Before M5 casting, Yasu developed a government awarded project

KHALED "YASU" BASSEM came into the M5 World Championship, as an underdog among the talents.

As someone who spoke Arabic most of the time in his life, it was a daunting experience for the rookie caster to be in one of the biggest spectacles in MLBB esports.

"The pressure was already high, it wasn't just about the names and it wasn't about the atmosphere, it was the challenge as a whole," said Yasu in an exclusive with SPIN.ph.

And deep inside, he knew that he wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but he never let that dampen his morale.

"I had this idea in mind where I said, 'Look Yasu, maybe some people are hating on you in the comments section, maybe some people do not accept you generally. You're not here to prove them wrong, you're here to prove the people who believe in you that they're right," he reflected.

Some would argue that Yasu struggled to keep up with his co-casters, but at the end of the day he kept on going.

And going...and going...and going...never fazed by the community's thoughts on him.

His resilience eventually paid off to the point where his co-casters praised his efforts.

One of them was MPL PH talent, JC "Naisou" Rezabek.

"He said something along the lines that if there's something called improvement, that's you. You did improve. That was huge coming from Naisou," revealed Yasu.

He may be the most inexperienced among the mainstage M5 talents, but eventually he learned a lot and cherished this moment. Naisou wasn't the only caster who applauded Yasu, as the others inside the locker room likewise saw how he has grown.

"They said, 'Look you can tell the difference by yourself Yasu. You enjoyed casting the last three days, we also sensed that on the desk and behind the camera. You have your own personality and that was the whole point," he said.

While this was definitely an achievement for Yasu, he had to endure a lot of tribulations in his journey before reaching the mainstage.

PHOTO: MPL MENA

Bouncing around MENA

Yasu was born and raised in Egypt, but as he went on with his childhood, he traversed around the MENA region given his father's career in sales.

"Because of my father's work, I moved to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, but mostly Saudi Arabia. Then we moved to UAE and then came back to Saudi Arabia, and then back to Egypt," Yasu looked back.

For 10 years, he bounced around different countries. While it may seem like a fun experience to travel around at a young age, Yasu would say otherwise.

"For me it wasn't a pleasant one. I know a lot of people want to travel and everything, but travelling a lot meant that I don't have any long life friends. I call them colleagues more than friends because they change all the time, even though I love them all," he reflected.

He further narrated: "We speak from time-to-time, but it's hard to find topics when the other guy from the other end of the coversation is like more than 2000-3000 miles away from you. You don't know what's going on in their lives and they don't know what's going on yours so from time-to-time, we just say hello, how are you, etc."

PHOTO: MPL MENA

Venturing into Mobile Legends

As he travelled around the region, Yasu developed his love for playing video games. Eventually, he was introduced to the Land of Dawn by his cousin. He immediately fell in love with the game within a month.

For five years he grinded and reached a point where he became better than his cousin. Eventually through the daily grind, Yasu soon formed his IGN.

"There's this funny story where my squad leader, I think it was like three years ago, he wanted to make this squad where everyone has a similar kind of name so he made Yaweezy, Yawuso, whatever and I got Yasu."

"So the way he sold that to me is that oh Yasu is a really great name bro, you have to take it," explained Yasu.

Was his friend correct that it was a great name? Here's what he discovered upon researching the definition of his IGN.

"It means in Japanese, peace, and in Greece, it's kind of a greeting so it's like hello. It's a cool name."

Things could've gotten uphill for Yasu as he was discovered to be one of the best players in his region, and he could've landed a spot in one of the professional clubs. He even garnered a lot of trophies during this period.

However there was one thing that halted his progress.

"But the thing is, by the time I was really good at the game, I was in my graduation year and in my graduation year I had to fully commit to my project, and during that project I got supported by the government. It was huge."

PHOTO: MPL MENA

Yasu developed a project to aid farms

As a communications engineering student at MSA University, Yasu opted to pursue an ambitious project geared towards helping farms.

