"Ashgabat 2017" Games will give impetus to the development of Turkmen cyber sports
September 05, 2017 | 14:30 |1883
Computer games competitions will take place outside the main medal standings at the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. Despite this, our young cybersportsmen are preparing for the event very carefully, since the outcome of the competition will affect the future development of all Turkmen e-sports. Atash Veliyev, one of the organizers of the national selection for the game Dota 2 and co-founder of the community Dota Türkmenistan, told Orient about what e-sports represents, how it develops in Turkmenistan and what to expect from the cyber competition at the Ashgabat Games 2017.Eziz OREZOV
On e-sports for "newbies" (those who are not acquainted with this sport)
Cybersport is a team competition in computer games. Professional cybersportsmen can spend months on virtual platforms, honing their skills to perfection. Unlike ordinary athletes, they develop not strength and endurance, but reaction and mental abilities. Especially popular at the moment are competitions in team strategies and first person "shooters". As in chess, in computer strategies it is important to think through all the moves in advance. But they must take into account the possible maneuvers of not one rival, but the whole team. While not forgetting about their comrades in "weapons", the tactics of which may contradict personal plans. In the "shooters" the most important thing is a quick reaction and well-coordinated teamwork. For most people, especially the older generation, it remains a mystery why "this e-Sports" has become so popular. I'll try to explain to make it easier to understand. Imagine yourself in the place of children who played computer games from an early age, but did not go out into the streets to play soccer with the guys. They just do not have those feelings that football fans experience during real matches. However, they know the adrenaline from the races and shooters on the computer. "Fans" can empathize with cyber-athletes, because they themselves experienced very strong emotions during their game. That's the way you want to watch and participate in e-sports competitions. The new generation simply feels closeness to this sport, understands it, lives it. Meanwhile, companies that produce computer games, saw this trend and support the organization of cyber competition. This makes their product even more popular, develops the industry and is the reason for accelerating the evolution of "hardware" (computers and related equipment). Therefore, almost every year old computer no longer "pulls" new games with improved graphics - everything is developing too quickly and every year the process is only accelerating. Today, eSports has ceased to be something unusual and intended only for children. If you look at the various world tournaments, you will see that their prize pools can be up to $ 25 million, and no longer only young guys are taking part in them.
On Cyber sports in Turkmenistan
In our country, e-sports are poorly developed, but they do exist. Recalling the story, back in 2005 and 2006, Turkmenistan participated in WCG (World Cyber Games) in Italy and Singapore. Prize funds were about 400 thousand dollars, and eSports only came to the international level. The very participation in this match was a great luck for our guys, as there were sponsors who paid for the trip and fees for games for beginners. It was a chance to express themselves, break into the "big league", but because of lack of experience, our athletes could not win prizes. For the domestic e-sports community, this was a deep disappointment. And since then no one from Turkmenistan has even tried to take part in such international tournaments. However time goes by. A new generation has grown up, which since childhood has been familiar with computer games, and they are striving to contribute to the development of e-sports in our country. Personally, I, together with my like-minded people, launched the Dota Türkmenistan project two years ago. Its main goal is to unite Turkmen players into computer games through social networks. After the launch, the project surpassed all our expectations. We have become a community where people get acquainted, communicate on different topics and find themselves suitable cyberspring. Having won a large audience and got stronger, we began to conduct national tournaments. We spent our last tournament in the fall of 2016 on the game Dota 2. This was our first official tournament, approved by the creators of the game - "Valve Corporation". Initially, many were skeptical, they did not believe that we would get consent, but we achieved our goal. The approval of the company gave us the opportunity to comment and cover the course of the competitions on official websites, to keep the statistics of each player open. The symbolic prize fund was $100, as well as the winners' cups. Participation in the games was taken by 12 teams, a total of 70 players. The tournament was a great success. The players gave off by one hundred percent and showed their strength. Spectators were very pleased, because it was a tournament of our cyber sportsmen, compatriots. After it was held, our community has grown more, we have received the full trust of people who have now begun to more willingly agree to participate in our events and are more responsible in preparing for the competition.On cyber-contests at the Games "Ashgabat 2017"
We were delighted to find out that e-sports will be represented on the 5th Asian Games. It will not appear in the overall medal standings, however, this is already a big step in support of domestic cybersportsmen. I think these Games will well influence the official recognition of e-sports in Turkmenistan, as it happened in Russia in 2016. And in the future, perhaps, it will even lead to the creation of the Federation of e-sports. Learning about the cyber tournament, we appealed to the Executive Committee of the Games with the desire to facilitate the event, and we were entrusted with conducting national qualifiers for the game Dota 2. We opened the registration for the participants in June and started the games in July of this year. The tournament was attended by 16 teams of 5 people. The struggle was intense - our best players competed, and everyone was eager to represent our country in such a large-scale international competition. Finally, on July 16th, we held the final match, where the winner - the "Wolfhound" team - was determined. We have young athletes, do not have much experience, and their opponents will be very strong. Despite this, our whole community will support our team... In any case, the participation of the team from Turkmenistan at the Games will be a very valuable experience.
On Dota TM community and future plans
In two years our community has grown enormously. Now we hold official tournaments on various games, opened several groups in social networks and launched our own website - s7ars.com. At this stage, we feel that we can continue to actively develop the community, but often it turns out that there are not enough additional hands. Therefore, we will be happy to welcome anyone who wants to help us in development. Only by unifying, we can pull Turkmen eSports to a new level, so I invite all computer game lovers to our "Line" group. From the nearest plans - we are going to hold a cyber-tournament on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Registration starts after September 15th. Everyone can participate in the tournament, and the winners get a chance to go to World Cyber Games. If someone wants to follow our events and tournaments, then all links will be found in our groups and on the site s7ars.com.
