A new Beautiful Game: Vietnamese youths turn passion for gaming into rewarding e-sports careers
- Young people in Vietnam who see gaming as more than just a hobby are turning their participation into careers as casters, e-sports players or developers
- Being a gamer in the country still carries a bit of social stigma rooted in a generational divide
Doan Manh An was destined to become a professional e-sports commentator – a caster.
A few years ago, fresh out of school with a marketing degree, he found himself in a drab office, pushing papers every day. The routine of the rat race grated on him. So he quit.
“During that desperate time, I was staying at home, watching other casters for League of Legends, and accidentally saw a job ad recruiting casters for Vietnam Esports TV. I decided to take up the chance,” he said. “At the time, e-sports was not as popular as it is nowadays in Vietnam.”
Fast forward five years. Manh An is one of the star e-sports commentators in Vietnam. Some of the competitions he has covered include the Vietnam Championship Series A – the highest professional tournament for League of Legends teams in Vietnam – and the recent 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, a tournament organised by Riot Games for the same game this past summer.
Manh An works for Vietnam Esports TV, which is owned by Sea Group’s digital entertainment division, Garena. As a shoutcaster, he narrates play-by-plays of games for viewers, specialising in League of Legends bouts. Matches usually last up to 35 minutes, and it’s Manh An’s job to unpack how players choose their line-ups and whether their tactics, such as pressing forward or playing defensively, might pay off.
Considered to be the premier e-sports network in the country, Vietnam Esports TV has about 2.95 million followers on YouTube, and has racked up about 1.85 billion views, with an average of 650,000 views for each video on its channel.