So what motivated him to become, 'better than great?' His circle of friends.

"That project, I had this friend he was really good with software, especially coding. It was a team effort, me and him, but what inspired me to do this project, we wanted to make this a four-man project."

He elaborated: "So we had these two friends, on a separate project that they're making a hydrophonic farm so we wanted to take their data and make a full project like a mini-farm with the sensors and we had this great idea, where we can expand this to a greater scale."

Together they developed a sensor-like project geared towards calculating data, which in turn would help farms.

The details were over-the-top, but Yasu had a huge smile in his face while thoroughly explaining his project to SPIN.ph.

"My project was about farms, but not only about farms, but you can use these sensors to measure whatever thing that you want. So you just installed them and the environment you want to measure, namely humidity, temperature, and you can go on with any other barometer that you want to measure," explained Yasu.

"This network, connects to each other wirelessly and they all go send the information to a hub, and this hub also sends a live version to the owner of the farm and he gets to see a live measurement, each minute. Like in every minute, you get a reading in a chart, not just numbers."

What makes this project fascinating are the types of data that can be collected.

"I also inserted an alert system and doesn't just send you an alarm or a warning, it also takes action on point. So you have three different types of data, like hard raw data within an excel sheet, an online version of it that is accessible to whoever you want to give it access to."

And the information isn't just limited to one specific avenue, as Yasu dug deep and explored other potential devices.

"And the live one, the one that you get in your phone, and you get to control from your phone, what happens in your farm. It sends information online, offline, on time, emails, warnings, takes actions," he thoroughly explained.

However as Yasu went on, he revealed that he has plans to further expand on the project's reach.

"Not just about farms but to make more complicated systems because we only need to make a simple system that people gets your idea from and then extend or expand."

Such a revolutionary idea was funded by the government, which then led to an award. Yasu and his team was given a slot in the museum to display their project.

Unfortunately for him and his peers, something else happened.

"We didn't make it because of some issues, but we got the support of our government, our names were written. We had our moments, we loved it," he narrated.

PHOTO: MPL MENA

Venture into shoutcasting

Upon graduating, Yasu tried to return to his MLBB roots as a professional player. His attempts however weren't successful as the rosters have already been completed.

During this period, many organizations started to flourish, but this was also the time when he had to attend the obligatorty military service in Egypt.

However he had a condition known as flat foot, which made him medically excuse from service.

Still, Yasu was adamant for his love for MLBB that he centered his life around it. He made local tournaments using his own money, he went live on his streams, and made content along the way.

All of this was for a reason, to further showcase the prowess of the MENA region.

"I wanted to have more people to appear besides the ones in MPL MENA. I wanted more people to show their potential," said Yasu.

And due to the hardwork and passion he displayed, he received a call that changed his life. Yasu initially admitted that he didn't know what a caster is.

"They (MPL MENA) messaged me and said, 'Hey Yasu do you want to be a caster?' So they said this commentary, what you do in the custom games, you can do much better if you do it much professionally. We see potential in you."

So he traveled to UAE for Season 3 of MPL MENA, and got the best talents award. He then went on in MSC 2023, and the following season of MPL MENA, casting with the Arabic language.

But then came one of the biggest challenges in his career, the M5 World Championship.

PHOTO: Amy Ling

The Wildcard experience

English has never been Yasu's main language, and so when he was tasked to cast a massive tournament using a language he isn't accustomed to, the pressure was on.

Yasu has somehow learned English by listening through his favorite artist, Adele.

But in the M5 World Championship where the stakes are higher, he needed to go 'Rolling in the Deep.'

"When I found out I was casting in English for the M-series, I immediately looked for any English tournament where I can mess up because no one cares, it's a local tournament and it's not an official one."

But that wasn't the only preparations he made, as he also decided to go for extremes. It was time for Yasu to say goodbye to his native langugage.

