Jason Chan (born April 12, 1991), better known as Amaz, is a Chinese-Canadian professional

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

player best known for

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

Hearthstone ''Hearthstone'' is a free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Originally subtitled ''Heroes of Warcraft'', ''Hearthstone'' builds upon the existing lore of the ''Warcraft'' series by ...

'' on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

. Chan now plays for NRG, having left the ''Hearthstone'' team he created, Team Archon. He was

Team Liquid Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. With the release of '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty'', Team Liquid signed their first professional players. In 2012, Team Li ...

's first ''Hearthstone'' streamer as well as a commentator for the ''Hearthstone'' World Championship.

Early life

Chan was born in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

on April 12, 1991. He later moved to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

with his mother when he was in fourth grade, leaving his father behind. There he quickly learned English in his

English as a second language English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EF ...

(ESL) classes and was introduced to computer games by his cousin. After playing ''

Warcraft III ''Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' is a high fantasy real-time strategy computer video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July 2002. It is the second sequel to '' Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', after '' Warcraft II: Tid ...

'' and ''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...

'', he became a self-described "

Blizzard A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling ...

fanboy A fan or fanatic, sometimes also termed an aficionado or enthusiast, is a person who exhibits strong interest or admiration for something or somebody, such as a celebrity, a sport, a sports team, a genre, a politician, a book, a movie, a vi ...

". During

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, Chan and his mother moved back to Hong Kong to live with his father. He had to attend

international school An international school is an institution that promotes education in an international environment or framework. Although there is no uniform definition or criteria, international schools are usually characterized by a multinational student body a ...

due to losing most of his

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the ...

knowledge during his time in Canada. He later attended

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

where he studied mathematics. In 2011, his mother died from

intestinal cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the Colon (anatomy), colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include Lower gastrointestinal b ...

, after which he put his studies on hold to move back with his family.

Career

In 2013, Chan started an office job his uncle introduced him to in Hong Kong. After deeming it "boring," he earned his diploma and soon after tutored children in

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

. He also worked on the board game Scribe's Arena, which he conceptualized in high school. Chan started to stream on Twitch in late 2013 after a friend suggested him to. He considers himself lucky to have queued many of his games into fellow ''Hearthstone'' streamer,

Artosis Daniel Ray Stemkoski (born April 6, 1983), better known by his nickname Artosis, is an American professional esports commentator and Twitch streamer. Stemkoski moved to Seoul, South Korea to commentate competitive ''Starcraft'' games in English. ...

. This drew Chan a high of 20,000 concurring viewers.

''Hearthstone''

Chan was the first member of

's ''Hearthstone'' division. In the Blizzard 2014 Stream Awards, Chan won the "Best Hearthstone Streamer in 2014" award in the poll categories. He came in second place for "Most Active Chat" and fifth place for "Highest Mean Viewership" for overall

games on Twitch. In November 2014, Chan formed Team Archon after leaving

. He immediately signed the Blizzcon 2014 November ''Hearthstone'' world champion James "Firebat" Kostesich. Amaz commentated the 2015 ''Hearthstone'' World Championship along with his colleagues Kripparrian and Frodan. Chan voice acted some of the ''Blackrock Mountain''

expansion cards In computing, an expansion card (also called an expansion board, adapter card, peripheral card or accessory card) is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an electrical connector, or expansion slot (also referred to as a bus slo ...

for ''

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

and

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan (Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, r ...

languages. On September 6, 2016, Amaz left Team Archon, which he created, and joined

NRG eSports NRG Esports is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. It has rosters in ''Apex Legends'', ''Clash Royale'', '' Dragon Ball FighterZ'', ''Fortnite'', '' Gears of War'', ''Hearthstone'', '' Overwatch'', ''Rocket League ...

. Amaz produced the Amaz Team League Championships (ATLC), later called "the most successful third-party tournament in ''Hearthstone''." On October 31, 2016, Amaz started a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...

for ATLC 2, but cancelled it after two weeks due to insufficient funding.

''Magic: The Gathering''

Other than ''Hearthstone'', he is also an occasional player and streamer of ''

Magic: The Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a Tabletop game, tabletop and Digital collectible card game, digital Collectible card game, collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards ...

'' (and its digital counterparts '' Magic: The Gathering Online'' and '' Magic: The Gathering Arena''). In June 2016, he was given a special invitation by

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidi ...

to play in Pro Tour Kyoto 2017. A year later, he was again invited to Pro Tour Minneapolis 2018, also being invited playing an exhibition match celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the game. His team achieved a Top 32 finish in the main event. While he managed to get into the finals of the exhibition match, only losing to 2017 ''Hearthstone'' Global Games winning member Stanislav Cifka (who is also the winner of Pro Tour Seattle 2012) After the two special invitations in 2017 and 2018, he had been actively participating on both paper and digital ''Magic'' events, including two Grand Prix top 8 finishes in the 2018–19 season (as of May 1, 2019). Currently, he is sponsored by ChannelFireball as a regular streamer and video producer for ''Magic: The Gathering Arena''.

Tournament results

Other games

Amaz was invited by tournament host

Pokimane Imane Anys (; Arabic: إِيمَان أَنِيس, born 14 May 1996), better known as Pokimane ( or ), is a Moroccan-Canadian Twitch streamer and YouTuber. She is best known for her live streams on Twitch, broadcasting video game content, most ...

to "TFT Thursday", a ''

Teamfight Tactics ''Teamfight Tactics'' (''TFT'') is an auto battler game developed and published by Riot Games. The game is a spinoff of ''League of Legends'' and is based on '' Dota Auto Chess'', where players compete online against seven other opponents by bui ...

'' tournament held on July 4, 2019.

References

External links

* * {{Hearthstone Living people Canadian people of Hong Kong descent Canadian people of Chinese descent University of Waterloo alumni Sportspeople from Vancouver Hearthstone players Canadian esports players Hong Kong esports players Chinese YouTubers 1991 births Team Liquid players NRG Esports players Canadian YouTubers Twitch (service) streamers Hong Kong LGBT people Canadian LGBT sportspeople 21st-century LGBT people