Before coming to Almaty, I never thought that this Central Asian city, the "second capital" of Kazakhstan, would have anything to do with esports.
Despite its proximity to the Chinese border, this city or country should be a relatively unpopular travel destination for Chinese people, and Almaty customs rarely has the face of domestic tourists. But as soon as you step out of the airport, tourists, especially those from China, are afraid that they will be greeted with a sense of dislocation in time: the long and old Khrushchev Tower, the Soviet-style memorial statues, all tell the history of the former union republics.
As a child, I read a fantasy novel called "The Night Watch" by Russian science fiction writer Sergei Lukyanenko (who is perhaps better known in the Chinese readership as "Snow Dancer" and "Stars Are Cold Toys").
Lukyanenko, a native of Kazakhstan, grew up in Almaty, but his books rarely mention his hometown. There is a line in the third volume of The Night Watch, which reads, "Why should a sane man take a train to Kazakhstan for a vacation?" It seems that with the exception of the Baikonur cosmodrome, which is a more "sci-fi" place, everything here is lackluster in "fantasy".
Sergei Lukyanenko
But my trip was about fantasy. We were invited by Mutong Technology to come here in early June to watch perhaps the largest esports event in the entire Central Asian region, the MLBB Continental Championships.
On the top floor of Almaty's huge FORUM mall, several teams will compete here, with two teams eventually becoming the winners of the MCC and heading to the Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia.
MLBB is a mobile MOBA in Almaty that is still a "young" game - compared to the more "old" projects. Perhaps because of the larger concept of "CIS", Kazakhstan esports does not have a complete face, but in fact, there are quite a few well-known professional players from here.
For example, in the field of Dota 2 (some may remember that Kazakhstan won the third place in this event at the Asian Games last year), players who are still active in the field, such as PSG. Quest's TA2000 and Malik, the No. 1 position of Entity and the long-time No. 1 Watson (Doctor) in the European service ladder, are both Kazakh.
CS:GO's Kazakhstan legend AdreN has won two Major trophies on behalf of the CIS region.
AdreN
The traces of these projects, like TikTok and mobile games in the hands of young people, have become the modern part of the Almaty collage. Walking through the streets, you can see posters of V Club and Blizzard games on the door of almost every Internet café, but these modern Internet cafes are often sheltered in the shadow of aging Soviet-style buildings and woods.
V Society, Blizzard, a satellite state of the former Soviet Union, is not mentioned by science fiction writers. What other labels are there? Strange to say, in the few days of travel, what impressed me more was "China".
This is not because Mu Tong, who invited us to watch the game, is a Chinese company. In fact, there were few people in the audience who had a special sense that "MLBB is a game made by a Chinese company", just as maybe CIS players would not care that Dota 2 was an American game.
But from esports to consumer electronics, Almatyers can find some traces of China's overseas in a variety of lifestyles.
Maybe we saw one domestic new energy vehicle after another on the road, or because of the Lanzhou ramen next to the stadium (quite authentic), a Kazakh audience heard that I was a reporter from China, and would be particularly excited to say that I was a colleague, an editor of a local news website, and then show my Xiaomi mobile phone, "I studied Chinese in college, and the car I bought is also a Chinese car!" ”。
Zeekrypton is very common on the streets of Almaty
And, of course, Chinese games. In the lounge area of the arena, a Russian girl proudly showed me her walnut tattoo, and MLBB players dressed up as their favorite characters to watch the game.
It's a very special experience. In the words of the slogans of many tourist attractions in the country, there is quite an illusion that "I want your wind to blow to the CIS". Almaty is a city of only 2 million people ("large" refers to the area), so large and sparsely populated, that few pedestrians are often not seen on the streets at night. Only in front of the arena can you see the same queues as domestic esports competitions, and all because of a Chinese game.
And compared to mere commodities, games – or e-sports, because of their cultural and community attributes, make it less like an "output" and more a "communication".
For example, in the MCC finals, Team Spirit, which has just joined the MLBB family, has become the most popular team (there is no one). Seeing the surging Sprite fans at the scene, I couldn't help but think that Team Spirit is also the most popular foreign Dota 2 club in China - this is not only because of the honor of the double champion, but also because the club actively interacts with domestic fans, as well as the Chinese character "rain" on YatoroID.
In the final, Team Spirit also won the final victory. In contrast to some different sports, esports people often don't interact with each other, and it was Kazakhstan's CS:GO legend AdreN who finally awarded the medal to Sprite's FMVP player. When he appeared, the entire crowd of people in the arena — many of whom may not have played CS:GO at all, but the new generation of mobile gamers, roared loudly. It's not the energy that comes from a specific esports sport, it's the energy that can only be brought by "esports" itself.
A few days ago, the MLBB project of the Saudi Esports World Cup has started. The two teams from the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region of the MLBB also came to faraway Riyadh with the blessing of their predecessor AdreN, where there are many teams like them, far from the so-called "mainstream esports discourse", fighting for prize money and regional honors. I sincerely hope that they will all reap the results they want.