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In the suburbs of many big cities in Brazil, you will see blocks stretching for miles along steep hills. The buildings in these places are often not very stable, the houses are built side by side, the aisles are very narrow and the light is dim. But it is also in such slums that thousands of young Brazilians spend a lot of time playing games every day, dreaming of one day becoming a star on the e-sports arena.
The e-sports industry is still developing rapidly. It is predicted that by 2023, the annual revenue of the global e-sports industry will exceed 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. In Brazil, even traditional football clubs such as Dagama and Flamenco have begun to form e-sports teams for games such as “League of Legends” and “Live Football”. If you win in a major event, top players can get millions of dollars in prize money, and the average annual salary of “League of Legends” professional players has exceeded 400,000 dollars.
Brazil is a country with a huge social gap between rich and poor. According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, approximately 25% of the population is poor. The Gini coefficient shows that the degree of inequality in Brazilian society has been increasing in recent years. In areas such as the Northeast, almost half of the population lives in extreme poverty, and the average daily cost of living is less than US$1.9.
This inequality is also reflected in the Brazilian e-sports industry.
What can e-sports change
In the slums of Brazil, many young people cannot get the basic items needed to become an e-sports player or anchor, such as a stable network and high-quality equipment. In contrast, those who live in non-poor areas can go to better schools, enjoy better medical services, have greater purchasing power, and often despise their compatriots in slums.
A survey conducted by the Brazilian National News Agency in 2015 showed that most wealthy Brazilians are scared when they pass through slums-once someone talks about slums, these people immediately think of drugs or violence. On the other hand, 65% of slum dwellers believe that they have been discriminated against by the rich.
To the poorFor the e-sports players of Ku, in order to participate in the competition, they must first overcome several obstacles, including obtaining stable network conditions, staying away from fights between criminals, drug dealers, police and even militia, and avoiding being injured by bullets.
Slum Joint Center(CUFA) Chairman Preto Zeze said that in Brazil, e-sports players often use the wireless network of friends’ homes. play games. CUFA is a non-governmental organization established in 1999, co-founded by a group of young people living in slums. The goal is to promote local cultural, artistic and sports activities and improve the living conditions of the community.
Of course, rich people don’t have these troubles. They don’t need to find a balance between work and playing games, and they don’t need to worry about police raids or stray bullets flying in the air… “Those people don’t have to worry about anything. But in slums, you have to overcome some obstacles to play games.” Zeze added.
25-year-old Rafael Simão (Raffael Simão), people are more familiar with his name “Dexter” in the game. Dexter lives in an impoverished community in rural São Paulo and became a contracted anchor of “Fortnite” with Zero Gravity last year. He used to be a handyman, getting up at 5 am every day, working from 6 am to 6 pm, doing all kinds of chores.
Dexter can barely make ends meet, even buying game equipment requires parents to pay. To make matters worse, his wife suffered from kidney disease and needed hemodialysis. In September 2019, Dexter spoke on Twitter, seeking help from the outside world.
“I hope someone can help me buy a medical insurance for my wife, because my salary is simply not affordable.” Dexter said, “Some of the “Fortnite” players gathered and reached out to me “In order to improve the quality of its live broadcast and its popularity in the “Fortress Night” player circle, Dexter signed a contract with the e-sports club Zero Gravity.
“Zero Gravity entered my life and provided necessary support, including buying medical insurance for my wife, paying me salary, etc. I need to follow several rules, such as producing a sufficient number of videos every month. They gave me the first chance to emerge on the e-sports arena. They gave me a computer, so I am willing to work for them. In the past, I used PS4 to play games, and the TV at home was also very shabby.”
inMany young people in Brazil’s slums have faced similar challenges. “Even buying equipment is difficult… Those items are quite expensive for us, and often take a long time to get.” Dexter said. But in his view, “the spirit of fighting and the desire to win is what makes us different from others.”
“We want to prove to the world that people from slums can accomplish something like the rich.”
Considering Brazil’s economic and social conditions, certain organizations try to help young e-sports players in slums, or at least give them hope.
The “star-making movement” in the slums
Zero Gravity was founded in 2019, the founders are Glauber Molinari and his wife Hannah Rocha. The goal of Zero Gravity is similar to that of other e-sports teams, but it is also a little different. “We only sign low-income young people from slums.” Molinari explained, “We are aware that there is a certain barrier in the e-sports industry that prevents low-income young people from entering, so we I hope our organization can promote social change.”
Out of the idea of cultivating young e-sports players from slums, at the end of last year, Molinari decided to support another project-the slum cup(Favelas Cup) . This event will be a tactical competitive mobile game “Free Fire” as a competition item, jointly organized by computer and accessories trading company Rocketz, event organizer Matiz, and the organizer of the annual slum event PerifaCon. At the time, the final stage attracted people from all over Brazil. Of 12 teams participated and more than 120,000 people watched the live broadcast.
