“Esports was new, so it was always a war between (traditional) culture and wanting to empower me for my dreams,” she explains.
But while her family understood her desire to one day become an owner as well, it took them some time to accept her industry of choice. This strong sense of responsibility has been nurtured since young, when Kelly worked in shops run by her grandmother, aunt and mother. “I want to provide a great home to these special people who have chosen to sacrifice so much in their lives in pursuit of being the best in the world,” says Kelly, who has been working closely in developing Alliance’s new PUBG MOBILE division that is already up and running in Kuala Lumpur. A self-confessed workaholic, she wishes she had 10 hours more each day to exemplify those traits and cultivate an environment for gamers to thrive. She offers her idea of an accomplished team owner: a great work ethic, delegates well, knows the industry inside out and is confident. You needed to have a strong gut instinct for signing players, which will determine the success of your team,” she reveals. “There was no guidebook in the early 2010s when talent development was new. She then struck out as a shoutcaster in a South Korean StarCraft II league before joining a newly-formed Alliance in 2013 as its DotA 2 manager.īut one thing’s for sure: there is no substitute for your hunch. Her storied road began at 16 when she left school after her O-Levels to become a competitive Counter-Strike player. As a mother to a 12-year-old daughter, Kelly has ample experience in parenting. They manage day-to-day operations, ensure players are fighting fit, and build a culture and strategy that embodies the organisation. “That gave me the belief that it was possible for me to dream in esports - every career choice I took was a step towards (becoming an owner).” “She was one of the only women back then who owned one of the biggest sports teams in the world,” says Kelly, Chief Strategy Officer and co-owner of Alliance.
#Eliza ong now professional#
That ambition was further galvanised by witnessing Jeanie Buss become president of the Los Angeles Lakers, an American professional sports team competing in the National Basketball Association (NBA). It is “a dream come true” for the 31-year-old who, as a precocious 17-year-old, aspired to become a team owner. Over in Scandinavia, Kelly Ong has been the matriarch of Swedish esports organisation Alliance since 2018. It was only in 2008, when she received a sponsored high-end laptop and was flown to Paris for the Electronic Sports World Cup - an international championship - that they “finally felt there was a future in esports”. Even regular appearances at international meets such as the World Cyber Games failed to sway them. Her experience in conquering her toughest critics, some which came from home, allows her to empathise with the challenges that today’s up-and-coming gamers face.įor instance, her gaming endeavours did not sit well with her parents - they equated playing games to having an unhealthy lifestyle and addiction. “So I started focusing on creating initiatives for both non-professional and female gamers.” “I felt that there was more I could do in the community than to be a struggling amateur gamer,” she explains. But her love of games continues to anchor her to the industry. Despite the odds, Tammy, managed to play competitive DotA for almost a decade and only retired in 2012 after realising her skills had plateaued. Many lower-tier gamers struggle to make it to the global stage where fame and money await.
She aims to win them over.Īlong with other successful women gamers and team owners, Tammy’s efforts are key to convincing younger Singaporeans, especially girls, that an esports career is worthwhile. However, in academically-inclined Singapore, people still gravitate towards books over battles. Not only was she among a pioneer group of competitive women gamers in Singapore, she also founded the world’s first all-female Defense of the Ancients (DotA) team Asterisk in 2004.įast forward to 2021, and the 37-year-old has seen esports - now classified as a sport - gather force into a billion-dollar industry that rivals traditional sports. The turn of the century saw Tammy emerge as a trailblazer in a nascent, male-dominated industry under the moniker “furryfish”. But it was a massive market primed to explode. Heck, esports was not even a real word then. No Singaporean had seriously thought about gaming as a profession. She poured countless hours into Warcraft II as a 10-year-old whose priority was to have fun.
Growing up in the late 80s and early 90s, Tammy only had eyes for video games. And yet today, her work does not involve bugs, birds, or the lands they inhabit. Then, she chose to study geography in university. Tammy Tang once dreamt of becoming an entomologist or an ornithologist.
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