By Alex Tien
SYLP student
Editor’s note: Alex Tien chose to write a fictionalized news story based on some true facts for his SYLP essay.
Sixteen-year-old Chinese American Bob Chang attended the Global Starcraft League (GSL) in Korea and won the GSL Code S, which shocked the whole Starcraft (video game) community.
During the final round, Chang was behind and came back with a wonderful victory. “An unknown player who came out of nowhere and dominated top players is a miracle,” said Min-Chul Kim, a top coach for Starcraft.
There are three races in the game: Terran, Protoss, and Zerg.
Each race has different and unique abilities and technologies.
Bob Chang, playing the weakest race, the Zerg, dominated the GSL.
Bob stated, “I only wanted to show the world that the youngest players can become a top professional and show entertaining games.”
Bob Chang won $87,000 USD and donated at least half to his Asian American community. He states his inspiration is his community giving him support and rooting for him. Bob Chang wanted to help the community by giving kids his age inspiration, education, empathy, and empowerment.
Bob Chang started his professional gaming career at the age of 13. Chang’s parents did not support his decision of becoming a professional gamer at an early age. Chang’s parents wanted him to focus on school work and graduate high school, before truly deciding on a career. Chang stated that he developed a love for gaming at an early age when his father bought him a game console.
“When I played my first video game, I didn’t stop until I beat it,” said Chang.
Chang is an above average student in school, getting good grades and attending honor classes. “If I don’t have the skill to become the best player in the world, I would want to major in computer science and become a software development engineer,” said Chang.
Chang donated more than $60,000 to a nonprofit Asian American charity and gave the rest of the money to his parents. Chang wanted his parents to be proud of what he is doing. Chang’s parents fully support him now and believe in him.
Chang is currently staying in Korea for one month and will come back to Seattle. He will continue to attend school regularly and plans to graduate high school.
“I don’t want to focus too much on gaming, even though I won a world tournament. I currently want to focus on school work until I graduate high school, but I will continue to join small major tournaments in the state,” said Chang.
“Working as an engineer has always been my long-term goal. When I heard my cousin will work as a mechanical engineer, I became more attached to the different types of engineering.”
Chang has always looked up to his cousin, who had been his inspiration during his early years. ♦