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If you’re keen to support Australian esports pros on the international stage, and you’re a fan of World of Tanks Blitz, then you may want to follow the armoured action at this weekend’s World of Tanks Blitz Twister Cup, being held in Belarus. Not only does the team representing the APAC region have three Australian players, but it’s also captained by an Aussie!
The Twister Cup season has been running since September, and it’s seen regular players compete with the pros in the lead up to Twister Cup Professionals and Challengers tournaments, which all feed into the event coming up on this weekend on the 9th of November.
While anyone participating in the event could get hold of some tasty in-game rewards, at the Twister Cup finals the stakes are a little higher, with a prize pool of US$100,000 up for grabs.
The team representing APAC is called Ultimate Feast, and alongside its three Australian members are tank drivers from Indonesia, Vietnam and Hong Kong. We recently had a chance to have a chat to its captain, Kam Kwo Wong, about the challenges of having such a mixed team, and how he manages his ability to play at pro level while holding
GR+: You've moved around a lot, but still managed to maintain your top ranking - has that been a challenge?
It has been a quite a challenge trying to maintain rankings. But moving around doesn't stop me from marching towards my goals. Coming to Twister Cup Offline Finals for the 2nd time has been on my To-Do list and I’ve been working on achieving it no matter what.
GR+: How does a team that's so spread out manage its training?
I guess the main challenge is the diversity in people living in different time zones. As everyone has their commitments outside of games, and usually very different schedules in different counties, maintaining a well-rounded and frequent training schedule has been the top priority and challenge.
We utilise a lot of the in-game tournament sessions for training and testing out different new ideas, but if we needed more opportunities to train with specific tactics or test very specific ideas, then we would usually hold training room sessions in late at night.
GR+: What are some of the challenges of playing at this level in Australia?
The biggest challenge is to find the balance of gaming and real life. Most of the players in the team are still students, and trying to maintain a strong presence in the game, while maintaining our real life commitments is a big challenges, and at times like Twister Cup Online Finals, we will have to sacrifice some sleeping time to prepare all of the tactics for the next day, and making sure everyone knows what to do.
GR+: Run me through an average day in the life of an Australian esports pro...
The average day is not that much different from others, but basically with more time invested in the game. So I would usually go through my daily life as everyone would do, finish everything before night comes, and I would spend my evening playing the game, before it becomes too late, and then I’d just rest. In tough times where there’s big competitions I’ll spend more time up to midnight thinking about possible new ideas or sketching new tactics for use in the matches; then there would also be discussions and training room testing sessions to test these ideas out.
Kam and his team made it to the finals last year, but unfortunately placed last. This year we’re hoping their continued dedication gets them closer to a share of that rather tasty prize pool. If you want to watch the tournament live, you can do so here, or on YouTube here.
Curious to see how far esports have come? Check out how close we are to seeing video games at the 2020 Olympics!
