Ankara Big City Municipality is one of the first municipalities to support espora. ABB ASKİ Esports is the first official metropolitan municipal esports club among the metropolitan areas in Turkey. ASKİ Esports is actively involved in leagues with ZULA women’s and men’s teams.
Our writer and founder of Digital Sports Ilker Karaş asked, ABB ASKİ Esports Club replied. You can find out what you are curious about ABB ASKİ Esports Club in this interview.
1. Hello, thank you for accepting our interview request. First of all, let’s get to know you and start our conversation. Can you tell us about yourself and your position?
Typhoon Tanju KARA: We are very happy to be with you on representing Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. I was born March 5, 1971. I am a member of the board of directors of Anket joint stock company of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality.
At the same time, I am currently the general coordinator of ABB ASKİ Esports club. As someone who is in love with our capital, it is our dream to make Ankara the capital of esports as well as a world capital.
Orçun Kamil KABADAYI: First of all, thank you very much. I was in the gaming industry from an early age. As someone who has been reading turkey’s biggest gaming magazine for many years, I am very happy to be with you.
I was born in Sakarya on May 29, 1994. I have a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Sakarya University. Right now, I’m dealing with entrepreneurial activities that I love and enjoy. I’m one of those people who thinks that we should always work in the jobs we love in life and do our best to do so.
Since I loved playing games from a young age, in 2013 I was the 10th largest player in Turkey with the name “Okk Nefes Group” on the Steam platform. I started my group with a curatorial page.
In 2018, I launched my Sakarya esports initiative. Then, in 2020, I launched my digital book initiative “Adan Zye Espor”.
Finally, as of January 2020, I am continuing my career as a Project Manager in “Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Esports Project”.
Mustafa İvGEN: Hello, Level family. First of all, I have to say, I’m not going to let you Thank you so much for this beautiful interview. Level magazine is a very special place in my life. It’s incredibly gratifying to have the opportunity to be interviewed in a magazine that I’ve been reading and reading all the time since I was a kid.
I’ve grown up with games since the 2000s. After completing my professional electronic sports career in 2012, I continue my journey by writing news, organizing tournaments, coaching and managing teams in the electronic sports industry. I am currently the general manager of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality ASKİ Esports club.
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How did your Esports adventure begin as Ankara Metropolitan Municipality? President Mansur Slowly, how did you move this issue?
OKK: As you know, we organized a large PUBG Mobile event at ataturk indoor gym in Ankara.
After this event, when we saw that the feedback was very positive and that young people loved such activities, we decided to establish an electronic sports club with the support of Typhoon Tanju Kara brain in accordance with the instructions of our Mansur Slow president.
In addition, we are proud to be the first municipality to organize online and offline events and enter this sector on a metropolitan basis.
My involvement in the project took place as of January 2020. The foundations of ABB ASKİ Esports Club, the first official metropolitan municipality esports club among the metropolitan areas in Turkey, were also laid when Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Slow brain and Typhoon Tanju Kara brain conveyed that they wanted to see me in this project.
In other words, Mansur Slow had already formed a team to implement this project without the need for us to present the project to our president.
3. You are the first team to support Esports among the Metropolitan Municipalities in Turkey. How do you see the future in this regard?
TTK: I hope that these steps we have taken will be observed by other metropolitan municipalities and even district municipalities and they will take action to establish esports teams in these municipalities.
The skyscraper logo of the ASKİ Esports team was highly appreciated by esports lovers. On the other hand, the fact that the award regulation applied to other branches of THE ASKİ Sports Club will be applied for the esports team is a first for the esports community. We supplied all the systems that our players were missing and sent them home. We do our best to motivate our electronic athletes in the long term.
In the event that the teams we will establish in the future become world champions in the leagues in which we compete globally, unprecedented surprise awards are also waiting for our esports players to encourage the teams.
OKK: As you know, we have established the first official metropolitan municipality Esports club among the metropolitan areas in Turkey. First of all, our goal was to set an example for municipalities in Turkey. And we are gradually getting positive feedback from other municipalities. Our main goal is to provide esports to our young people in a healthier and more conscious way.
The main purpose of this project, which has been implemented under the body of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, is to bring together all electronic sports and game-loving young people living in Ankara under one roof in the E-sports training center to be opened by our municipality with professional instructors and to endear electronic sports, which are seen as the sport of the future, to all young people and to provide career opportunities.
We want to spread this in a healthy way by setting an example for all of Turkey.
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OKK: The main purpose of this project, which has been implemented under the body of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, is to bring all electronic sports and game-loving young people living in Ankara together under one roof in the E-sports training center to be opened by our municipality with professional instructors and to endear electronic sports, which are seen as the sports of the future, to all young people and to provide career opportunities.
You also have a team for the 4th Stash Women’s League. How was this process born and raised, how is it now?
OKK: As Ankara Metropolitan Municipality ASKİ E-Sports Club, we first wanted to enter Esports with the Women’s team. On top of this, with the implementation of The Zula Women’s League, turkey’s first women’s league, we took our place in this organization as‘ABB ASKİ E-Sports Club’.
