japan
Asian Teams never managed to show good results in CS:GO but in older titles that was the case sometimes. Do you think this could happen in some time again?
Keisuke Shimizu: In the past year japanse companies were inactive but this year a japanese company are active in League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offenvise is going to be developed now. The japanese eSports scene is not good at the moment because we dont have sponsors at the moment. Most teams just dont get a sponsor because they did not recognize eSports in japan.
Eigentlich nicht. League of Legends ist klar an erster Stelle gefolgt von CS:GO und das war es. Kein Dota 2 im Moment.
No because in japan the ruleing companies are Nintendo, Capcom and so on. They are all bigger then the eSports titles. eSports has basically no chance against the big ones at the moment.
Do you think this will change?
Maybe, yeah. I hope so. Japanese eSports players really want to compete against european and american teams but the chance they can battle against other teams are pretty low, due to the ping from japan.
We see more asian competitors from korea, taiwan and china with strong players in hearthstone and league of legends for example. What ist he difference between their society and japanese?
Well korea has an eSports association and we simply dont have something like this. A third party company is trying to accomplish this at the moment.
Do you earn enough money to let everyone play full time?
In our team everyone is a student or part time worker because we dont have a sponsor.
Is this a typical japanese thing that sponsors wont be attracted by new things? Because in some other asian countries is the eSports scene also pretty small but they still are able to find sponsors.
Well japan is a pretty traditional country and the sponsors simply dont recognize eSports. As I said before, Nintendo and so on, all the big companies, are too strong at the moment. They are to fed and wont give up their money, so there is nobody to invest money.
What kind of company you’re is your sponsor?
We actually dont have a sponsor but my company organized the japanese qualification and therefore we were able to attend. We founded two years ago and run some tournaments in hearthstone and other esports titles under the name gamers league.
With the situation discribed, do you even make money with your company?
We running gamers league and we create movies and websites, so we make our money but to do so we must work on something outside eSports. In order to be able to live eSports, we actually have to have other jobs.
What advise would you give an talented japanese player? Should he leave the country to play in a foreignen team?
So many people practise in japan and if you ask me outside of japan they would have better chances. So yes, they should try to play in foreign teams.
How long do you think will it take the japanese scene to have their first big tournament?
Wow, this will take a while. Five maybe even ten years.
The western scene basically doenst know much about your scene. Do you have any advise for us, should we look forward to something?
Yes, be our sponsor! (laughing)
Is there something a eSports fan could do? Like watching streams and stuff?
Yeah they should really watch some japanese players on twitch, there are some playing. Mostly League of Legends of course.
Do you have a own League of Legends server for japan?
No but they will found a japanse server next year.
Where do you play now then?
On the north american servers.
Wow, how much is your ping?
Like 100 or something.
Thank you very much for the interview.