KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — The national e-sports squad to the Hanoi SEA Games have reviewed their goal for a more daring target of one gold and three bronze medals to bring home.
Team manager Kelvin Pang said the latest total that surpassed their initial target of just four medals, was decided at a final target-setting workshop held recently.
He said the gold medal hope was pinned on Ahmad Syafiq Imran Mohamad or better known as ‘QB’ in the virtual court, through the individual game “Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile”.
“For (the three) bronzes, we are targeting Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB), Wild Rift and Arena Of Valor (AOV). For AOV in the 2019 edition, we finished number four, so this year I think we can manage to get bronze. Moreover, two previous players are still in the present squad.
“Besides that, we may win a few surprise medals, and also hope to get a double podium finish for PUBG Mobile because we are also competing in the team category,” he said at the Malaysian Contingent’s to the Vietnam SEA Games’ press conference at the National Sports Council in Bukit Jalil today.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Syafiq said the PUBG Mobile team had enlisted the services of a coach and local player based in Indonesia, namely Muhammad Farhan Abdul Gafar and Muhammad Dhiya Ulhaq Muhammad Arasz to ensure the mission of striking gold in Hanoi was achieved.
Farhan known as ‘Jangs’ is a coach while Muhammad Dhiya’s deft touch under his moniker of ‘uHigh’ in the virtual field were both billed to strengthen the team’s challenge at the biennial sporting event.
“I’m very confident with our team that’s why we target gold medal even when this game was first competed in at the (2019) SEA Games. For me it’s not a big pressure because we have all met our opponents before this, so we just need to focus and give it our ‘all’,” said Ahmad Syafiq.
Meanwhile, the eRimau squad of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) which is taking on the national challenge in the FIFA Online 4 game, is aiming for at least a bronze medal in Hanoi after taking into account the limited opportunities and constraints faced during preparations.
The Hanoi SEA Games is scheduled from May 12 to May 23, with e-sports offering 10 gold medals.
In addition to PUBG Mobile, MLBB, Wild Rift, AOV and FIFA Online 4, the national e-sports camp is also sending representatives to compete in the League Of Legends and Garena Free Fire games.
For the record, when e-sports was first introduced as a competitive event at the 2019 SEA Games in Manila (six gold medals at stake), Malaysia took home one gold through (Dr Yew Weng Kean) Hearthstone and one (AOV) bronze through team MLLB.
— Bernama
