It was supposed to be a sieve in search of new talent for football, but the Covid-19 pandemic made Igor Oliveira, 23, change his mind. In early 2020, he promoted a selective to form a Free Fire team in the Jardim Elba community, which brings together 11 favelas in the east side of São Paulo.
Assembling a team for the most popular game in Brazil put the paulista and six other boys inside the digital scene — a space that is still restricted for many young people who live in the periphery, but which has also been a platform for social ascension for gamers and video streamers. underserved regions.
“My father is one of the soccer organizers of the complex and he gave me the task of making a team that would represent us”, says Oliveira. “We set up and won the São Paulo state championship played between 48 favelas. In the Favelas Cup, among 1,296 teams, we competed with the 12 finalists and came in eighth place”, he is proud.
More than 400 boys participated in the sieve. This interest reflects an important feature for the popularization of Free Fire: the game can be played on any basic smartphone and does not require a high speed internet connection, conditions that facilitate its access.
Even so, not everyone can play it. About 70 million Brazilians have poor access to the internet or no access at all. Of those who belong to classes D and E who are already connected, 85.1% use the internet only by cell phone and with limited packages, according to data from Cetic.br —the department of the Internet Management Committee that has been monitoring the adoption of information technologies for 15 years. years old.
This situation became more evident when the need for social isolation due to the pandemic prevented many young people, especially those who live in the periphery, from continuing their distance education. According to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), 4.3 million students did not have access to the network at the beginning of the health crisis. Of these, 4.1 million studied in the public school system.
Oliveira — who, in addition to being the founder, is the team’s coach and guides the players’ strategies — knows this reality well and wants to transform the lives of the young people on his team. For this, he recently left the profession of videomaker to dedicate himself fully to the boys.
“I know the life story and family of each player. So, I intend to continue with them, thinking strategies and focusing on us to grow and move up to Serie A. [da Liga Brasileira de Free Fire], because this is also a professional opportunity for them”, he says.
In Vigário Geral, a favela in the north of Rio de Janeiro, Ricardo Chantilly identified a similar opportunity and founded, in 2019, AfroGames, the first e-sports training center in the country based in a favela.
Until 2021, the place served more than 100 students. This year, according to Chantilly, the space will be expanded to 170 participants. “Everyone can take League of Legends classes, game programming and Fortnite, as well as English classes. Apart from snacks, uniforms and top notch equipment.”
Last year, the organization created the first League of Legends team, with the best students of 2019. The team, made up of five boys and one girl, has a coach, physical trainer and psychologist. All players receive a minimum wage.
“Two of these boys are the only formal billing in their house. The mothers were day laborers, the fathers were bricklayers, and, with the pandemic, they were sent away. So, the only formal billing is with them”, emphasizes Chantilly.
In the wake of Free Fire and other games, such as FIFA and League of Legends, becoming a professional gamer is among the desires of 96% of young people who live in peripheries across the country, according to a survey by Instituto Data Favela in partnership with the Locomotiva and Cufa (Central Única das Favelas).
“Electronic games have grown a lot, they are gaining recognition, especially in the favelas, because, unlike football, the favela is not seen as a barn of talent for this type of sport”, says the coordinator of the Free Fire Favelas Cup, Marcus Vinicius Athayde.
He also says that, for a year, a chip with Free Fire was released so that each of the more 7,000 players in the competition could train without limitation.
In the Brazilian scenario, the greatest exponent of the game is precisely an athlete from the favelas, Bruno “Nobru” Goes, 21. Born in the São Paulo community Jardim Novo Oriente, he is a streamer and player, with more than 33 million followers, a success he achieved after overcoming various obstacles.
“At the beginning of my career in games, I didn’t even have a cell phone, because I had been robbed”, remembers Nobru.
To play games, he started using his father’s work phone. “Doing the right things, many young people will also be able to follow the same path and change their lives”, says the paulista, who has a billing between R$ 1.5 million and R$ 2 million per month just with his lives on the Twitch platform.
Jakeline Benites, 24, resident of Vila Nhanhá, Mato Grosso do Sul, was part of the 2021 Favelas Cup winning team. She also wants to pursue a professional career as a gamer, but she still hasn’t found an opportunity that meets her need, as she and her husband, Helden Alves, who is the team’s coach, have two daughters.
The couple currently works delivering products sold in online stores, but their participation in last year’s tournament gave the family the chance to become an entrepreneur.
She says that the prize of R$ 60 thousand was divided between the seven players of the team and that she will use her share to start her own business.
“With the award, I will start selling semi-jewels and pavé in the pot. We were also able to buy a wardrobe, a kitchen cabinet and a bed for our daughters. This award brought new perspectives to our family. We work to survive and with this extra value it will be possible to undertake.”
Jakeline says that, on trips with the team to participate in championships, she got on a plane for the first time and stayed in a five-star hotel. “The same happened with the other players. They had never traveled by plane either,” he says.
The competitive gaming scene has also been a platform used by young people to gain a foothold in areas such as music. That’s how, for example, rapper Guxta, 19, managed to make a leap in his career.
Born and raised in Baixada Fluminense, in 2021 he closed a partnership with Loud —one of the largest e-sports organizations in the country, with around 25 million followers on social media — and became one of the company’s content producers.
Since then, he has released three songs and three music videos and managed to help his mother, who stopped working. Before, she was a nanny.
“Until Christmas 2020, I had never had a dinner at my house. My mother was always short of money. We would hug and cry, but we had faith. Last year, I managed to have a Christmas dinner with all the my family, with many friends”, he says. “It’s a matter of belief.”
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