by Wan Ting Koh
ENTER the room of the Pokemon “Professor”. It isn’t that different from your typical room actually. Cluttered, homey, and with the usual fittings – a bed, a study desk and a cupboard surrounded by mellow yellow walls with faded cartoon stickers.
Then it slowly dawns on you – this room is actually a museum of Pokemon paraphernalia.
Pokemon have made their way to all the nooks and crannies, from the caps hung on the cupboard doors, to the DVDs and card albums on the desk. Under the desk stand three luggages full of plushies, their tags kept in a dry box in another corner of the room.
Even the sliver of space between his bed frame and trundle bed has become a storage space for Pokemon placards.
Mr Ng Aik Soon, is a “certified” Pokemon Professor who works in a point of sales company for Japanese food and beverage businesses as a section manager. He has been organising Pokemon video game competitions for some six years now and first received his certification in 2011. Though he is not the sole Pokemon Professor in Singapore, he leads the only team that organises official Pokemon video game tournaments in Singapore. The only other organiser is his ex-company, Maxsoft.
Since Pokemon Go was released on Saturday (August 6), scores of Pokemon fans have descended on areas known as “PokeStops”, which are recognisable landmarks, to catch Pokemon and to grab items that are generated at the stops. Reports of crowds congregating at the Pokemon hotspots along Orchard Road, East Coast Park, Botanic Gardens, Sentosa, and even heartland areas like Hougang and Yishun Park have surfaced in the past few days, with Poke-goers swiping frantically at their phone screens.
But unlike the numerous people just discovering Pokemon for the first time with Pokemon Go, Mr Ng, who lives in a three-room flat in Tampines with his mother, has been a fan since a Gameboy was first placed in his hands from age 12, though he maintains he is no fanatic.
Dressed in singlet and shorts, the bespectacled 28-year-old spoke to me in his cluttered room about his love and involvement with Pokemon – and how he had to cut down his spending simply because there was no more space in his room. Outside his room, nothing Pokemon exists. It was a “house rule” agreed upon by both himself and his mother, said Mr Ng.
Pokemon is well-loved by people well into their 20s and 30s who grew up with the franchise, like Mr Ng, with Pokemon Go re-igniting the craze that started decades ago when Pokemon Red and Green cartridges first hit the shelves. While most grew out of Pokemon however, some, like Mr Ng, have made it a ubiquitous part of their lives.
The cute little pocket creatures have insinuated their way into all aspects of Mr Ng’s life, from his first job to his current love interest. He sums up its effect: “Because of my Pokemon, because it impacted my life, it made me who I am today.”
“I would say that Pokemon pretty much revolves around my life. A lot of things that I am considering in life – a lot of life goals, or am looking forward to my life – Pokemon is part of it”.
After he graduated from the University in Adelaide’s offshore campus in Singapore in 2010, he landed a position as marketing manager in Maxsoft as his first job after his earlier involvement as a participant of its competitions. He said he contacted the company in charge, Maxsoft, to give some feedback as he felt there was room for improvement.
“I contacted them to give them advice from a player’s point of view. The prizes were horrible. They gave us the Diamond and Pearl game as prizes when we already had that since it is the game we have to play to win. I acted as a spokesperson for the players.”
His stint at Maxsoft was also when he got his certification, as part of his job requirement. He did an online test – which he described as similar to your basic theory test – at Pokemon.com where he had to get 80 per cent of the questions right on the first round and answer more specific questions on the second round.
The certification, which needs an annual renewal, gave him the “licence” to organise video game competitions and act as a judge too.
“I actually joined Maxsoft because I hope that I could grow the video game community together with Maxsoft while getting my own salary,” said Mr Ng.
He enjoyed his work so much that even after he left Maxsoft in 2014, he continued to hold independent competitions even though he lost money instead of earning it. The most recent competition he organised in June this year saw 128 participants and incurred a deficit of about $400. This included paying for the winner’s prizes: a Nintendo 3DS console.
That was the second time Mr Ng had to fork out of his own pocket. Last year, after spending money on the equipment, he had a shortfall of about $600 to $700, which he said was inevitable. “We would definitely make a loss. Of course we can do better, but I think $400 is reasonable for that scale,” said Mr Ng.
Mr Ng also spends about $5,000 annually on air tickets and accommodation attending competitions overseas. Pokemon has taken him to some 10 different countries for competition-related events from within neighbouring countries like Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia, to as far as the US, Canada and even Iceland.
It was during one of these competitions, a world championship held in Washington in 2014, that Mr Ng was able to get his idol, Junichi Masuda’s signature on his vintage Gameboy, now his most prized possession.
Mr Masuda is the composer of the Pokemon game soundtrack and the director. “I saw him so I ‘thick skin’, went up and asked him for his signature. When he saw the Gameboy turn on, he went ‘Ooh’,” said Mr Ng.
