When I first met Masa Lui, an unassuming lad with thick rimmed glasses and a baby face grin, he was hitting bulls on the darts board almost continously, an average of 2 or more bulls out of every 3 darts, shooting with an eagle's eye accuracy.
Nothing unusual, you may say. After all, he is currently the youngest Dartslive Official Player and a Dartslive Youth Pro with sponsorship from a few major darts accessories company. He achieved 9th placing in this year's The World Championship Stage 2 and 3. He had also won many major darts championship titles from Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. He has his own signature darts "Tiga/Masa Fusion" from Tiga Darts. And, he is all but 15 years of age.
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| Masa Lui |
The precocious young lad was recently crowned champion of the 2012 Japan Burn Youth tournament for Under-19s, defeating a japanese player. He had not only won the youth darts tournament but also picked up a few medals and titles at some of Asia's mens open tournaments for soft tip and steel tip. However, in spite of all his achievements, he is still a humble, next-door young adult who love playing games, surfing internet, basketball and all the other teenage pursuits.
Masa first started playing darts in Hong Kong when he was 8 or 9. Both his parents were involved in darts then. Mum was playing in the Hong Kong soft tip darts circle and Dad had just open a darts shop selling darts accessories. "We had a steel tip board at home then. I wanted to throw darts after watching my mum and dad play, but my dad initially didn't allow me as I was very young and he was afraid I would get hurt with the pointed tip," shared Masa. To appease the kid, after a while, Dad found Masa a junior darts set which can be held with 2 fingers and slowly taught him how to play. "I could already hit triple-20 with them by slowly trying and trying then."
"The first person who really taught me about darts and how to throw darts was Stephen Tam," explained Masa. Stephen, nicknamed "Shifu", is a respected, veteran Hong Kong darter who had won many soft tip and steel tip darts championship titles. "At that time, I was only 9 years old and Stephen was very kind and patient to teach me darts. There was also Royden Lam. He also taught me about darts and I always have a very friendly chat with him. I am happy." Royden is also a well known darter in the Asian darts circuit and a Dartslive PRO Player.
In our current modern lifestyle, everyone is bombarded with many distractions, hobbies and pursuits. What motivated Masa to focus on darts instead of video games or other sports games was the opportunity that darts gave him to be more sociable and interactive with people. Masa shared, "When I was younger, I was very shy. I don't dare to talk to people. Whenever people talk to me, I would usually stand behind my parents and just smile."
With his new-found hobby in darts, all the teenage shyness went away. "Now, I can communicate better and I come out more in public. I mix with people, there are more interactions. Darts help improve my attention, focus and patience. To me, darts really help a lot. At the same time, participating in darts tournament also offers great challenge and excitement." That element of a live challenge and the unexpected results is something that can't be gained from sitting in front of a video game console and it keeps Masa pounding at the dart board instead.
Masa's first darts tournament was for a charity event held for the 2008 Szechuan earthquake victims. "It was my first time ever in a tournament, I was very excited and nervous. On top of that, the first opponent I met was Stephen Tam. Although he was already teaching me before that, by luck of the draw, I faced him in the very first round. So, the event was quite memorable. He won, of course, even though he gave me handicap by standing back further than usual behind the line!"
At 15, Masa is currently studying in Form 4, which is the first year, out of 3, of upper secondary school in Hong Kong. His classmates know that he is good at playing darts and sometimes they go to his Dad's shop to play darts. "In fact, many of my school teachers know I play darts. They want me to balance my time between darts and studies so that my school work do not suffer. They said my results do not have to be top of the school but I should not fall behind others. Now, my results are OK. I am quite average in my studies, so it is not bad."
With the pressures of classes, homework, study and practice, time management is important. "I do my best to complete all my homework and revisions. Then, I can go practice. Of course, sometimes when things are busy, there isn't enough time to go out for practices so I just practice at home for a short while. My teachers have all along trusted me and supported me on this so I hope I can continue to balance my school work and darts."
As for the future, he haven't really thought about what he wants to do when he grows up although when he was younger, he had hope to become a veterinarian. "But looks like it is not possible now (laughs). I have never studied the related subjects. I do plan to study all the way to university and get a degree at least, probably in economics or geography, which is what I like studying now."
Masa's interest in geography would certainly come in handy since he travels all over Asia now to participate in darts tournament. He went to Japan last year for the Japan Youth BURN 2012 tournament and won the champion title after participating in it for 2 years. "Before the finals, I was a little nervous and excited. I wasn't sure what would be the outcome. I managed to beat an 18-year old Japanese player in the final and I was very happy when I won."
Continued on to Part 2 of the interview where Masa shares his most memorable tournament experience as well as some tips on improving your rating.
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