Abhinav Shakya has been playing Dota since he was nine. Now 19, Shakya recalls how he used to watch his brother play the game and patiently wait for his turn. Looking back, he says, “I never thought that I would get so good at the game. I just wanted to be as good as my brother. Today, I’m the best Dota player in the country.”

Shakya, or Mel, as he and everyone in the scene call him, is a Computer Applications student in his third semester in Nepal College of Information Technology. He has been on the top of Nepal’s leaderboard for the game for the past year—unchallenged until now.

Dota, which stands for Defense of the Ancients, is a multiplayer online battle arena video game. Shakya plays Dota 2, which is played between two teams of five players as a contest where the two teams defend their bases. The team to destroy an “ancient”, a structure located in the base of the other team, first, wins the game.

For Shakya, Dota is more than just a game. It’s almost the centre of his life. He goes to college every morning at 6 am, comes back home by 12 pm, takes a nap and before it’s 2, heads out to PowerPlay, his favourite station, to play. “Sometimes, I keep playing till midnight, sometimes later than that,” he said.

He looks at the game the same way a music prodigy would look at a Beethoven piece. In fact, his tag ‘Mel’ is short for ‘Melody’, “I chose the name Mel because I want to create a melody with how I play,” he says. He spends an average of 50 hours a week playing and trying to get better at what he does. He aims to be a pro player and represent Nepal in the international e-sports scene.

In the last decade or so, e-sports has gained immense popularity among the youth; yet, it’s still not seen as a viable career option. People in Nepal still see e-sports just as a source of entertainment, and not as something that can be pursued full time. For such reasons, Shakya believes that while international players like Dendi and Arteezy have been making money in three to six figures, Nepali players hardly manage to make any. Even Shakya’s parents weren’t too sure of their son’s gaming career. “They were sceptic, but now that I’ve achieved something out of it, they are much more supportive. Otherwise, to people, Dota is just a game with no potential,” he shared.

“There’s this guy from Pakistan, SumaiL, who’s also 19 and an amazing player. He’s one of the people I look up to. If players like him can manage gaming and other parts of their life so well, then so can I,” Shakya shared with the Post. Though Shakya’s inspiration has always been his brother, who went by the name of ‘Pein’ in the scene, players like SumaiL keep him motivated.

Dota is a mentally stressful game, so Shakya makes sure he is relaxed and sound before he gears up to charge in the battlefield. “Every game is different, so there’s no way you can actually prepare for it. But it also makes things more interesting. The only thing you can do is to go in with an aware mind, coordinate and plan well,adapt and make good decisions. Strategies are very important. That’s the only way you can win,” he shared.

And of course, teamwork plays an important role. Shakya plays for the team ‘My Revenge’, which is owned by a German company that sponsors him and his five other teammates. The key to doing well in the game is to have a good team, Shakya says. “Because you play in teams, you need to have good understanding and coordination. You need to come up with strategies and defence mechanisms. That’s why I prefer playing here, in the cyber, rather than at home,” he shared.

According to Shakya, he and all his team members meet at least thrice a week to do well in the battlefield. And they plan to win the National Esports Championship this year, a yearly tournament organised by Nepal Esports Association (NESA) to encourage e-sports in the country.

Though Shakya says that one doesn’t really need exceptional appliances to do well in the game, he admits that there are some factors that do help. At home, he uses a simple budget computer. But this system hinders with his game, as it doesn’t support it smoothly and unexpected power cuts keep him confined, hence he prefers playing in a cyber.

At the PowerPlay video game store, he uses a computer with a i3 processor, NVIDIA 1030 graphic card and 8GB RAM. The gears he uses are from Fnatic, that are designed by one of the world’s best e-sports teams. “Fnatic is quite affordable and has good quality, so I tend to lean towards it more. But I don’t think you need fancy gadgets to play Dota at all, all you need is a basic computer and reliable internet connection. Sure, it makes the experience much better but it’s not a necessity,” Shakya said.

Even though Shakya has been indisputably on the top of his game, he still thinks that there’s a lot of space for him to grow, which makes him take his game seriously. He shared, “I don’t like losing. I’m very serious about my games. The last time I lost, I fell sick to the point where I couldn't get out of bed. I just want to win and keep doing better.”

Despite being so competitive and aggressive when it comes to Dota, Shakya outside the game is meek and shy. He admits that gaming has made him more introverted than he used to be. On most days, he is holed up playing video games. He doesn’t like going out or talking to anyone outside the game.

But at the same time, Mel’s popularity among Dota players in Nepal has made it easier for him to make conversation with people if he has to. “Sometimes, people don't believe me when I say I’m Mel. I’ve to play to show them that I'm not lying. I don't like to brag about it, but it’s quite flattering,” he laughs.

While players across the country look up to him, the rest are unaware of Shakya’s potential as a Dota pro-player. Shakya admits that he has come across people who don’t validate e-sports as a full-time career option. Yet, he continues to be optimistic and believes that he can make a career out of it.

“The reason I took Computer Appliances course was because it needed less effort and attention in comparison to other subjects so that I could focus on gaming. I do make money now, but it is barely enough for me to manage my expenses. However, the scene in Nepal is changing. I’m hopeful that someday I can make a full-time career out of it,” Shakya said.