Winners include a doctor and a team named after the infamous Najib tagline
Written by Aqil
The 2019 Southeast Asian Games was recently held in the Philippines between the 30th of November to the 11th of December 2019. This year’s SEA games marked the 30th edition of the biennial sporting event that involved all of the countries in the Southeast Asia region.
What made this year’s SEA games especially special was the inclusion of the first e-sports contest as a medal event in a multi-sport competition. The official e-sports event during the games was held between the 5th to the 10th of December. This event was officially sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee after e-sports became a demonstration sport during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. Six medals were contested during the duration of the whole e-sports event during the SEA games.
This year, Malaysia made history by producing its first-ever E-Sports gold medallist in an Olympic event. Dr. Yew Weng Keng (29), an assistant professor of Heriot-Watt University Malaysia and a Ph.D. holder in electronic engineering, won the gold medal in Hearthstone (online digital card game). He won the final match of the tournament with a 3-1 score against Werit Popan, one of Thailand’s best E-Sports player for Hearthstone. Before getting to the final match though, he managed to beat all of the hardcore E-Sports players and went on to collect his first major title for himself and for the country.
Positively, Dr. Yew Weng Keng wasn’t the only Malaysian to bring a home medal. Team Bosskurr, the team representing Malaysia for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, manages to secure a respectable bronze medal. They fought and tried their best but ultimately just fell slightly short as they lost 2-0 to Indonesia in the winners’ bracket finals, and lost another 2-0 to the Philippines in the losers bracket finals. This resulted in them getting 3rd place.
This is an impressive start for Malaysia in the E-Sports Olympic scene. Bagging 2 out of the 6 possible medals is an effort that everyone in the country should be applauding them for. They deserve to stand toe to toe with our sports athletes and receive the same amount of respect and love that’s given as well. Only by doing this can we help them feel truly appreciated, ensuring they know that we know the hustle that they went through to get to this stage. Countless sleepless nights combined with intense training molded our E-sports athletes to be able to ascend to these heights.
The best thing about the whole outcome is that adults and children can finally see what gaming can do for you. Throw away the stigma that gaming and E-sports bring no benefit to anyone, and know that gaming helps increase creativity, reading skills, thinking skills, hand-eye coordination, and tremendous amounts of benefits that positively impacts all walks of life.
Here’s hoping that future generations will ensure that E-Sports be a norm for many and continue the tradition of proving doubters wrong.
