Two Asian teams are listed in the World rankings for the first time ever with one more just outside of the list. This all happened due to two major events in which these teams dominated throughout the tournament; however, it’s not the first time Asian teams actually did well at an event. Does anyone remember Lunatic_hai at ACON5? They did defeat Complexity Syndicate to take a deserving 4th place at the event. Then there’s GoldTel from China that got the same placing as Complexity at ACON5 (5/6th). In WCG 2004, MaveN Crew from Korea took 3rd place defeating SK Gaming which were the hot sauce of that era.

So, it’s not just due to magic that Asians can suddenly point their cross hair and shoot virtual bodies and it’s definitely not a recent occurrence.

They have been fairly consistent at these huge tournaments – that is if they show up.

Culture plays an integral part as to why Asian countries choose not to play games like Counter-Strike or games at all, especially in places such as China. First and foremost, the value of a Chinese family is to improve the family name and reputation each generation. Thus, this job is passed down the moment a child of the new generation can read and write. Education will then be the first and top priority for this child and he/she will be pressured under all circumstance to further their education.
This generally applies to families in the middle to middle-upper class that have an extended family consisting of many different generations. Therefore, the family symbolizes dignity, pride and respect and must be maintained as it has been through the years. Boys are therefore more favored than girls in the family as they are the ones that can carry the family name through more generations. This inevitably means that they would be pressured even further to educate themselves so they can get a better job, leading to more respect in the family name – this also applies to Japanese families.

These values are often followed in middle class families as they struggle to improve the overall image of the family as well as their future income. The value decreases when we reach middle-upper class as these families are more financially stable; the parents are often away from home working long hours a day. This allows the children to have more time to themselves to play computer games.
Once we reach the upper class families, the values kick in once again as these families must maintain the family image and name and can only do so if the younger generation can contribute in the future by taking over the family business or providing the same income. Education is therefore the top priority for these children, and apart from the daily schooling, these children are often bombarded by tutors and other extra scholastic material.

Understand that the child becomes more of an investment than a liability. In western culture, I often witness that a child can often choose to work and leave school and after a certain age. That is, they are given the chance to leave home and move on with their own life individually. However, with many Asian families, the child is an investment that should produce a good outcome in the future.
Parents pour effort and money into their children as to improve their education and expand their career opportunities. As a result, they expect that the child will repay them in full once they retire and cannot support themselves.

Of course, I’m making a huge generalization here. Nuclear families do not hold as strong of a belief as extended families. But nonetheless, the culture is still there, only practiced to a lesser degree.

You can see then, the problems of trying to be a professional gamer if you’re Chinese or Japanese.