Player one ready
Athlete eyes comeback to professional Esports stage
By Brandon Wong
Photo courtesy of Stefano Disalvo
Former Los Angeles Valiant player, Stefano Disalvo at the Blizzard Arena, which is located at Burbank, California, in 2018. (Robert Paul/ Blizzard Entertainment)
Thirty minutes after school ended at 3 p.m., Stefano Disalvo would be in his room playing Overwatch, an online multiplayer first-person shooter video game. Disalvo, who goes by the gamertag Verbo, would be up until midnight, playing and practising with his team, Bold Purpose Gaming, in preparation for upcoming tournaments.
“I saw it as an opportunity for me to pursue Esports professionally,” he said. “It was a new game and an opportunity for everyone to start fresh.”
Overwatch was released in 2016 and now has a professional Esports league with teams established in the U.S., Canada, London, France, China, and South Korea.
While attending St. Elizabeth Catholic High School in Thornhill in 2017, Disalvo, who was 17 at the time, struggled to balance his time between Overwatch and school. “There were a lot of times where I wouldn’t have assignments done and I’d get in a lot of trouble with my teachers,” he said.
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Overwatch became his priority and it resulted in sacrifices to his social life and to his relationship with his mother. “My mom hated that I wasn’t focusing on school and putting all my effort into something that wasn’t guaranteed,” Disalvo said. “We were always arguing, and it got so bad that I considered quitting the game.”
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However, he decided to continue pursuing Esports and was given a chance to try out for the Immortals (now rebranded as Los Angeles Valiant), a professional Esports team based in Los Angeles. Disalvo was put on a two-week trial, including a tournament, which he won to secure a position on the team in 2017.
“It was nerve-wracking because it was my chance to break into the industry, but I tried to make the most of it,” he said.
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Disalvo, 19, then signed his contract and officially became a professional Esports player. The minimum salary a professional Overwatch player can earn is US$50,000 per year.
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After one season, Disalvo was released from the team on September. He has since moved back to his home in Toronto and playing Overwatch in his room but doesn’t intend to give up.
“It’s unfortunate but I’m still looking to go pro and make it to the league again,” he said. “I just have to keep practising and studying to make sure I’m prepared for any possible tryouts.”
Disalvo’s mother, Selene, raised him as a single parent and is doing what she can to help her son achieve his goal whether it be making meals, splitting the cost of equipment (headset, keyboard, monitor), or being there to talk and listen.
“I told Stefano this when he was a young boy, ‘We’re a team and we’re going to help each other grow,’” she said.
Practising for Esports may not be as physically demanding as sports like basketball or hockey, but it doesn’t mean players are only sitting down and staring at screens all day.
Playing a game for a long period of time doesn’t necessarily mean a player is improving. Other factors include strategizing, re-watching gameplay, maintaining awareness and anticipating your opponent's next move.
“I would play it [Overwatch] for two to four hours but spend six hours watching gameplay and focus on what to improve on,” Disalvo said.
Professional Hearthstone player, Eddie Lui finds it helpful to visualize his opponents to try to anticipate their next move and how to counter it.
“I find that by looking at what they do and understand what they’re doing better or what I’m doing helps,” Lui said. “You’re able to improve faster.”
Lui, 24, played Hearthstone, a competitive card game developed by Blizzard Entertainment, in 2014 but lost interest. He returned to the game in January 2017 and began playing competitively. “I decided to take it seriously and understand how to play the game at a higher level,” he said.
Lui is enrolled at Simon Fraser University in a business program in Vancouver but is taking a gap year to pursue Esports full time. The decision drew concern from his parents who preferred him to finish school first.
“Coming from an Asian background doesn’t make it easier, but they were supportive and knew I took it seriously,” he said.
Although still new to the competitive side of Hearthstone, Lui is ranked fifth in North America, up from eighth in 2017. To compete in regional playoffs, players must earn enough HCT (Hearthstone Competitive) points by competing in approved matches to qualify for tournaments.
“I usually play more near the end of the season to gain more points,” he said. “Last two days I’ve played 35 hours and slept about four hours.”
Players also risk burnout.
Photo courtesy of Kelsy Medeiros
Photo courtesy of Kelsy Medeiros
Kelsy Medeiros, SuperGirlKels, at AMD ExtravaLANza in 2017 for a Super Smash Bros. tournament. The event was held in Toronto at 99 Sudbury St.
“It definitely does affect the mental health, and as time goes on it just becomes another tournament,” professional Super Smash Bros. Sonic player Kelsy Medeiros said. “This is my passion but it’s not my life so I need to treat it like that and do it when I want to.”
Medeiros, 23, who goes by the gamertag SuperGirlKels, lives in Montreal and works as a developer tester for the Far Cry team at Ubisoft. Her first exposure to the competitive Smash Bros. scene was the Apex 2012 tournament in New Jersey.
At first, Medeiros played for fun but after graduating in the media arts program from John Abbott College in Montreal, she began to train seriously after nearly defeating a top five Smash Bros. player at a tournament in 2016.
During that time she experienced player burnout, while competing at local tournaments in Montreal.
“I had to take a break from watching and playing the game in order to get that craving back,” she said. “It was affecting my performance and there was a lot of pressure for me to play well because of how well I started.”
Medeiros now practises one hour per day. She also enjoys spending time with her friends and family, and also creating content for her YouTube channel when she is not competing.
It’s rare to see a woman competing in Smash Bros. tournaments as she faces off against men “98 per cent of the time” and “faces one woman every six months.” However, this hasn’t discouraged Medeiros as she is determined to be a top-ranking player.
“I want to be remembered.” she said.