SINGAPORE – Three of the four Team Flash members heading to the Brawl Stars World Finals 2021 are defending champions but they are not resting on their laurels.
The Singaporean team of Nicholas “CoupDeAce” Ng, Jerome “Response” Kuek, Charleston “Scythe” Yeo and new member Chui Zi Kang “CZK” have qualified for the Nov 26-28 finals and will represent the South-east and South Asia, Australia and New Zealand region in Bucharest, Romania.
The team finished first in five regional Monthly Finals and have attained an unassailable lead over their opponents ahead of the eighth and final leg next month. They now have 571 points, way ahead of second-placed PSG Esports with 393 points.
Ng, Kuek and Yeo won last year’s World Finals under PSG Esports and Ng knows all eyes will be on them this year at the tournament, which has a total prize pool of up to US$1 million (S$1.33 million).
Captain Ng, 26, told The Straits Times: “Of course there’s additional pressure and teams will start to take note of us. But it’s a good way to prove ourselves again, that we can defend this title.
“Of course we need to keep practising and put in the hard work. But part of it is also that we need to stay grounded and take one step at a time to focus on what we need to do to win.”
Brawl Stars is a multi-player online battle arena and third-person shooter game, where players battle against others in multiple game modes.
Ng and Kuek were added to Team Flash’s Brawl Stars roster in April. Last November, Ng, Kuek, Yeo and Japanese Kogure “Relyh” Yo of PSG Esports won the Brawl Stars World Finals and the winners’ cheque of US$200,000.
Jerome, 17, believes the team have a decent chance of winning as they are capable of adapting to different playing styles.
He added: “Mental preparation is very important because you have to be able to keep calm and focus during the match if things don’t go your way. I used to lose focus easily if I wasn’t playing well so that’s one thing I’ll work on before the World Finals.
“It’s just about having more experience under pressure and participating in more tournaments to practise being able to keep calm when the stakes are high.”
Making this year’s finals also means more to the first-year Eunoia Junior College student as it is an on-site tournament, unlike last year’s virtual edition. The team will leave for Bucharest a few days before the competition.
Next month’s last Monthly Final and the ESL Mobile, which ends right before the World Finals, will be their final practice tournaments.
Their coach Christopher “Wigglyspoo” Seah also hopes to get more opportunities to practise against teams outside Asia and work on their mental preparation.
The 23-year-old said: “All of us are trying to get into the mindset that we’ve been working on this for the entire year so it’s something we want to fight for.
“Physically, we’ll try to put in more time to practise. Strategically, we’ve started studying all the other teams to establish trends of what they’ve been doing while looking at our vulnerabilities.”
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