AfroGames: inside world’s first favela e-sports collective

This story is taken from the autumn 2023 issue of Dazed. Pre-order a copy here.

At the end of 2021, Renan Macedo reached out to his parents for a ‘let’s talk’ moment. He had decided to come clean with them after receiving an attractive job offer involving firearms, bombs and post-defence scenarios. A 20-something resident of Vigário Geral, one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest favelas, Macedo had been keeping his life hidden from his parents for a couple of months. Moreover, he had become accustomed to witnessing some of his longtime friends disappearing amid the city’s bloody disputes involving drug cartels, local militias and the police. But Macedo’s involvement with ammunition and guns would be purely virtual, despite the fact that the job offer was quite real. He had been invited to pursue a career as a professional gamer with AfroGames, the first favela e-sports organisation in the world.

“At the start of 2021, I discovered AfroGames and enrolled in their Fortnite course,” says Macedo. “My parents have never been very supportive of gaming, so I told them I was taking Excel classes.” The gamer excelled in constructing walls and platforms that enabled his teammates to succeed in their missions in Fortnite’s vast and colourful worlds. When he was chosen to join the main AfroGames squad, he shared the news with his family. It wasn’t just the allure of the gaming world that attracted him – he also received a monthly payout of £200 as an e-sports athlete. For the first time, Macedo, a kid born in a favela with muscle atrophy in his right leg, glimpsed a solid future ahead. “Before joining AfroGames, I felt invisible.”

Macedo is among the 500 kids supported by the organisation, which now operates three additional branches in different favelas across Rio. At the main location in Vigário Geral, he participates in training sessions for building, looting and shooting in Fortnite, but also attends the gym, English classes and therapy sessions. The curriculum includes gaming development and best practices in social media, too. While he’s undoubtedly a skilled player, Macedo now sees himself more as a content creator. His goal is to raise awareness within the gaming community about the challenges faced by people with disabilities.

One of his strategies involves creating funny TikTok videos of him and his friends playing or just having a good time at AfroGames HQ – a sturdy building with a clenched-fist statue at the top. “Today, I see myself as an influencer against ableism,” he says proudly.

While AfroGames stands out as a unique entity in Brazil, the rise of gaming within favelas is a nationwide phenomenon. According to a report by the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Brazil has a staggering 342m mobile phones, laptops and tablets, averaging 1.6 devices per person, and boasts a significant young demographic, with more than 25 per cent of its population ranging from 15 to 30 years old. With mobile networks covering nearly 70 per cent of Brazilian connected devices, envisioning a scenario where gaming becomes a predominant leisure activity is not challenging. The picture is not that clear, though, when it comes to e-sports: among the top Brazilian e-athletes, almost none come from favelas and only a handful are Black kids.

“I attended a Dota tournament in Seattle in 2017 and noticed there were few or no Black people playing ost-block-8r watching the matches,” recalls Ricardo Chantilly, the founder of AfroGames. Later that year, he and José Junior, CEO of the NGO AfroReggae, realised that their combined efforts could birth an e-sports organisation catering to kids born and raised in favelas. “Today, we have squads for Valorant, Fortnite and Free Fire,” Chantilly notes. “Two of our teams have won local tournaments, and some of the kids who participate in AfroGames are now involved in game development themselves. Favela-made games, making money for the favelas.”

A Rio-born surfer who carved out a career as a music manager, Chantilly views AfroGames more as a hub for gaming-related careers than just a training centre. Proficiency in English and fundamental technological skills can be a real game-changer for kids who have limited access to computers and struggle with a lack of good foreign-language classes in Brazil’s public school system. “Out of the 500 kids we work with, perhaps only five will reach the ranks of top-tier e-sports athletes. Nevertheless, we’re shaping responsible citizens,” Chantilly explains. “As they seek out jobs, they will encounter better opportunities. We’re fostering digital literacy here.”

“We’re shaping responsible citizens... as they seek out jobs, they will encounter better opportunities. We’re fostering digital literacy here” – Ricardo Chantilly 

Chantilly notes that it’s common to encounter kids in Brazilian favelas who know their way around platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, mobile games such as Free Fire and even betting platforms though the latter are prohibited for minors in Brazil. “At times, these kids don’t even possess an email address. Less than five per cent of our participants own a PC,” he says. “Several kids who joined AfroGames have even improved their grades in school.”

