Street Fighter is a classic fighting game franchise which sparked an international arcade and fighting game craze back in the 90’s, and the latest iteration of the game, Street Fighter V, is currently a prominent esport with a prestigious international tournament circuit and is arguably still the most popular competitive fighting game in the world.
Malaysia isn’t necessarily famous for producing world class fighting game players, but a Malaysian trio has recently proved that our country is indeed home to some world class talent who have been quietly honing their skills for years without getting the same recognition as players in other esports titles such as Dota 2 or Mobile Legends. Something that is especially important to note given that Malaysia will actually be sending a fighting game player to compete in Tekken 7 at the SEA Games this year.
The Street Fighter V Asia Invitational is a 3 vs 3 team tournament that was organised by Capcom, the developers of the game and held at this year’s Tokyo Game Show – one of the largest gaming events in the world right next to E3. In this tournament, 6 participating countries would hold online qualifiers in order to decide the top 3 players that would represent their country:
- Singapore
- Vietnam
- Thailand
- Malaysia
- Hong Kong
- The Philippines
Once each country’s qualifiers were complete, the representatives of each country went head to head, with the best 3 teams in this stage qualifying for the Asia Invitational Finals at the Tokyo Game Show where they would be joined in the finals bracket by the directly invited Team Korea.
Meet team Malaysia:
Quan Ban Chuan, IGN: IAmChuan
A renowned Malaysian fighting game champion who has won over 50+ Malaysian tournaments and achieved top 8 placings in various major international tournaments such as EVO.
Max Ng, IGN: Kofmaster
A fierce competitor that is on par with Chuan in terms of skill and has also won a large number of Malaysian tournaments and placed highly in international tournaments against the top players in the world.
Kenny Tiong, IGN: H-Tail
A passionate and consistent top Malaysian player that has been dominant in the Malaysian tournament scene for the past 2 years.
Together, these 3 formed an extremely talented team that were ultimately able to beat the likes of Team Hong Kong and Team Korea in order to take home the championship at the Street Fighter V Asia Invitational, winning themselves a cash prize of 1 million Yen.
Given that Malaysian player has yet to win first place at a major international tournament, team Malaysia was definitely seen as an underdog going into the competition and many fans were surprised to see them beat the Korean team who were the favourites. As such, their victory has made many fighting game fans in Asia aware of Malaysia’s fighting game scene, and they also drew the attention of a European journalist who interviewed them at the event. You can learn more about the team and the Malaysian fighting game scene by watching the interview here:
With this historic accomplishment for the Malaysian fighting game scene in the books, the Malaysian trio who won the Asia Invitational hope that the Malaysian esports industry will recognise the talent that is present in the country and give more support to the many talented fighting game players who could potentially represent Malaysia in international esports tournaments.
Sources: Kakuchopurei, Capcom Pro Tour
Featured Image Credit: Capcom Fighters JP
Image Credits: Capcom Pro Tour, Capcom Fighters JP
