'2 years can do a lot': MLBB pro Brayden Teo pauses esports career as he enters NS

He's defended his base on a virtual battlefield, but now Brayden Teo must learn to defend our nation.

Brayden, a pro player for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) will be entering National Service soon - right after he took part in a recent MLBB tournament.

MLBB is a five-versus-five mobile game by Moonton where teams have to try and destroy a node within their opposing team's base which they can accessby pushing through three separate pathways on the battlefield.

The Professional League, held in Suntec in October, saw participants from Singapore compete for a chance at M5 - the prestigious world championship that sees participants from over the globe.

While Brayden has gone up against some of the best esports players in the game, he told AsiaOne then that he wasn't ready to take on NS just yet.

"Of course I'm not," the 18-year-old gamer said with a laugh. "But no choice."

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"At first when we go in, of course we won't be comfortable. But I just hope that I won't die inside," he jokingly added.

He explained that he had heard from others that NS is "very tiring" and "very stressful" because he won't be allowed back home for a while and he'll be out of his comfort zone.

But Brayden's own mortality may not be at as much risk as that of his career's - two years away from his current full-time job as an esports athlete may be a death sentence to his competitive ability.

"If an esports player has to serve NS, it takes these two years' worth of time away from us, and these two years can be used to do a lot," he said.

Citing Valorant esports player Wang "Jinggg" Jingjie, who recently had to stop playing professionally to enter NS, Brayden said: "I just feel like it's not worth to just spend [two years] on NS… I feel quite sad for him also."

Although he's concerned about NS, he feels his career isn't in jeopardy, he told AsiaOne.

"I think it will affect my career, of course, but I don't think it'll stop it right here," he said.

"I will still be touching the game, and I'm pretty sure that if I really do want to continue pursuing this career, I'll need to push myself and continue to play.

"I really do want to play again because I feel that the previous loss was really bad, so I want to show that we can win again."

'I kept blaming myself for all of it'

In the finals of the Mobile Legends Professional League in October this year, Brayden made a blunder - he celebrated a little too early - and that cost him and his team the game.

Brayden's team, RSG, had taken the opposing team Team Flash's base down to a sliver of health as cheers erupted from the crowd watching.

Taking in the mood that victory was all but assured, Brayden stood up to cheer as well.

However, the game wasn't over yet - Team Flash's Adam "Adammir" Chong eliminated four members of RSG including Brayden, defending his base and flipping the game around in the dying minutes.

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Ultimately, Team Flash took home the crown, while RSG got second place.

Sharing his thoughts with AsiaOne then, Brayden said that this loss felt "very, very bad" because they should never have lost to Team Flash to begin with.

"We were just careless, and if we played by textbook, we were supposed to win already… because of minor mistakes and small blunders, they managed to use that as an advantage and it cost us the game," he explained.

He wasn't able to recover from the loss in the matches after that and kept thinking back to the mistake he made.

"I was trying not to break down once we went back to the holding room, and I really kept blaming myself for it.

"My teammates told me that it was fine and all, but I just felt very bad because I was the one who caused this problem."

Brayden's family, who had made a surprise visit to support him and celebrate his win, had their plans disrupted once they saw him in tears.

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They went into the holding room to comfort him, telling him that "everyone makes mistakes", Brayden recalled.

Despite the double whammy of this devastating loss and having to serve NS, Brayden is still confident that he has what it takes to continue being a pro esports player, however.

"I really see the potential I have in this game, so I want to make use of it until I get rusty at the game," he said.

"If I want to continue in esports after that maybe I could be a coach, or maybe a manager," Brayden mused, adding that he hasn't planned too far ahead just yet and is taking things slowly. 

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khooyihang@asiaone.com