How this 28-year-old Singaporean went from engineering student to League of Legends e-sports coach

• In end-January, Jensen Goh will fly to Los Angeles to coach e-sports team Immortals Academy
• He is believed to be the first Singaporean to become head coach of a professional American League of Legends team
• The 28-year-old started his e-sports career as a shoutcaster in 2013, before transitioning to coaching

 

SINGAPORE — In 2013, just a few days before his first-year examinations, mechanical engineering student Jensen Goh chanced upon an audition for shoutcasters, who provide running commentary for e-sports matches.

He took the plunge and passed the audition, which was launched by gaming company Garena, and started his freelance shoutcasting career for popular online game League of Legends.

As a shoutcaster, he earned up to S$1,000 doing multiple live game commentaries for four days a week.

At that point, Mr Goh had only been playing League of Legends for a year, after being introduced to the game by a friend, but passing the auditions was the start of the now-28-year-old’s professional e-sports career.

While shoutcasting for the Singapore and Malaysian circuits in 2015, Mr Goh would constantly criticise the teams’ game plans. He wanted to “put his money where (his) mouth was” and thus reached out to these teams to help them out.

Throughout his undergraduate years at the National University of Singapore, Mr Goh balanced shoutcasting, coaching amateur teams and being a student.

A pivotal moment came in 2016, when he had to choose between an engineering internship and an internship with Garena, where he would be tasked with growing viewership, managing promotional material and coordinating operations with players.

He picked the latter, which he said was the “big decision” that cemented his resolve to pursue a career in e-sports.

At the start of 2017, he received a coaching offer from Taiwanese team Fireball, his first time coaching a professional team.

For the first four months of that year, he was based in Taiwan, juggling full-time coaching commitments while completing his final-year project at university. 

“I had to submit (engineering) plans and drawings to people in Taiwan, so I had to write everything in Chinese,” he said, referring to blueprints and models that he was doing for his engineering project. He had to submit proposed designs of a smart dustbin, his final-year project.

While his friends were supportive, even describing it as “living the dream”, his family was concerned that he would be unable to finish his final year and even drop out of school.

However, he managed to complete his project and graduate as scheduled in 2017.

Since then, he has coached nine professional League of Legends teams across seven countries.

While working for overseas teams, he would travel to the country and coach them in person.

Among them are Evos, which he led to victory at the domestic championship in Vietnam, and Splyce, which eventually won the domestic championship in the Spanish European Regional League in Spain and made top eight during the world championships.

When coaching smaller teams with fewer resources, he was even team chef and cleaner.

“In e-sports, there is no real certification to be a coach… no hard and fast rule,” he said. “It’s the nature of the e-sports industry. Even till this day, there are many people who are trying to get into the industry.”

The biggest takeaway from working in e-sports is learning how to navigate different cultures.

“It expands your horizons,” Mr Goh said. “(It makes you) think about and compare and contrast your experiences.”

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At the end of this month, he will be travelling to the United States to coach American team Immortals Academy. Though he declined to elaborate or provide exact figures, he said that his salary is about twice that of a fresh university graduate.

He is believed to be the first Singaporean to become head coach of a professional American League of Legends team.

He will be based in Los Angeles and hopes to develop players for Immortals Academy to become a team that people will look up to, and even see as title contenders.

When asked about moving to the US in the midst of the pandemic, he said: “I’m definitely anxious.”

He added that the team will be isolated, and he will take precautions by wearing masks and not going out unless “absolutely necessary”, to reduce the risk of contracting Covid-19.

“It calls for vigilance, and I’ll do what I can to keep myself and others around me safe.”