Malaysians know M Nasir as a musician, actor, film director, and poet. An inclusion to that list that probably no one expected esports athlete. But that’s what has happened, as the award winning musician is now with the esports team RSG Malaysia.
The team made the announcement via its official Facebook page, saying that M Nasir will be a part of its Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) team. He will also be playing using his nickname Sifu as his in-game name.
Due to the bizarre nature of this announcement, you’d probably be forgiven if you think this was a very out of season April’s Fools joke of some kind. But as Johnny Tan, country manager of RSG Malaysia, tells The Star, “it’s not a prank despite what some fans have said about the announcement”.
He also said that M Nasir is a casual player of MLBB, and has “expressed interest in exploring esports”. This is apparently due to its growing popularity. The two of them have also been discussing the matter for a month, according to Tan.
So what exactly will the role of M Nasir be in the RSG Malaysia MLBB team? The report says that he will be a flex player. In essence, this means having to fill in empty roles in the team, though in the MOBA esports genre, this means being familiar with all the roles for that kind of flexibility. While the closest traditional sport equivalent would be a substitute player, some esports teams may opt to have a flexible player be part of the starting lineup.
In addition to the flex role, Tan says that M Nasir will also act as the mentor to the team. The former references the latter’s age of 65, and the resulting experience, and attributes that to being able to offer advice to other team members on being less nervous, presumably before or during matches.
(Source: RSG Malaysia / Facebook, The Star)
