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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: etc.

They must seize the opportunity to play every game as if it were the last one of their career.

The Spartacus Stadium (Spartacus Arena Esports) is hidden on the top floor of a semi-abandoned shopping mall. The walls of the e-sports hall in a wealthy area of Caracas, Venezuela's capital, are painted cold white and lined with rows of desktop computers. It is the "home field" of the Venezuelan e-sports team Gorgeous Gamers. For the team's five players and coach Soroya Borrelli, playing games is a serious business.

The team leader is 28-year-old Recomiser, whose name in "Tower 2" is "Arrakiz". At the time of the interview, Arrakiz was staring intently at the computer screen-his team was playing a friendly against the Colombian national team they were about to play in the league.

Coach Borrelli said Venezuelans used to be "the world's top players", but e-sports 's competitiveness declined as the power crisis swept the country in 2014, affecting the Internet industry. In 2018, the names of Venezuelan players can hardly be found on the global ranking of "Tower 2".

Spartacus is probably the fastest place in Venezuela. "all my friends suggested that I play professionally in other countries." "to be honest, until the emergence of Gorgeous Gaming, I never thought I could be a full-time e-sports player in Venezuela," Arrakiz said.

Borrelli calls e-sports players "Cyber-Athletes", and they train every day like athletes. Stretch in the morning and then train for 12 hours, including studying the opponent's game style. If someone is not serious enough in training, they will be fired, and the players who make up the team will eventually sign a contract with Gorgeous Gaming and get part of the bonus for the event. Although Borrelli would not disclose the specific percentage, according to the industry average, team managers will receive 60 per cent, with the remaining 40 per cent belonging to contestants.

This situation provides a unique opportunity for foreign investors, many Venezuelan players are skilled and eager to make money, but have few resources to compete on the global stage.

In January 2022, Russian coach e-sports, former professionals Dmitry Grasmov and Ivan Zidanov arrived at Jacques Beach on the Venezuelan island of Margarita, where they set up Gorgeous Gamers, and they planned to train and select a group of Venezuelan players, followed by a team of elite players to participate in the "Tower 2" International Invitational tournament with a total prize of more than US $40 million. Several contestants in the team revealed that they joined the team after layers of selection, and the whole process was quite difficult, but no one wanted to miss this opportunity to shake off poverty and become rich.

Arrakiz (second from right) and his teammates made their debut in the Panama qualifier in 2022. "like other e-sports games, Tower 2 is developing rapidly here." Javier Colmenares, coach and consultant to independent Venezuelan e-sports, said, "but if we want e-sports 's industry to grow in this country, we have to implement the Gorgeous Gaming model-we need other people's investment, e-sports organization and brand sponsorship."

Today, in addition to being a coach, Borrelli is also the manager of the team. According to her, Gorgeous Gaming is doing intensive training for Venezuelan e-sports players like the big companies in the global technology industry.

"the relationship between Russia and Venezuela is very good, with direct flights from Moscow to Margarita Island." "Dmitri and Ivan have all the advantages to start this company," says Borrelli. "by studying the e-sports industry in Latin America, they realize that all professional teams are concentrated in two or three countries, so they want to give Venezuela a chance."

At the same time, the economic situation of Venezuela has also improved, laying the foundation for the recovery of the domestic gaming industry. In recent months, private Internet companies are booming. According to data provided by Ookla, a speed analysis company, the median speed of fixed broadband in Venezuela increased by 3.46Mbps in 2021, an increase of 113% over the previous year.

The overall network situation in Venezuela is one of the objective reasons that limit the development of e-sports industry. Venezuelan players also face other challenges. Gorgeous Gamers recruited 140 top talent in its early days, only to find that their gaming experience lagged far behind professionals from Peru and Brazil. "other countries' turret 2 players left us behind." "but in the past seven months, we have promoted a revival of Tower 2 in Venezuela," Borrelli said. "

After a period of training, they selected 20 outstanding players from the more than 100 players initially recruited and invited them to compete in offline venues. There, Gorgeous Gamers evaluated the players comprehensively in terms of game skills, leadership, teamwork and concentration, and then signed up five elites to take them to an upscale hotel to provide health insurance, personal allowances and bear all other expenses. These players are prohibited from drinking or leaving the hotel and have to spend as much time playing games as possible every day.

Although Gorgeous Gamers has a very strict system, Arrakiz points out that this model has completely changed his life. Since joining the professional e-sports team, he no longer has to do odd jobs to make ends meet. "with all the resources I need, I can focus entirely on the game and leave everything else to the hotel. In addition, I also have the opportunity to compete with more famous European players."

Borrelli is proficient in Russian and Spanish. Borrelli and Arrakiz, a former translator, both believe that it will take another four or five years for the Venezuelan e-sports team to qualify for major e-sports competitions such as the "CS:GO" The Major and the "turret 2" international invitational tournament, which only accepts 1830 teams from all over the world. When Gorgeous Gamers failed to break into the international invitational tournament in 2022, Russian investors packed their bags and flew back to Moscow to send their Venezuelan players home.

As a Venezuelan, Borrelli decided to continue to run the team and moved Arrakiz from the poor eastern town of San Felix to the port city of Malakay, just an hour's drive from the capital, to stay at her home. In this way, Arrakiz can train in venues where electricity and network are fully guaranteed.

Of course, there is a time limit for Venezuelan players to get out of their financial difficulties through e-sports: they must often check their eyesight, hand and back muscles for damage. Many news reports have noticed the fact that e-sports 's career may be shorter than that of NFL players due to too much pressure and overwork. This may also be one of the reasons why Venezuelan players are willing to train hard, and they must seize the opportunity to play each game as if it were the last one of their career.

Once they lose the support of the team, most Venezuelan players will not be able to continue their careers at home, or even afford computers. "this team is strong and United, and the contestants have been playing together for a long time, knowing and trusting each other. I think this is the main reason why they are currently leading the regional scoreboard." "I believe that as long as they continue to have the support of management, they can further enhance their competitiveness and reach the level of playing against teams in mature areas of e-sports 's industry," Colmenares said. "

Borrelli said Gorgeous Gamers, a "pure Venezuelan team" jointly owned by her and her contestants, is looking for sponsors and plans to set up an e-sports college that will give local children a chance to receive training. "unlike other countries, we have few 11-or 12-year-old e-sports players because many children grew up in an environment with frequent power outages and Internet outages.

The next generation of Venezuelan players may get more opportunities than 28-year-old Arrakiz. "this kind of opportunity is impossible for me. If I want to make a career, the current training and competition opportunity is my only chance. Venezuela is changing so fast that we have to improvise."

This article is compiled from: https://restofworld.org/ 2022 / esports-venezuela-gorgeous-gamers/

Original title: "Venezuela's gamers see esports as a way to escape the country's crisis"

Original author: ANDREA PAOLA HERN Á NDEZ

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