The esports industry is a multibillion-dollar one with millions of fans internationally. Although the industry has existed in some form since the 1950s, it gained prominence in the 2010s.
Technological advancement has allowed the user experience to imitate real life, and advanced internet services have solved connectivity issues, thus allowing the user and the spectator to enjoy games without disruption. The mobile revolution has also allowed users to access esports games from anywhere.
Esports is mainly famous in Europe, and many countries have taken advantage of the fame by broadcasting esports on major sports channels. Bleed Esports, however, is a Singaporean esports organization scaling up in the European-dominated industry.
Mervyn Goh founded Bleed Esports, the first Asia team in Valorant that imported players from Europe. “The better players usually get imported or stay in Europe,” Goh says. “But the good players decided to join an Asia team.”
It’s only been a few months since the inception of Bleed Esports, but the team has already made noteworthy accomplishments. They placed third in VCT 2022: APAC Stage 1 Challengers despite being only five months old. “We also garnered 2nd position in VCT 2022: Malaysia and Singapore Stage 1 Challengers, and we were first in the SEA Esports Championship 2021: Singaporean Qualifier,” Goh adds.
As a relatively new organization with little known information, players did not trust it initially and didn’t dare relocate to the headquarters in Singapore. However, the tables turned when Swedish player Jacob Mourujärvi, known as Pyth, signed on. Pyth marks the first European player to relocate to Singapore to compete in the VCT 2022 season.
Pyth is an expert counter-strike celebrated for his time on the renowned Swedish Esports organization Ninjas in Pajamas, where he aided NiP Win DreamHack Masters Malmo and Intel Extreme Masters XI Oakland in 2016. Nonetheless, after a decade of competing in CS: GO, Pyth switched to Valorant in May 2020, where he swiftly succeeded in his first year. Together with G2 Esports, the Swedish player won seven straight Ignition Series events and was acknowledged as one of the kings of European Valorant. Regrettably, G2 Esports struggled to produce similar results the following year during Riot Games’ inaugural Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) circuit, thus benching Pyth in June 2021. This led him to sign with Bleed Esports right before the beginning of the VCT 2022 season.
While Southeast Asia’s competitive FPS scene is still in the initial stages of development, it can be very challenging to find an established organization in Europe with the budget to form a winning team. Pyth saw a massive opportunity in Southeast Asia, with two slots allocated to the APAC region in VCT 2022 for both Masters tournaments and the Valorant Champions event. Similarly, Bleed Esports offered him a deal he could not turn down. Besides Pyth, the Singaporean organization has also contracted Swedish Valorant pro Max Lönnström, aka Maxie, as the team’s in-game leader.
Goh encourages anyone aiming to start something not to be afraid to start from scratch. He established the Singaporean organization and is so proud he did. The CEO hopes to soon see the Bleed Esports team become a household name that every player aspires to play for.
