal to empower aspiring individuals to pursue their passion in eSports,” said Jayf Soh, CEO and Founder of Resurgance. “There is great diversity in eSports from talented gamers and a programme like EXP2019 will expose more people to eSports and help build the ecosystem from the ground-up.”

“EXP2019 is about providing aspirants and interested youths with an opportunity to be exposed to and to experience esports. Our goal is to cultivate responsible behaviours, while sharing with them our game insights and industry knowledge,” added Samuel ‘Sequinox’ Chan, former Raffles Institution student turned full-time professional gamer. “I look forward to sharing my personal experiences and to advise these youths, based on the path I’ve taken so that they can make more informed decisions.”

Added professional FIFA player Chiang ‘Hibidi’ Wen Jun, “By learning and bonding with like- minded enthusiasts at *SCAPE, attendees can also play a future role in expanding the esports community at large and communities is the foundation for a strong esports ecosystem in Singapore.”

Registration for EXP2019 is ongoing and for more information, visit https://www.scape.sg/scapeesports/EXP2019

Photos: *SCAPE