AirAsia Group CEO and the owner of Championship club QPR Tony Fernandes has become the latest high profile multi-millionaire to back his own esports team.
The AirAsia Allstars Esports Club took part in the in the Selangor Cyber Games at Malaysia’s Paradigm Mall this weekend past. You can watch Tony Fernandes wish the team luck below:
The airline’s esports team entered competitions in Dota 2 and FIFA, which had prize pools of 50,000MYR and 30,000MYR (around £9,000 and £5,000) respectively. Whilst they didn’t get particularly far; they were knocked out in the first round of the FIFA competition and only one of their Dota entrants made it to Round 2, it looks as though this team is here to stay.
Following the weekend’s action a post on their Facebook wall read: “Thanks to all esports teams, players, marshals, admins and organisers for the warm welcome and friendly hospitality. Thanks to our Allstars for coming to support us too. It was nice to meet everyone from the esports community at the Selangor Cyber Games 2017!
“It was our first esports tournament experience for most of us. We’re still new but learnt a lot from all of you. We’ll be participating in more esports tournaments and looking forward to see everyone again! Good job to the organisers Mineski and Garena for running this successful esports tournament. Congratulations to all winners at Selangor Cyber Games 2017!”
AirAsia has been involved in esports in the past in minor sponsorship activities but this is the first time it’s had its own team.
Esports Insider says: It’s nice to see a major company take to esports in this manner and graciously commit to improving and sticking at it rather than simply using it as a one off PR stunt. We wish the AirAsia Allstars Esports Club the best of luck in their training and future endeavours!