"One of the preparations for me, coming in the M-series and the wildcard, was me preventing myself from reading Arabic, writing Arabic, or dealing with Arabic in any matter."

It was easier said than done, especially with his background.

"Back in MENA, we don't speak English but not to each other. In the business field, I would use my English somehow, practicing it. But for the past five years, I haven't spoken a word in English because I didn't need to."

He added: "In MENA, we speak Arabic and from country-to-country, we have a different accent, or we use different words, but generally everyone can understand you. When I came here (M5), I didn't come here to speak in English but to cast in English, which is so hard."

But it turns out language wasn't the only barrier he had to deal with. In MPL MENA, Yasu was used to the duo-cast setup, where it was a back-and-forth discussion with his partner.

In M5, it was a tri-cast setup.

"I had this one night to know that there is something called an anchor, a scriptwriter, and the tri-casters with three different roles, duties, etc.

"It was so huge, when I came here I was like, 'When do I receive the mic, when do I give it back, when do I finish my sentence and when not.' But it turns out everyone has their own responsibility to complete."

And of course there are the usual preparations, centered on the teams, the drafts, the tactics, etc.

PHOTO: Mohamed Khafaga photography

Texting his mom during a cast

With so much preparations, Yasu was in the zone, so much that he became completely detached from reality.

His mother who only knows how to speak Arabic, texted him in day 3 of the Wildcard. Yasu left on the 20th of November and never bothered to contact his mother afterwards as he was devoted to speaking the English language.

Upon receiving the text, guilt overflowed Yasu while he was shoutcasting.

"I forgot to text my mom and my family and in day number 3 in Wildcard, she texted me while I was casting. I had everything turned off but not my mom, I'm not gonna turn off my notifications from my mom," explained Yasu.

"She said, 'Didn't you like miss me or don't you want me to wish you luck or anything.' That was never-wracking for me. So I texted her while casting, which I shouldn't be doing. It was off-camera by the way."

Yasu then redeemed himself, took a quick selfie, sent it alongside the livestream link, and told his mother that he would text her later. After the cast, he conducted a call.

That was the first time that he spoke in Arabic after weeks of preparation.

PHOTO: Amy Ling

Representing MENA

But Yasu's devotion to his craft was also seen in the other moments in his M5 journey.

The mainstage was definitely his time to apply what he has learned, yet despite the numerous hours of grinding, Yasu still had a lot of things to learn.

He had his issues while casting which he recalled to SPIN.ph.

"One of the issues I face is to hold my idea in English in my brain," he started. "I was struggling at the beginning to recall this idea and explain it to the audience. As time went by, I learned some tricks, like writing down a simple word/phrase in my notebook."

He further elaborated: "For example when I want to talk about Yu Zhong in the last teamfight, I would write, 'Yu Zhong, teamfight.' And then when I look at it, I can bring back the idea, and bring back the flow."

At the end of the day, he received a lot of feedback from his co-casters. He perfectly described his experience saying, "Then comes a new note, and a new note. Every match, I get a different note and I made sure that I listen carefully, sometimes I write their notes down so that I wouldn't forget it."

But it was all worth it and as he finally marched forward, Yasu had been getting better, not only in terms of his casting but also with his chemistry with the other talents.

"Everyone has been so nice and helpful to me. At the beginning, I didn't actually trust that they were nice to me, I thought that maybe there's something wrong with me at the background but they proved me wrong multiple times and by the end of it, I just let go of my guard and enjoy the ride and they're so humble, so good to be around," he recounted.

But it wasn't only about his craft that mattered, he also wanted to see the entire region shine in the big stage.

"A part of me and I'm not being ideal here, I really want MENA teams to be much more better and I'm really passionate about the game that I want a MENA team to be a champion one day," he explained.

"I know we're still far, I know the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and now we see DEVU and EECA have something, Cambodia holding MSC with a really good team, now top six in the World Championships. One day it's going to be MENA and I wanna work on that."