Filipina voice talent makes mark in international esports scene

MANILA, Philippines – The 2023 Valorant Gamechangers Championship in Brazil saw Filipino players make headlines as they made their international stage debut with Team SMG. 

The team, composed of Kelly "shirazi" Jaudian, Alexandria "Alexy" Francisco and Camille "Kamiyu" Enriquez, was the talk of the tournament after a miscommunication that led them to play a four-duelist roster in their opening match — which they won to everyone’s surprise. Team SMG would eventually exit the tournament in fourth place, but they had made an impact on the Valorant scene.

They, however weren’t the only Filipinos in Brazil who made headlines.

Another Filipino made history during that time — the first Filipino talent to be part of the main broadcast of an international VALORANT tournament — Mika "Mikafabs" Fabella.

Fabella is no stranger to the world stage, having been part of the talent pool for the Wild Rift Icons Global Championship in 2022. She was also included in the international broadcast of VCT Pacific Kickoff last February, and will be part of the international broadcast once again in Valorant Masters Madrid this month.

But whether it was an international broadcast or her previous gigs of hosting corporate events or even a child’s birthday party, the nerves would always hit just before she took the stage.

“I freak out all the time. It doesn’t matter if it was Brazil for Gamechangers or South Korea for Kickoff or if it was for a birthday party or if doing a voiceover. I always get nervous,” Fabella said in an exclusive interview with Philstar.com.

She has many quirks whenever she has to go onstage, and many of her fellow talents have seen her freak out on a few occasions. But audiences did not notice as on stage, in front of the camera, they saw a different Fabella — one that is free of all nerves and sharing the stories that captivate audiences here and abroad.

She added, “Coming from a dance and theatre background, once you step on that stage, it’s show time. So when you’re off sige [labas mo yang kaba] but once you’re on stage — whatever you felt before, you left all of that backstage because now it’s show time.”

Fabella’s venture into esports and gaming was all by accident. At that time, Fabella took hosting gigs for corporate events, weddings and parties. She then received a message from a friend that a local network was looking for hosts who were knowledgeable about gaming.

“A friend forwarded me the announcement, mentioning that I should try out and that I would be good at it. I decided to go for it. At the audition, I never felt so out of place. At the audition, there were so many casters there, super well known and they all knew each other. I was the fish out of water, just looking around. When I saw the script, I had no idea what I was saying. There were mentioning teams, players, tournaments, that I had no idea. I was only playing Overwatch at that time,” recalled Fabella.

She received help from Darwell "Asurai" Llerena and Allyza "Tayrawr" Taylor, who gave her one-on-one sessions as they saw she was struggling.

“I’m so thankful for their help and I feel like if they weren’t there, I wouldn’t have received the callback. I have no idea to this day how I got it but I did and it just snowballed from there. It was one event after another until it just got bigger and bigger and suddenly, I’m in Brazil,” she added.

Even though esports wasn’t what she expected for herself when she started out hosting, the industry showed her a different path that she could take, liking it to a game wherein she had a next level to play.

“Looking back, there were two paths that I could have taken at that time. Auditioning for two different things. The thing that attracted me to esports was that I had no idea how my life was going to be. If I went to the other path, I knew exactly how it was going to go. But in esports, it was a big question mark and that excited me. It was a growing industry at that time. I was such a fish out of water at the start and every event was a challenge. I like learning. I like the challenge and that made me stay. There’s always another level for me to reach. Parang game lang. Natapos mo yung level one, o may level two then next thing you know nasa level five ka na. Even to this day, the events that are being offered are always on a new level. That constant learning is what I like and what drives me,” shared Fabella.

It is one of those boss levels that she reached back in Brazil where Fabella realized that it was more than just herself she was representing.

“For Brazil, I was so pressured because it was the first time a Filipino was given that platform. More than anything, for someone from Southeast Asia to be given that opportunity, I wanted to do a good job. I wanted the world to realize that you have good talents coming from Southeast Asia, coming from the Philippines. We’re rarely given that kind of opportunity but if the world would just look and give [us] the chance, we have so many talented people. And that’s what pressured me the most. I really wanted to show that. I was telling my fellow talents, as long as the world saw there’s great talent coming from the Philippines then I’m ok if I don’t get another event. As long as their eyes are on us,” said Fabella.

Even as she became part of the talent pool for the recent VCT Pacific Kickoff, that mindset is still there.

She continued, “There’s a lot of that [pressure] still. I know that when I’m on a bigger stage, I am not just carrying myself but I’m representing an entire region and an entire nation.”

Looking back at how the esports industry was, Fabella hopes that more women would see that there was no better time than the present to explore a career in esports and gaming.

“There’s no better time than to do it now. It’s been so inspiring to see so many women in so many aspects of esports and gaming, being very visible and being powerhouses in their own right. Before, women were pushed into that gamer girl persona. But now, we have women league ops, women coaches, women referees, women players that are doing so well like our Gamechangers team. It really shows that women have so much to offer for esports and gaming. The tournaments a couple of years ago, [talents] were 80% men but now it’s almost 50-50. You want to open more doors for women. You want to diversify your talent pool. In esports, there’s space for everyone to be included.”