Video games take down football in Brazil's slums
The video game "Free Fire" is a huge success in Brazilian slums, where teens, through virtual challenges, want to build a career in a sport that depends on electronic devices and can bring big profits.
15-year-old Jan Araujo did not answer when asked about his football idol, Neymar or Vinicius Jr., but rather "Nobro and Cyrol", two well-known players in the game "Free Fire".
In Pele's country, teenagers no longer dream of becoming football stars, but rather they want to build a career in e-sports based on matches in which players compete and can generate significant revenues for professionals at the highest levels.
"I dream of becoming known as a (Free Fire) player and helping my relatives" financially, Yan Araujo told AFP, playing enthusiastically on his mobile phone.
Wearing a red tracksuit, Araujo stares at his phone screen and is very excited as he plays, especially when he wins.
It does not represent "Free Fire" for the neighborhood boy.
Poor Sol, half an hour from the center of Brasilia, is just a regular game, but rather a platform through which he can practice improving his performance to become a professional player.
He won alongside five teenagers last year the regional favelas free fire tournament organized by the non-governmental organization Cova.
Free Fire is an online game in which characters land on an island and search for weapons to kill each other.
In 2017, a Vietnamese company developed the game inspired by films such as "Battle Royale" and "Hunger Games".
All a boy needs to play is a mobile phone and a fast internet connection.
Brazil, India and the United States top the list of countries with the most downloads of the game "Free Fire".
"Teenagers are fond of this game," says Carlos Campos, coordinator of Cova in Brasilia.
A survey conducted by Data Favela shows that 96 percent of teenagers who reside in these slums want to build a career in e-sports.
"These teens understand that esports is a profession, a way to make money," Campos explains.
The winning team in the regional edition of the "Favillas Free Fire" tournament, in which eighty thousand people participated, won one hundred thousand Brazilian reals (about twenty thousand dollars).
But tournaments do not represent the only source of revenue for “Free Fire” players, as sponsors are racing to deal with influencers like Bruno “Nobro” Gomez, who is followed by 13 million people on Instagram, by posting videos of his performance with explanations and comments.
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