eSports: Kiwi crew ICLEN eye step up to world stage

Kiwi gaming team ICLEN will head to China next year for the Dota2 Asia-Pacific finals. Photo / Supplied/Mustafa Sadiq

A Kiwi crew are hoping to mix it with the world best Dota2 players as they prepare for the Asia-Pacific finals in Shanghai in January.

The team, ICLEN, have been playing the online multiplayer battle arena game for around 10 years, but captain Mustafa Sadiq said they only got serious about it around three years ago.

Now, after a number of roster changes and falling in the competition a year ago, Sadiq said the team was more than ready for the World Electronic Sports Games Asia-Pacific finals.

"We've been the best in New Zealand for a few years but we haven't really been to enough international tournaments," Sadiq, who plays under the name Untamed, said.

The top eight teams in the Asia-Pacific finals qualify for the world finals where they will meet teams from Europe, America and China, as well as walking away with a cash prize of up to US$40,000.

For the world finals, which were set to be held later in 2018, the winners would receive approximately US$800,000 Sadiq said.

"eSports are getting really popular and there is a lot of money being invested into it."

In 2015, the global audience for eSports was 226 million people, while in 2017, the global eSports market generated US$660 million in revenue.

The NBA has seen it's growing popularity and partnered with Take-Two Interactive to produce an eSports league for the NBA 2K game series, which will debut in 2018, with the NBA hoping to have a team partially sponsored by all 30 of its franchises.

It's not about the money for six-man team ICLEN, whose ages range from 19 to 24, Sadiq said.

"I tell my guys that it shouldn't feel like a grind. We should be having fun with this," he said.

In the Asia-Pacific finals, they'll be squaring off against teams of fully professional gamers. With everyone in the team also either working or studying, Sadiq said they were proving a point.

"We can compete to their level, and it just goes to show it's just about how hard you work."