For those who think esports is for lazy people or it doesn’t consider as a ‘real sport, you might want to think again. Deny all you want, professional gaming is now officially a viable career choice. These past couple of years, the esports industry has grown leaps and bounds.
Malaysia has been ranked number 21 in terms of the highest esports earnings with over RM23.6 million from over 424 professional players. Here’s what you need to know about this competitive esports:
1. Esports is considered as an actual professional gaming sport with over 300 million global audience
Esports is much more than a few people sitting at a computer. The debate over esports is a real sport or not is still continued over the years with everyone throwing their hats into the ring. Esports or electronic sports are professional video game competitions that has a massive audience. Some of the major games that are being competed globally are Dota 2, Counter-strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends to name a few.
2. Professional gamers can make money more than the sport athletes
One might imagine a young video game star living in a mansion or driving around in a sports car. The truth is, professional esports players can earn a comfortable living with their gaming skills and earning up to RM3 million throughout their careers.
In a basic competition, for a five-person team, they could earn from RM5,000 to RM20,000 per player in the playoffs alone. They can even get more than that amount by the obvious means of winning or placing in the competition, but again, it depends on the prize pool for the tournament itself.
3. The explosive growth of esports these past few years, making Malaysia government vowed to turn Malaysia into an esports powerhouse
Malaysia aims to tap into the billion-dollar esports industry and expand its growth in Malaysia. A pretty good news for gamers when the government announced in the Budget 2019 to allocate RM10 million for the Malaysian esports scene. It will give Malaysia the opportunity to nurture new talents and aid in the creation of gamers for the world market. This also attracted the attention of Razer’s CEO, Min-Liang Tan who has pledged to also invest RM10 million into the Malaysian esports scene.
A local esports startup Kitamen also pledged to allocate RM100,000 investment to help develop esports and gaming grassroots in Malaysia to the next level.
4. Besides RM10 million budget to boost esports industry, Malaysia is getting an esports arena right in KL
In efforts to push professional esports locally, Ministry of Youth and Sports has plans to build an esports arena in Kuala Lumpur and Stadium Raja Muda is one of the potential locations. Stadium Raja Muda is located in Kampung Baru which has now been renamed Kompleks MSN Jalan Raja Muda. Well, it seems that we’re one step closer to achieve the dream of becoming an esports hub and promote professional esports culture locally.
Read more: 8 Ways Gamers Can Earn Real Cash with Dota 2
5. There is an actual course for aspiring pro gamers to be a professional athlete
There are several courses and programmes to train aspiring gamers in Malaysia and one of them is Alliance of Campus eSports (ACE). Launched by eGG Network, ACE wants to help students to become professional gamers by providing them with access and training so that they can get proper knowledge on how to become a professional athlete. Not only focusing on becoming a pro gamer, but ACE also can help prepare you for a career in live streaming, team management and tournament organising.
6. 2018 Asian Games puts a spotlight on esports, a step closer to the rest of the world taking esports seriously
For the first time, esports was featured at the Asian Games 2018 as a demonstration sport, meaning medals won in this sport would not be counted in the official overall medal tally. In fact, esports will be a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games. Though only a demonstration, this big move proves that esports can make it to the Olympics. The demonstration features six games: Arena of Valor, Clash Royale, League of Legends, Starcraft II, Hearthstone, and Pro Evolution Soccer 2018.
Indeed, esports will be a massive esports and professional job in Malaysia arena!
