(This is Part 2 of a 2 part interview with Masa Lui, read Part 1 here)
The most memorable darts event for Masa was at a soft tip darts tournament in Taiwan. "It was a Taiwan soft tip darts tournament. I participated in 3 events - 2 singles, 1 doubles, and I won champion in all 3 events. I was very happy about that achievement as it was not easy. They were all C flight Open event, not a youth-only event. There was someone there who interviewed me and it was also on the local news."
Asked about which darter in the world inspired Masa the most, he said, "That would be Phil Taylor. I feel, there probably won't be anyone out there who will be able to repeat his achievement of 16 world champion titles. I am very happy when I watch him throw on TV or online. It motivates me to keep on throwing better darts. I would really like to meet him some day."
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| Masa with some of the Singaporean darters |
As with all sports, we are always reminded about showing graciousness and sportsmanship during our game. And Masa already knows the important attributes of a darter. "As a good darter, you have to be serious about the game but at the same time, you must show respect for your opponent. You also need to have patience because, as you know, some players are very slow. So you cannot be in a hurry."
Masa feels patience is an important virtue especially if you want to improve your skills. "I started off at rating 3 or 4 and slowly improved to 6, 7 and 8. Then, when Dartslive first came to Hong Kong at iDarts Club a few years ago, my rating slowly went up to around 12. I was lucky I met some good darters who are willing to teach me. Experienced darters like Stephen Tam and Royden Lam taught me a lot."
Masa's advice for those who want to improve their darts skills is to find some good players who are willing to share and teach you. "You should also study some videos of good darters. However, you should not try to imitate their throw blindly," says Masa. "Everyone's body is build differently, your darts throw would also be different. Most importantly, you have to find your own comfortable way of throwing, you cannot imitate someone's else throw that could be very uncomfortable for you. It may even hurt you. Be patient and know that improvement could come slowly and you can't rush it."
Masa was in Singapore for the past 2 days to play with the local darters and he had some fun challenging the players and gave out souvenirs like Masa custom flights, L-flights and Tiga Fusion darts set lucky draws. Masa shared, "I had a good time playing here. The Singaporean darters, oh, they are quite good. I can tell some of the players just started playing while some have been playing a long time. They play quite well. They can participate in more local tournaments to get more experience. That will be good for your darts."
Asked if he has noticed any difference between the Singaporean darter and Hong Kong darters, Masa feels he haven't really known or understand the Singaporean darters yet. "In Hong Kong, some players just throw darts for fun, while some really want to improve their skills. But based on what I saw yesterday, it seems Singaporeans all love to play darts! They just want to keep on playing darts."
Finally, I asked Masa what are his wishes or hopes for the near future. He simply says, "I just wish everything to remain stable and balance in my life, everything to turn out well, as in, my education can remain stable and my darts can be maintained and doesn't drop." For this talented young lad with a level headed, matured thinking, the future can only bode well for him. Work hard and keep it up, Masa!
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