Sports Minister calls for bigger Esports tournaments
KUCHING: The Ministry of Youth and Sports has taken steps to organise activities to keep youths occupied at home during Movement Control Order (MCO) which has entered its third phase until April 28.
One such activity is the Sarawak Youth Stay At Home Esports challenge from April 10 to 13.
Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah was delighted with the overwhelming response to the inaugural online esports tournament which attracted 400 entries for the PUBG Mobile competition and 256 entries for the FIFA 20 category.
“I am very happy to see the kind of response by our Sarawak youths all over Malaysia to this tournament organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in collaboration with the Sarawak Esports Association (Sesa).
“With this kind of tournament, you (youth) at least have something constructive to do at home and along the way you can improve your skills in esports and probably from there you will be meeting new friends who are competing in this tournament,” he said in his address streamed live on Sesa Facebook on Tuesday.
Karim, who is also Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, said the Ministry will also organise two more tournaments this month which offer bigger prize money.
They are the Mobile Legends
I am very happy to see the kind of response by our Sarawak youths all over Malaysia to this tournament. Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah
MLBB Online from April 18 to 19 and the PUBG Mobile Online (Squad) from April 21 to 22.
The Asajaya assemblyman also expressed the hope that online tournaments will be organised on a bigger scale.
“The Sarawak Youth Stay At Home Esports Challenge is limited to Sarawak youths and with this kind of response, we should think of opening the tournament to all Malaysians and even one day open it to the world.
“If we able to identify the good talents and they can meet the age limit, probably they can represent Sarawak in Sukma XX and national tournaments,” he added.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Nur Hanif Murad beat 399 opponents to win the PUBG Mobile category and walk away with RM2,000.
The first and second runnersup were Mohd Faizul Ahmad Salleh and Abang Iman Irshad Bujang who pocketed RM1,000 and RM800 respectively.
Wilfred Wan Igo came in fourth to collect RM600 and Mohd Rafie Mohd Zainne was fifth and received RM300.
The sixth to 10th placings went to Mohamad Alfath Abdullah, Marchel Mugu Entegar, Mohd Azman Jamaluddin, Amzar Sham Abu and Abdul Radhi Abdullah who each received RM100.