“I contacted a manager of the Slum Cup and wanted to sponsor the tournament and make the MVP one of our professional “Free Fire” players.” Molinari said, “This is undoubtedly what we have so far One of the best cooperation negotiated.”
Almost at the same time, the “Favelas Bowl” (Favelas Bowl), another large-scale e-sports event organized by the Slum United Center, also opened Curtain.
Slum Bowl has a history of more than ten years, but in the past, the participating teamsThey usually play football games instead of competing on the e-sports arena. “Affected by the epidemic, it is impossible for us to hold a football match, so we decided to change the way.” said Marcus Atheide, the director of the “Free Fire” slum bowl tournament and the innovation director of the slum joint center.
Atheide stated that more than 50,000 players from more than 100 Brazilian slums signed up for the “Free Fire” slum bowl event, and the slum bowl can “show the power of slums, the level of professional teams and players.”
“We broke the conventional pattern and proved that no matter what type of sport, slums are popping up in large numbers.”
The Slum Cup and the Slum Bowl attracted thousands of young people from all over Brazil to play “Free Fire”. The organizers broadcasted it on the Twitch platform-one of Brazil’s largest cable channels, SporTV, even made a live broadcast for the finals . The goal of CUFA is to let players gain popularity, help the best players to enter professional teams, and even completely change their lives.
“The concept of this event is great. When I saw it, I wanted to be involved.” said Bruno Santos from São Paulo. Santos is the manager of the Brazilian “Free Fire” team under the American professional e-sports club Team Liquid, and serves as the commentator for the Ghetto Cup. “This is a privilege.”
“Our mission is to reach most of the impoverished communities in Brazil, provide e-sports competitions, and encourage children and young people to enter the world of technology and innovation.” said Tirani Nayala, hostess and anchor of the Slum Cup. According to her, the Slum Cup reached “about 100 slums, 200 registered teams and 800 players in the country.” “In these slums, the tournament organizer had to select 12 teams to participate in the finals.”
Although Nayala does not come from a slum, as a black woman, she also encounters many difficulties in her life. “Under the social background where sexism is very common, being a woman is already very tired, and I am still black…We are still at the bottom of the social pyramid and always need to prove our worth.”
After the end of the Slum Cup, Zero Gravity signed the tournament MVP Cage Gabriel Machado. Several of Machado’s teammates in Team SI (all of them from São Paulo) also got a contract to represent Zero Gravity in the third level Competition in the league.
The champion team of the “Free Fire” Slum Bowl event also sent two players to the professional team: Pedro Paul Alves(Pedro Paulo “Diniz.av” Alves) joined Sintonia, final MVP Gustavo Nunez(Gustavo “Gusta.tx” Nunes) Span> became a member of Team NewX Gaming.
Alterhead believes that in addition to the economic benefits of e-sports events for young players, the greatest impact on their lives is to enhance their personal value-just like football. “These young people have seen opportunities in the e-sports industry and won widespread recognition. In the slums, everyone realizes that they can do something.”
Why is it “Free Fire”?
“Free Fire” is a tactical competitive mobile game, that is, a “chicken eating” game. The organizer uses “Free Fire” as a competition item because it can run on any Android or Apple mobile phone, and Free to play. Bruno Santos, manager of the Brazilian “Free Fire” team under Team Liquid, said that this mobile game does not require high hardware configuration and is very suitable for players from the Brazilian slums.
So far, “Free Fire” has attracted more than 450 million downloads worldwide, and the number of daily active players has reached 80 million. In 2020, “Free Fire” is the most downloaded game in Brazil.
This “Chicken Eating” mobile game, the most active in Brazil, was developed by Vietnamese studio 111 Dots Studio and published by Singapore operator Garena
Santos said that “Free Fire” allows professional players to play in a fairer environment. In July last year, the “Free Fire” professional league final attracted more than 800,000 simultaneous online viewers on YouTube, becoming one of the live broadcast events with the largest number of viewers in Brazil.
During the epidemic, due to the impact of the general environment, the number of e-sports players and their fans has shown an increasing trend. But in Brazil’s slums, many young people who love e-sports still find it difficult to get enough recognition and development space, and sometimes even face opposition from their families. “In the past, I wanted to be an anchor, but it was difficult to get my parents’ approval because they felt that I should study, attend class, and work.” Dexter said.
“I showed my parents that I am different from other people, and I can make a prominence in the world of e-sports while working… If you come from a slum, it is difficult to get rid of the’standard’ life style, brave Pursue the dream in your heart.” For young people in the slum, the standard life model is to find a job and live hard.
Dexter believes that by doing live broadcasts and participating in e-sports competitions, slum players can show their potential-“whether in the game or in the circle of players.” “You can also let friends in the slum see , It’s not an impossible task to succeed on the e-sports arena.”
This article was compiled from: https://www.wired.com/story/brazilian-favelas-esports/
Original title: “In Brazil’s Favelas, Esports Is an Unlikely Source of Hope”
author: RAPHAEL TSAVKKO GARCIA
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