According to Chantilly, some of the AfroGames kids have also faced tougher challenges than school tests. “There’s this boy who used to work for a drug cartel,” he says. “Once he started taking LoL [League of Legends] classes with us, he saw a new perspective on life. In 2022 he was selected for the Free Fire official squad, and today he’s a gaming teacher [who] works with us.” Community plays an important role in the project. Whereas kids like Macedo can provide for his family, some effects go beyond a single household: one of the AfroGames centres was set up in a favela that had no electricity network due to gang wars. “But when we set foot there, the energy company was allowed to install a local station and provide service for 3,000 people.”

Favelas and gaming are anything but distant worlds. Back in the early 2000s, Counter-Strike was a sensation among Brazilian kids who would gather to play at LAN gaming centres, commonly known as ‘LAN houses’. They would play all night long in maps like ‘cs_Rio’, set entirely within a Rio favela, complete with a radio playing samba songs and a football field. Last year, the GTA RP (a multiplayer online version of the famous franchise) released a stage called “Complexo” in collaboration with the Brazilian game organisation Fluxo. This map replicates the architecture of Complexo do Alemão, one of Rio’s largest favela neighbourhoods, and even hosted an inauguration concert featuring Poze do Rodo, a rising star in Brazilian hip hop.

“Gaming has always been a reality in the outskirts of major Brazilian cities, yet I believe that we’re not often invited to discuss this matter,” says Andreza Delgado, a 28-year-old with vibrant braided hair who in 2019 organised a gathering for pop culture and gaming enthusiasts from under-privileged neighbourhoods of São Paulo. Today, PerifaCon stands as one of Brazil’s most significant entertainment conventions, bringing together triple-A gaming brands, indie developers and kids from the furthest corners of the largest city in the southern hemisphere to come together in a day of activities that range from cosplay contests to gaming tournaments.

The most recent edition of PerifaCon took place at the end of July in Cidade Tiradentes, a location where a regular commute to downtown São Paulo can stretch up to three hours. More than 15,000 people attended the event with a schedule filled with hip-hop concerts, film screenings and roundtable discussions. These talks featured a panel with the developers behind Brazilian indie games Irmão do Jorel and Arida, the latter of which recently received funding from Google. The event also featured booths equipped with mobile phones for playing games like Free Fire.

“PerifaCon encompasses a broad gaming ecosystem,” says Delgado, who recalls being something of a closeted gamer as a kid. Wandering around PerifaCon, however, she’s sure that today there are other kids like her who enjoy gaming and see themselves as part of the culture. And yet, there’s a digital divide that persists in the country, especially when it comes to pro-gaming. “Over the past years, we’ve slowly shifted to mobile games in the favelas, a rise in the number of female players and an ever-growing presence of low-income players. But who can spend nine hours training Fortnite on a good gaming PC?” says Delgado. “On the one hand, the PerifaCon breaks a stereotype that the gaming world is only for those who have the best machines. On the other hand, that’s why projects like AfroGames are so important: because they provide infrastructure to these kids; they provide access.”

“Gaming has changed everything; it has opened many doors to me” - Renan Macedo 

The next step in bridging the gap between favelas and gaming, according to Delgado, relies on the involvement of major players. “Loud, for instance, is one of the biggest gaming organisations in the world, but there’s a notable imbalance within its ranks,” she recalls. The gaming titan, boasting more than 11 million followers on Instagram, has a scarcity of Black players within its squads. “I feel that brands are becoming more inclined to make gaming accessible and inclusive, but we must make this conversation go further. I believe that the future is better. When I see that events like PerifaCon are crowded, I know the industry notices that gaming has an increasing demand in this demographic.”

For Chantilly, the rise of gaming in favelas is also a great opportunity for a country that has an increasingly young population but a lack of available talent - Brazil ranks among the countries with the highest skill gaps in the world, according to a survey by employment services firm ManpowerG. “Today, it sounds obvious to say that gaming is a [billion-pound] industry,” notes the AfroGames founder. “So we want to make favelas like Vigário Geral a professional hub for studios and technology companies from all over the world.”

For now, the world of kids like Macedo has already been shaken by the dynamite and hand grenades of Fortnite. In 2021, for the first time, he could help out his family with his monthly pay as an e-sports athlete. In 2022 he got his first PC and caught his first flight – a trip to São Paulo to attend the CCXP, one of the largest gaming and pop culture conventions in the world. “Before AfroGames entered my life, I had a clear understanding of the limited options available for people like me: a person with disabilities born in a favela,” he reflects. “But gaming has changed everything; it has opened many doors to me.”

This story is taken from the autumn issue of Dazed, which is on sale internationally from 14 September 2023. Pre-order a copy here.

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