The esports competitions at the 2019 SEA Games are nearing their conclusion. So far, Team Malaysia has been able to secure two medals out of the six titles that are being played.
In Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, the Malaysian team consisting of players from professional team, Team Bosskurr, did extremely well to finish at the top of their group stage. That secured their place in the winners bracket finals, guaranteeing them a podium finish at the start of the playoffs.
Unfortunately, they were unable to make the best of their opportunity from their position in the winners bracket. They lost 2-0 to Indonesia in the winners bracket finals. This was then followed by another 2-0 loss against Phillipines in the losers bracket finals, resulting in their elimination at 3rd place.
However, their impressive play meant that they were able to secure a bronze medal for Malaysia in Mobile Legends!
In StarCraft II, one of our representatives Kien “Ranger” Khun Yap was able to finish in the 2nd place of his group to make it to the lower bracket of the playoffs. Amidst some world class competition, Ranger was able to win his first two matches in the losers bracket.
But Ranger ended up getting eliminated in the losers semifinals by Singapore’s Blysk, just one match away from getting into the top three. This means that Malaysia was unfortunately unable to get a medal in StarCraft II. We still congratulate Ranger for his valiant effort to represent our country against such tough competition!
Our Arena of Valor team also suffered a similar fate despite their great efforts in the group stage. They made it to the losers bracket of the playoffs, but were eliminated in 4th place by Vietnam in a heart breaker of a close set.
Meanwhile, our Dota 2 team was unfortunately unable to progress past the group stage of the competition. They ended up finishing in 3rd place of their group behind Thailand and Vietnam.
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Our best hope for a gold medal so far was with Yew “Wkyew” Weng Kean who made it all the way to the grand finals of the Hearthstone tournament. This is despite an earlier setback when he lost to Singapore’s Chew in the first round of the playoffs.
After being relegated to the losers bracket in the first round, Yew went through the full gauntlet. He defeated representatives from Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore in order to claw his way back to the grand finals. There, he faced off against Popan from Thailand.
In the grand finals which was a best-of-5 set, Yew won the first game. Popan took the second to immediately tie the score at 1-1. In game three, Yew was able to overcome some unfavorable RNG in order to take a 2-1 lead. This gave him the opportunity to close out the competition and take home the gold medal with a game 5 victory.
Yew made sure to capitalize on his moment. In game 5, Yew quickly seized the board advantage and executed his Shaman deck’s game plan to perfection. With it, he defeated his opponent in just 6 turns to win Malaysia’s first gold medal for esports at the 2019 SEA Games.
Congratulations to Yew for bringing home Malaysia’s first gold medal for esports and to our Mobile Legends team for winning bronze! Well done to our StarCraft II, Arena of Valor and Dota 2 teams for your efforts in representing the country!
Our last event for esports at the 2019 SEA Games will be Tekken 7, which is taking place tomorrow. Make sure to tune in live on Razer’s SEA games esports page to see our Malaysian representatives compete!
(Source: Razer at SEA Games 2019 // Image Credit: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang)
