The Malaysia Football League (MFL) officially launched the ePiala Malaysia 2019 event recently. The eSports event was launched in collaboration with Gamesbond, and will be held in conjunction with the nation’s own national football league, the Piala Malaysia.
A total of eight Malaysian professionals gamers were selected to compete against each other, with the assignments of players to each football club chosen at random.who are currently in the top eight placings of Malaysia Cup.
being a growing trend, the Malaysia Football League (MFL) is in collaboration with Gamesbond to bring ePiala Malaysia with a prize pool of RM10,000. The inaugural tournament itself is held in conjunction with the traditional football league, Piala Malaysia (Malaysia Cup).
“The MFL will be embracing ePiala Malaysia by driving the relevance and merging it with the real platform of football that is ongoing in the stadiums around the country,” Mr Kevin Ramalingam, CEO of MFL, said.
Ramalingam also said that the MFL has expressed interest to FIFA video game’s developer, Electronic Arts, about featuring the Malaysian teams as official options within the game. Additionally, the football league is also looking forward to bring football eSports to a larger scene, similar to the traditional FA cup including knockouts and playoff system.
The player roster for the first four rounds is as listed below:
- Ahmad “Ayen” Shahrin Bin Shaharudin – Kedah FA
- Kathireswaran “Infamous9” Sugumaran – PKNP FC
- Iskandar “IsMirza” Mirza Bin Mohd Mustafa – Melaka United
- Muhammad Syahril Mispardi – Pahang FA
- Muhammad Luqman “Luqmanhzq” Haziq Bin Hajiman – Terengganu F.C. I
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Putera Sufrie “Killer” Nizam Bin Subardron – Johor Darul Ta’zim F.C.
- Nur “Amtuah” Amirul Bin Afandi – Perak FA
- Mirza Mohammad Nabil “Bale” Beg Bin Mirza Mohammad Taiyab Beg – Selangor FA
Each player will retain the teams drawn for them for the duration of the tournament. The grand champion of ePiala Malaysia 2019 will then be given a cash prize of RM5000 (from an RM10000 prize pool) and a trophy.
During the media Q&A session, Ramalingam told us that last year players did not qualify for the FIFA eWorld Cup tournament due to insufficient tournament points. With ePiala Malaysia, MFL is looking forward to having Malaysians representing the nation in the next eWorld Cup.
The ePiala Malaysia will run on Electronic Arts FIFA 20 on the PlayStation 4 console. The tournament will be played in a home-away format for 5 minutes per half games for the quarter-final and semi-final rounds, while the final round will be played with one 6-minute half match.
The ePiala Malaysia tournament starts today and will be live-streamed on the official MFL Facebook page, as well as Football Malaysia channel, iFlix. The final round will then be played right before the Piala Malaysia Finals at Stadium Bukit Jalil on 2 November 2019.
