SHAH ALAM, Jan 27 — The state government has been recommended to set up a dedicated academy to nurture new talents in the field of e-sports instead of organising physical tournaments.
FIFA Malaysia professional player Nur Amirul Afandi, 27, said the move is to ensure the sustainability of the industry which is gaining popularity.
He said the setting up of the academy is also able to address public misconception that electronic gaming is unbeneficial.
“The state administration can build the academy or organise programmes in the form of edutainment to educate the public about e-sports. I see many tournaments being organised but the results after that are gone,” he said when contacted by Selangorkini.
Known as Amtuah in the Haq Team, Nur Amirul said that e-sports are highly regarded in Europe and cited that in Germany, special meals and physiotherapy services are provided for the professional teams.
Aside from dietary habits, he said physical and mental conditions are also given an emphasis due to the requirement for the players to adapt to different environments during the competitions.
“In Europe, they emphasise on the tiniest, basic details which gives huge impact to the players because for every competition, there will be time and weather differences,” said Nur Amirul, who is currently preparing for his World Cup qualification for the Individual Category in February.
At the same time, Nur Amirul also thanked the state government for the RM3 million allocation in the Belanjawan Selangor 2021 (2021 Selangor Budget) to develop e-sports.
Nur Amirul was the sole representative to the 2017 FIFA Championship for Asia, 2016 Electronic Sports World Cup (currently the Electronic Sports World Convention, ESWC) in Paris aside from having represented the German Schalke 04 football club in the Virtual Bundesliga in 2018.
The Hag Team main player was also selected to represent Malaysia in the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in 2021 in Hanoi after opening up the FIFA Online 4 competition.
In March last year, the Selangor government organised the stay-at-home version of the Selangor Cyber Games (SCG) throughout the movement control order (MCO).
Also held was the Selangor Xtiv Virtual e-Sports.
