MALAYSIANS KINI Meet Adam Erwann Shah. The 22-year-old, like many his age, is a gamer and an avid Defense of the Ancients (Dota 2) player.

Dota 2, to the uninitiated, is that loathsome computer game that makes your friends or loved ones ignore you.

To fans, it is a game of teamwork, strategy and intuition. To Adam, it's a job.

Sceptics may frown at the idea of a gaming career, but this is the same Adam whose team of five last month, bagged RM5.6 million at The International 2016, the world's biggest Dota 2 tournament.

Adam, a soft-spoken, bespectacled psychology student, has no intention of wasting his winnings, and plans to invest in business.

He started off like many primary school students who frequented cyber cafes, and was 11 when he was introduced to Dota by a friend.

"I got thrashed very badly, I still remember that," Adam recalled his first game in an interview with Malaysiakini.

Beyond the virtual arena, Adam plays basketball, where he also picked up Mandarin.

"My teammates couldn't speak English very well so I picked up Chinese from them and spoke to them in that language," he said, who also conversed in some Mandarin during the interview.