How Singapore’s most famous gamer girl is now organizing the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year

Tammy Tang is front and centre.

Tammy Tang from PMS Asterisk is a household name for any Southeast Asian Dota 2 player. Founder and leader of the abovementioned Asian division of the international PMS competitive gaming clan, the 30-year-old Tang has been in eSports for ten years now. But she’s still thriving in the industry, despite being beyond the age at which pro-gamers start to hang up their mice and keyboards and look to other careers.

Formerly involved in Razer’s eSports department, Tang left the consumer tech company in 2012 to strike out on her own. She was business manager for the now-defunct Singapore eSports team Flash eSports, an events manager for Adroit Gaming, and now, an eSports tournament organizer for the upcoming Ok Dota 2 Cup.

“The gamers need something to be excited about again,” Tang says, of her decision to turn to tournament organizing. She recounts the heyday of Dota in Singapore with fondness, saying it kept the competitive gaming scene active and produced some very talented individuals who have since gone overseas to pursue professional gaming careers. However, the frequency of physical events has declined together with LAN shops, and Tang says that no new talent on par with these now-overseas legends has emerged.

One of the legends is Daryl “iceiceice” Koh, who has moved to China to play professionally.

Tang says that no one has stepped up to really organize big gaming conventions and long-running competitions locally following the closure of Rapture Gaming Network (RGN). (RGN appears to have shut its Singaporean doors and moved to Vietnam to work with the community there, with two of its key staff members now working with a game publisher.)

In a way, I feel like duty is calling. Everything has advanced so much: PC specs, internet connectivity…but our talent hasn’t.

The Ok Dota 2 Cup

Tang’s the brains behind the upcoming eSports competition. Title sponsor Ok is a new energy drink from Switzerland that has sponsored basketball events and Garena’s recent campus competition. It’s new to the Singapore market, but it’s ready to go deep.

The Ok Dota2 Cup will have two qualifiers – one of which has already concluded. Two Singapore teams from these qualifiers will go on to compete at the cup’s regional grand finals, which will be held in the Suntec City Convention Centre on December 26 to 28. If everything goes smoothly, Tang says that the cup will segue into a league, which will stretch into 2015.

With a base of S$50,000 (US$38,564) in prize money and an additional prize pool that will be crowdfunded, as well as a multinational grand finals, the Ok Dota 2 Cup will be the largest Dota 2 event in the Southeast Asia and Oceania regions this year.

Artist’s impression of what the Ok Dota 2 Cup finals will look like.

But what happens after this?