AirAsia is building Malaysia’s first esports hub, announced by the Minister of Youth and Sports YB Syed Saddiq bin Syed Abdul Rahman on Monday. Located in Klang, Malaysia, the project will be a partnership between AirAsia, WESG and AgriMind, and will no doubt be used as the staging ground for future esports tournaments. This comes off the heels of the Kuala Lumpur Major, being held at Axiata Arena later in November.
On the ground floor of the Quill City Mall, Syed Saddiq expounded further notions of Malaysia striving to be at the forefront of esports in the region. The push seems to stem from the desire to garner more accolades from competitions like the Asian Games and the Olympics. Calling the participants of the 2018 WESG Malaysia Finals, “heroes and heroines of Malaysia”, he stated that he will “look forward not just giving us trophies and medals in the Asian games, but inshallah, in the Olympics, we look forward to more gold medals from all of you.”
AirAsia has been a big proponent in Malaysian esports, outside of being a main sponsor for WESG, they have an AirAsia Esports Zone in their headquarters, and acquired a Mobile Legends team earlier this year. While details surrounding the esports hub are scarce, the continued push from companies is a welcome step forward.
Things are heating up in the region, with ESL’s recent announcement to host a tournament series in Indonesia, SingTel’s PVP Esports Championship taking place next month and the KL Major later in November, perhaps Syed Saddiq is right when he says “we do not want Malaysia to fall behind”.
Esports Insider says: It’s too early to celebrate yet, as the hub still needs to be built and tournaments held before it can be called a success. However, the South East Asia region is garnering more interest and it is a strong sign that the Malaysian government is pushing for more support rather than clamping down as we’ve seen other countries do.