The SEA Games 2021 is on the way! It begins with the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announcing what Esports titles are going to make it in Hanoi and this year. Like the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines, these will be medal events.
As usual, the host country gets to decide what games they want to play. We expect them to select the games that they feel would lead to victory. This year, Vietnam will be focusing on the following games:
How does this compare to last year’s selection of games?
The only games to make a return to this SEA Games 2021 are Mobile Legends Bang Bang and Arena of Valor. For Mobile Legends Bang Bang, the Philippines won gold, Indonesia silver and Malaysia bronze while Thailand clinched gold, Indonesia silver and Vietnam bronze for Arena of Valor.
At the same time, mobile is going to feature heavily in this edition of the SEA Games with no console games, unlike in 2019. Only 2 games will feature on PC and that is League of Legends and Crossfire.
What’s interesting to see within this list is the inclusion of a female team that is meant to play League of Legends: Wild Rift. Personally, I have lobbied heavily during my time in Esports Malaysia to promote a more inclusive gaming society where we do not need to have separate male and female teams. There are different thoughts regarding this. However if we start this process, it is much harder to undo especially when we consider future editions of the SEA Games.
What are the plans for Malaysia?
The Malaysian Esports Federation (previously Esports Malaysia) will be leading the selection for this year’s SEA Games 2021. Leading the selection will be Kelvin Pang, a veteran of the Esports industry in Malaysia who was also involved in the selection of the 2019 team. In 2019, we organized statewide and regional selections which culminated to set of finals held at Central i-City Shah Alam. It will be interesting to see how the selection will be held this year given the current Covid-19 restrictions. Along with the relatively slow rollout of our vaccine programme.
We will be defending a single title which is our bronze win for Mobile Legends Bang Bang won by local favorites, Team Bosskurr led by Mohd Fariz (Soloz). Currently Team Bosskur has been disbanded and several players acquired by Singapore based RSG with Soloz himself currently unrepresented. Hopefully we can see the old band get back together for the sake of the country. At the moment we have MPL Malaysia Season 7 happening where we can see who the top players from Malaysia will be.
Final thoughts On The SEA Games 2021
It will be a difficult year for Malaysia to win gold in the games selected for this year’s edition. The teams that could represent the other countries prove to be an interesting challenge. In our regional tournaments, Malaysia does not feature as the top 3 teams in any of the games mentioned. There will be opportunities to test our teams further but I believe that our selection should happen as soon as possible so we can put our teams through training. We’ve built a strong support structure for our nation’s teams and we have proven that we have what it takes. I look forward to seeing the selection by MESF and the training regimens we can put our teams through.
Razer was heavily involved in team preparation and sponsorship in the 2019 SEA Games and gave our teams a chance to test out our abilities there. Hopefully, we have enough opportunities to do the same.
Azlan Ismail was the Acting Secretary General of Esports Malaysia (now Malaysia Esports Federation) during the SEA Games Selection of 2019.