We became league champions in the Zula Women’s League in an “undefeated” way and made history in Esports by achieving a feat that is difficult to break in Turkey.
From here again, I congratulate all our athletes and wish them continued success.
5. With Covid-19, everyone is now continuing their activities and activities online. At this stage, do you intend to do esports room and training room as ABB in the future?
OKK: Our priority plans include definitely a training room where our esports players can train and a training room for players who want to register and train from outside.
We are currently continuing our activities online due to Covid-19. This year we launched our “Stay At Home” themed events in FIFA 2020 and Zula.
As ABB ASKİ ESports Club, our young people who apply and participate in the esports courses we will open will also be taught that sports are not only sports. Among our plans are to file the phenomenon of blasphemy that cannot be prevented in electronic sports and to work to instill sports ethics in our athletes.
In the esports courses we will open, we will train not only male players, but also female players and support the development of professional players who will represent our municipality.
We will raise awareness not only for young players, but also for the families of the players by giving educational seminars accompanied by pedagogues.
OKK: As ABB ASKİ ESports Club, our young people who apply and participate in the esports courses we will open will also be taught that sports are not only sports. Among our plans are to file the phenomenon of blasphemy that cannot be prevented in electronic sports and to work to instill sports ethics in our athletes.
6. As a municipality, you also organize activities for young people. Last year you had a PUBG Mobile event. Are you planning to do more of this this year?
TTK: We have seen widespread participation in this event. A large audience of a certain age range socializes here.
The youth here have a different language. They learn about competition here, but it doesn’t develop as a negative sense of competition. A different generation is coming. We’re aware of that and we thought, what can we do about it? We are continuing our activities online at this stage, but after the pandemic process, offline activities will be in full swing.
OKK: Of course, I’m sure. In order to make our young people from Ankara who have long yearned for events and organizations happy, it is one of our main objectives to organize and meet this need under the traditional name of “Ankara Metropolitan Municipality E-Sports and Gaming Festival”every year.
We want to organize the events that will cover all ankara people as Ankara Metropolitan Municipality in a way that appeals to all age audiences and also makes them suitable for disabled Esports lovers.
7. What you are talking about so far is actually a model project for municipalities in different countries of the world that aim to take steps both in our country and for Esports. Do you have international contacts?
TTK: Our primary goal is to set an example for municipalities in Turkey. Gradually, we are receiving positive feedback from other municipalities.
Our main goal is to provide esports to our young people in a healthier and more conscious way. We want to spread this throughout Turkey in a healthy way. As far as I know, a few more municipal teams are on their way. There’ll be some good news in time.
On the other hand, we have contacts with municipalities abroad. In particular, we are in discussions with several municipalities in Europe to produce joint projects on the process.
8. There’s a bit of a sports club dimension to the job. As ABB, can we listen to how the roads cross with ASKİ Sports Club and what is happening in this process?
TTK: In order to spread our electronic sports project to an even wider audience, Ankara Metropolitan Municipality decided to implement the E-Sports Club within the body of ASKİ Sports Club, which is one of the long-established planes of our city.
ASKİ Sports Club hosts many world and European champion athletes in various sports. We are extremely happy to start with ASKİ Sports Club. After this process, we finished undefeated in the Zula Women’s League and won the league title.
We have added another one to the championships of Aski Sports Club.
9. Let’s move on to a little math. When we look at the issue such as official institutions, personal Esports clubs and sports clubs, can you tell us what your position means for Turkish Esports and what it will bring from this point on?
MI: Obviously I’ve been a player, a coach and a manager at a lot of clubs in the past. There have been clubs where I have worked professionally, semi-professionally and amateurly.
However, it feels very different to be involved in a project that appeals to such a wide audience. You have to choose every step you take carefully and carefully.
As municipal teams proliferate in the future, it becomes very special for me to be the first.
When he founded electronic sports clubs in other municipalities in the future, it is one of my biggest goals to carry out new projects between the municipalities by moving forward jointly with my colleagues.
We’re at the end of our interview, thanks again for your participation, can we ask you for your last words when we close?
TTK: A different generation is coming, we know that.
As our mayor of Esports, Mansur Yavaş, we care very much as ABB. We see esports not only as a hobby in this process, where we have to stay at home, but also as a career option, a rapidly developing sport.
As Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, we thank you very much for this beautiful interview and wish you good work.
OKK: First of all, I would like to thank Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Slow and Typhoon Tanju Kara Beye for putting me in charge of this project and trusting me.
My goal is to ensure that Esports is in the best places in Turkey in a healthy and conscious way.
And I’m glad I’ve been of little use to our young people. My advice to our young brothers and sisters who have set out on this path is to follow your dream idea of enterprise. Never give up on the failures you have received along the way, because every failure you receive will actually be your stepping stone to success.
MI: We are in favor of continuing this journey with better steps. I hope that every step we take will set an example for municipalities in other cities and we will be a pioneer in this way. Thanks.
A different generation is coming, we know that.
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