He estimated that his Gameboy would probably be able to fetch up to $1,000 on eBay if he listed it.
He wishes however, that he can take his dream further to hold competitions that are recognised by the official Pokemon body, Pokemon Company International, in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
“It [is] really heartwarming to see those really die-hard fans from these countries – they travel to Singapore to participate in my tournament back then in June because they know this is their gateway to the world championship.”
He also expressed his wish to “educate the Pokemon crowd in ways we can make the community better.” And to do this, he created a Facebook page, The Mirage Island, a platform for Pokemon lovers in Singapore to meet.
Like any true enthusiast, Mr Ng takes serious issue with anyone who calls himself an “enthusiast” but is clearly undeserving of the name. Those who are first introduced to Pokemon through Pokemon Go and can’t even name “the blue dragon that evolves from the ugly fish”, are clearly not enthusiasts, he said, quoting someone whom he spoke to through his Facebook.
“You’d need to at least know the name of the Pokemon to call yourself a true enthusiast,” he added. (For the record, the blue dragon is called Gyarados, which evolves from a Magikarp.)
“These are people who are not actual representatives of Pokemon enthusiasts,” he said firmly.
And though some might call Pokemon child’s play, Mr Ng thinks it is more than that. Anyone who calls it so has “shallow knowledge”, he said. “It has evolved to something very intensive – just like a chess game,” he added, as there are strategies and moves to plan, as well as backup plans to form if things don’t go your way.
“What you think is a child’s game has major competitions where the main audience are adults. When you actually look at people fighting each other, the kind of seriousness and passion when they push themselves to the limit, if you’re not into the game, you won’t see it.”
He thinks the image of Pokemon has evolved and is now “more accepted as mainstream like Hello Kitty and Mickey Mouse”.
Pokemon was also an avenue for Mr Ng to meet his current girlfriend. A friend whom he knew through a Pokemon gathering had introduced the both of them to each other three years ago, while she was in Taiwan. He flew over to meet her and the couple clicked because of their mutual love for Pokemon. His girlfriend, who is Japanese, has since moved to Singapore.
But what is it about these virtual creatures that appeal to him so much?
Certainly, one can understand its visual appeal – Mr Ng’s favourite Pokemon is the Eevee, because it is “damn cute”, he said. An Eevee plushie, which he had for about three years resides on his bed and occasionally accompanies him overseas for competitions.
But aesthetics apart, what is it about this franchise that he likes? I posed this question to Mr Ng who paused and seemed to consider it deeply for a moment.
Finally he answered: “I stuck to the game for so long and comfortable with, you kind of take a liking to it. You can also say its also because of my childhood.”
It seemed an inadequate response for someone who has spent such a large portion of his life on the game. But an example he gave shed some light on his attraction to Pokemon. His second favourite Pokemon, Meowth, had a backstory that touched him.
“He’s actually very intelligent, he can talk, he can do a lot of things, he is effectively human. When you read the background story on why Meowth actually motivated himself to be like that, it’s actually quite touching.”
Perhaps the same may be said of fans around the world, who are currently hooked on the phenomenon that is Pokemon Go, which has been released in over 50 countries in Europe, the United States, Asia, and most recently, in Singapore, to much anticipation.
However, Mr Ng maintains Pokemon Go is a mere side game meant to “pass the time”, while the video game tournaments remain the core of the franchise.
Though excited about the apps’ release, he said the side-effects of the game have been “too extreme”. He is of course, referring to how players all over the world have walked blindly into busy expressways, to secluded areas beset by robbers, off cliffs, and in one video, into a river, all in the name of “catchin ’em all’. He won’t be as crazed as them, he said, but admits that he would take the bus more often to cast his net wider.
Or he’ll drive. Mr Ng, who doubles as an Uber or Grab driver on the weekends, took the opportunity when the app was released in Singapore on Saturday to visit hotspots in between ferrying passengers. He managed to stop by Punggol Park, Bishan, Gardens by the Bay and Marina Barrage over the weekend.
“Since people placed lures there, I might as well since I am in the area,” he said.
While catching them all might not be in Mr Ng’s books, a more immediate wish he has is to move into a bigger home which can house his impressive Pokemon collection.
He is posing in the living room for his photoshoot – the very one time his collection is allowed out of his room – when his mother steps in, takes one look at his possessions, utters the word “disgusting” in jest – and returns to her room. Mr Ng seems to take it in his stride.
But while Mr Ng’s mother seems to be resigned to her son’s quirks, Mr Ng has a different dream for his future child.
“If I have a kid in the future, I would want him to be a professional Pokemon player, that’s for sure.”
Featured image and images by Najeer Yusof.
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