Recently, many celebrities such as talents, entertainers, and singers have started distributing videos on YouTube. Videos of professional sportsmen introducing techniques have also been well received, but in the meantime, a seemingly different distributor has appeared, in which active professional basketball players distribute games.
That is Seahorses Mikawa, a professional basketball team, and Avi Schafer (hereinafter referred to as Schaefer), who also belongs to the Japan national team. Why did Schaefer start distributing the game? What does he want to convey in the game distribution? In this project, we will dig deeper into the reason three times.
This time, the first time, we asked about the relationship between Schaefer and the game. If you read this, you will see a new generation of athletes.
Avi Schafer player profile
Born in 1998. Born in Hyogo prefecture. He was born to an American father and a Japanese mother. He is in a power forward / center position.
He started playing basketball in the second year of high school and was called to the U18 Top Endeavor in just one year. In 2017, he participated in the U19 World Cup with Rui Hachimura and others, and ranked 10th, the highest ever.
After graduating from high school, he moved to the United States and entered the Georgia Institute of Technology in the NCAA Department 1. He took a leave of absence from college in 2018 and played at Alvark Tokyo. He transferred to Shiga Lakestars for a limited time in 2019. He participated in the World Cup of the same year with Hachimura as the youngest player. He joined Seahorses Mikawa in 2020 and is active as a mainstay.
“Avi’s Game Room” YouTube URL:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCba4d07R4n1eUU8QrMOyrTA
The first thing I got into the game was “Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G”
――First of all, please tell us about the game history of Schaefer. Which game console did you touch for the first time?
Schaefer player: Game Boy and Game Boy Advance.
–So what is your favorite game?
Schaefer player: My favorite game is the “Monster Hunter” series. The reason is that the first reason I got hooked on the game was PlayStation Portable’s “Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G”.
I also like shooting games and games that challenge quests.
――In the latest YouTube distribution, you were playing “Pokémon LEGENDS Arceus”. Do you also like that type of game?
Schaefer player:is that so. You also did “Pokemon” a lot.
Why did a game-loving soccer boy become a professional basketball player?
――Some athletes are influenced by games and manga and want to become professionals, but are Schaefer also influenced by games?
Schaefer player: Not really. Rather, he was a soccer boy (laughs). As for games, I played soccer games, but I didn’t play basketball games very much.
I decided to become a professional basketball player when I was the representative of U (Under) 19. I started playing basketball late, so I wasn’t really conscious of professionals, but I asked U18 and U19 in the under category to choose and match up with world league players in the U19 World Cup. In the process, I gradually became aware of it.
After that, you were invited to a training camp after the U19 World Cup, where you practiced with the players who are now active in the national team. In that process, I became conscious of professionals.
――By the way, I was surprised that the basketball game “NBA 2K20” was being distributed, but it was written that I was not good at it. Somehow, athletes thought they were good at sports games.
Schaefer player: I think the starting point is higher than that of a normal game player. I’m more aware of tactics than ordinary people, and I understand them. However, people who are good at games often play games all the time. I don’t think it should be that far.
Game time made while working as a professional
――By the way, professional athletes are practicing and have an image that they don’t seem to have much time to play games. Do you have time to play games as a hobby?
Schaefer player: The practice time of the team is also fixed, and the weight is also fixed because it should not be too much during the season. So I have a lot of time to play games (laughs).
――It may be relaxing to play games after you usually move your body at work.
Schaefer player:is that so. I don’t even leave home on my days off. I use basketball to move my work muscles, so when I play games, I sit in a chair and fix it (laughs). I’m doing it for about 5 to 6 hours.
Communication cultivated in cooperative games is now useful
――Is your experience playing games useful in professional basketball?
Schaefer player: It’s important to communicate with the people you play with in cooperative games, so I think that’s what you’re doing now. I don’t know if it’s still alive (laughs), but in open world games, there are some important things about quests that derailed from the story. I think it’s important or interesting to do everything up to that point.
――Do you play games with your teammates?
Schaefer player: You play games with the representatives. Mikawa’s teammates play games on their smartphones, but I only play games on home video game consoles, so I haven’t played them together yet.
――Who is the representative who plays the game together?
Schaefer player: Takumi (Takumi Saito), Takuma Sato (Takuma Sato) and Keita (Keita Imamura) are members of similar ages. We played together yesterday (laughs). Many basketball players are playing games. There are times when we are connected by some kind of game, and the game is one of communication.
I also talk in voice chat while playing online games, but I also talk about things that are different from games, and I also talk about private things. Of course, talking about basketball and using it as a communication tool like this is also a good aspect of the game.
Schaefer learns the importance of team communication from cooperative games and uses it as a communication tool. It seems that the unique game experience that allows users to connect with each other online is being utilized for communication.
Next time, I will ask you about the game distribution, so please look forward to it.
What is Seahorses Mikawa?
Seahorses Mikawa is a professional basketball team belonging to B.LEAGUE. Hometown is Kariya city, Aichi prefecture. The main color is Seahorse Blue. The team name “Seahorse” was named after the English name of the seahorse.
Furthermore, “Tatsu” = “Dragon” refers to the castle of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the male of Mikawa, as Ryujo, and in addition, Aisin Seiki’s Honorary Advisor Minoru Toyoda, who has continued to support the team since the foundation, was born in 1916. It is also derived from.
(Courtesy of Seahorses Mikawa)
