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Just like the world around it and despite growing interest, eSports globally and in Bahrain have been affected by the coronavirus. However, eSports ‘athletes’ are busy training as they wait for the chain of lockdowns around the world to end.
Bahrain’s own Sayed Hashem, known amongst his peers as Tekken Master, has seen many destination events cancelled but continues to train in his chosen game at this time, ironically Mortal Kombat 11 (MK11).
Hashem, who plays for his team Nasr Esports, has been competing online in a series of MK11 tournaments and recently won The Middle Beast, with plans to holding a second one in the coming weeks with a prize pool of $2,500. This tournament attracts notable players from the region including Shark Teeth, MEA MB and Vwysm,
Hashem said: “We have definitely been affected by the coronavirus. Events that I look forward to have been cancelled and it even affected me when I went to the finals of MK11 last month in March. The MK11 Pro Kompetition tour has not started for this year yet as all the early events have been cancelled.”
Hashem, who was ranked fourth globally in 2019, gained internet fame during an iconic Evolution Championship Series (EVO) final in 2016 with legendary five-time EVO champion SonicFox. EVO is to eSports what Wimbledon is to tennis and SonicFox aka Dominique McLean, known for competing while wearing his fox fur suit and iconic blue Fur Hat, is eSports’ Roger Federer.
During the grand finals, shortly after Hashem reset the bracket and took the lead in the following set, McLean famously took off his Fur Hat, a previous unseen move at an event where micro-expressions are deeply analysed.
Hashem added: “That’s what makes fighting game eSports special - you are right next to your opponent. The mind games and the stress are huge and you just need to control all of that, especially the nerves. It’s something difficult to deal with and experience is really important. If you are playing and fighting in a tournament where everyone expects top results from you then that’s a lot of pressure and you really need to keep up your performance.”
Even though Hashem did not bring home the big prize then, he has continued to train, easily making the leaderboard in tournaments around the world to which he has travelled.
Hashem’s passion, like many eSports athletes, was incepted as a result of being born into a pack of brothers with a penchant for video game consoles. He picked up his first controller when he was six years old in 2001 and was immediately drawn to fighting games, especially Tekken, hence the pseudonym Tekken Master.
Hashem said: “I prefer fighting games because you control the outcome of the results. If you are better than your opponent it’s most likely that you will win in fighting games. I think luck plays a bigger part in the final outcome in games like FIFA which I don’t like. That’s the main reason I prefer fighting games over other games competitively. Yes, skills matter in those games too. But,if it’s not your day or you have wasted 10 shots on target and then here comes your opponent with one corner and scores a header against you, it’s all over.
“I practise for four to six hours daily for MK11. There are two mind sets, general training and tournaments training. Whenever there is a tournament approaching, I practice specific things for opponents that I am expecting to face, but general practice is learning overall how to deal with different scenarios with different characters without focusing in a specific area. I love to lab things and different scenarios before traveling to compete, just to be prepared enough.
“I play other games as well such as Tekken 7, Call of Duty, God of War and Resident Evil. I have competed in other games before such as Marvel Vs Capcom, Tekken and Call of Duty. I am planning to enter the new Riot fighting game when it launches as well as other fighting games. It is not easy to compete professionally in multiple games but let’s see what the future holds.”
