KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 — The national eSports team is targeting a haul of two gold, one silver and three bronze at the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines next month.
Team manager Firdaus Hashim said the squad was eyeing two gold medals in Dota 2 and Hearthstone, while the silver and bronze medals are targeted for four more games — Starcraft II, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Arena of Valor and Tekken 7.
He said the Malaysian contingent will comprise 24 players, including three reserves, adding that they were still waiting for the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) to add one more player, Abdul Rahim Abdul Shukor, who emerged runners up at the national eSports trials in Tekken 7.
“Preparations are smooth so far, despite some of them being students, and they are expected to assemble next month,” he said after deputy Chef de Mission (CDM) II Nurul Huda Abdullah's visit at the Orange eSports Cyber Cafe, Wangsa Maju, here today.
The squad members have been training for 12 hours daily.
Meanwhile, Nurul Huda was confident that the Malaysian eSports team would do well at the biennial regional games.
"I'm very happy to hear from the team manager and also the coach that the players are putting up a lot of effort in their training which is about 12 hours per day, and its very important for the players to be mentally prepared because eSports is different from other sports," she said.
eSports is making its debut in this edition of the SEA Games. — Bernama
