March 29, 2024
These are going to be uncomfortable and unpopular opinions from the head writer of WASD Philippines, so read on!

So, it’s now my second year in WASD as its Editor-at-Large (I never embraced the title of “Editor-in-Chief”, due to the fact that I never had any apprenticeship to be able to do it properly…or have formal journalistic education training. As a matter of fact, if one goes to the “Other Works” portion of this site, one should know that they are all creative works…)

Does it come with a pay raise or a hefty bonus? Bad news, it doesn’t. Welcome to Philippine esports. Only a few websites in the country can afford to pay their writers something, let alone a decent rate that is equal to the relative quality of the articles they create.

Yet, the good news is that WASD is looking to be a place where I meet good friends and acquaintances and if anything, I feel comfortable being with this community. Of course, this is not to mention the various “non-monetary incentives” and allowances that I received over the past two years, so it’s not that bad at all.

Going back, I personally feel that I have done a lot in terms of writing for Philippine FPS and I don’t think that’s false modesty to start with. I am proud as the head writer of WASD to say that I am at the head of a team that covers Philippine FPS with excellence and quality and will continue to do so as long as I am inside the organization.

From a humble start in 2016, I’d like to think that our team has played a big part in increasing WASD’s reach and audience up to this day. After all, who doesn’t find the “Philippine CS:GO rankings” controversial?

In fact, the articles that I write about CrossFire are the biggest proof of this. They have reached tens of thousands of people and made the CrossFire community realize that there are indeed websites other than the big ones who care for their game and who want their community to succeed.

I just write esports for the sake of writing it. Nothing more, nothing less. Everything else is just a big bonus, though those bonuses are extremely helpful for me, to be honest.

Frankly, I became mentally tired somewhere and felt disconnected from it all. I didn’t want to write esports at one point earlier this year. It just seemed so foreign to me.

Why write when your audience is unappreciative of it, when you don’t have anything to show back for it and when even some of your friends don’t appreciate the methods behind your writing?

But then again, I realized that the point of writing and being a writer in general is not to be popular, but rather serve a purpose and be able to spout out the unpleasant truths that people are afraid to face.

It is the purpose that allows me to stand against those at the top, against those who want to see certain truths being silenced.

Before anyone starts pointing fingers at me, I’d like to point out that whatever content I did for WASD so far was done on the back of a site that isn’t conducive for content creation.

Even though the website totally broke down at the very end, during the start of 2018, I decided to transfer the content to Facebook Notes, knowing very well that the site would receive fewer hits as a result of it.

But then, every single piece of writing allows you to improve inside your subconscious. Everything you research gets stored somewhere inside’s one brain. All of those factors come together and allow you to improve, to become better, to become stronger along the way.

Thus, I am happy with what I’ve achieved right now when it comes to esports, particularly content. Since today is an anniversary for me, let me indulge on the fact that WASD is one of the better, if not the best sites out there when it comes to Philippine CS and FPS in general.

The only other websites I can count who push out content when it comes to Philippine CS are Mineski…and while TNC pushes out content for Philippine CrossFire as a result of their affiliation with the CFEL, other sites such as GameGeek and GGNetwork mostly get out news articles for international CS:GO.

(And if you are all thinking about CSGO2ASIA and HLTV…they are quite well-funded and staffed…don’t get me started on that fact.)

Yet, I know that there’s always room to improve. WASD’s articles get an average of 500 readers (on the site itself), which is to say that there are many yet to be reached out here in the open. I wonder if infographics are the way to go in the future. Hmmm….

I am very much aware that there’s a lot of ways to polish my craft and that there’s still a long way for me in this esports writing journey, though the irony of it all is that my time inside esports might just be running out. Those who know me personally are aware that I need to do other choices in life soon…though I am thankful that these are all choices that are good for me!

I just hope that regardless of the path that I choose later on in life, I would be able to end the longest gig of my life…with WASD..and stay friends with the people in it.

In my journey, I shall know no fear.

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