Firstly, let me say that I am thankful for all the loyal supporters of sc2 and FXO from Malaysia.

But now I am going to rant on the mentality of Malaysian e-Sports (not just sc2).

One of the big reasons I live in Malaysia is because of the people. I love Malaysian people, the culture, the lifestyle and the fact they feed you no matter if there is a reason to celebrate or not. But its these things that I love that bring a reason why e-Sports in Malaysia on a professional level will most probably fail unless change occurs.

When we first suggested we would do events in Malaysia, there was a common word in every sentence by the people I spoke to to get a jist of what I should do here. That word was FREE.

Its my belief that players should always have free entry to events, and I can make that happen everytime no matter what. But that seems to not be enough. If you base an events success on the amount of free things you give to the community the minute you stop giving away free things, the event dies. Its a bad habit to get into. And is a reason no one will be successful.

Take for instance FXO 1.. 10-20 of the people who joined the tournament only showed up for lucky draw.. That includes some close friends of mine.

How is e-sports going to survive if people only show up for free stuff?

Then there is spotgamers sc tournament. Struggling to get anyone to show up, they announced free AMD mobo or something along those lines, for anyone who enters. Immediately the tournament got a good number of participants. But if they dont give that free thing again, they wont get the same numbers. So it will essentially die if they dont give free things.

Infact when they announced the AMD mobo thing my skype chat was filled with how people are gonna get it and sell it for money. By any standards, this is disgusting. Rich or poor, it could almost be considered theft.

So, HOW is malaysian e-sports going to survive?

There are dedicated people such as pRoGeney, a bunch of nDL guys (not all) and a few of the top players (who have other issues to deal with such as their attitude towards the community), who will always be there. But will it grow accordingly?

Starcraft 2 is now 29.99 USD. According to statistics, its price is now in the comfort mark for Malaysian people to spend on luxury items. (about 98 RM approximately). But because the price is affordable isn't enough because there is no exposure. No investment and worst of all, little TRUE community support.

I am sure no matter what I do I can get a good showing of players to an event, mostly because of free things. But where does it go from there? To get external people to enter the community you need firstly to have approachable stars (The stars of malaysian SC2 ARE NOT approachable..... They can b**** me as much as they like about saying this). You need to have a community that will support sc2 no matter what (this doesnt mean spending money). And you need to show that no matter what other people think, you are here (where ever you may be) to support the event because you enjoy it, and nothing but that.

Being too lazy to support something you have passion about, means you are not passionate about it. Spending a saturday or sunday with people who are your friend should have no excuse like "10 min drive too far lah". To be honest, if 10 min drive is too far, then you are a bad friend to begin with.


So now Malaysian e-sports is in this bad habit of mooching which is damaging its growth. How do we fix it?

I am not sure really..... I don't know if it can be fixed. I had made big plans for a Malaysian sc2 league to move forward. But because of the support (or lack there of) within the community, it is no longer a viable investment. Albiet the LAN's are no problem. Its alot of fun and the cost is minimal, but anything bigger is a waste of investment these days.

I have been planning to do barcraft but have been postponing it until I finished my research. I have contacts are 4 bars in Pavillion, 3 of them have shown interest. But should I do an event with the risk of everyone saying that pavillion is too far to attend? Or that there is no free gift for attending?

I know of about 10 people from the sc2 community who would 100% attend no matter what. Some would even bring a bunch of friends (ninjabear you stud!!). But it shouldnt be up to them to support the thing you love. IT should be up to EVERYONE to do it...

So, how far are you willing to go to support malaysian e-sports?

Most Foreign pro gamers practice no where near 8 hours per day.

I agree and have touched on the pro's issues in the article.

Malaysian e-sports is not in infancy. Its been around for a long time since brood war and the original free server of dota.

I have money to pump into it. But the investment is BAD because of the community.

It is no longer up to the organiser, its up to the community to show the organisers the investment is worth while.

Malaysian sponsors are even very very very negative when I have approached them about e-sports. Having done their research they are aware of the same habits in Malaysia and the return on investment would be almost zero.

The one thing that Malaysia can rely on though, is its patriotism and community mentality. If people can start to create new habits within the community, the money will come.

Yeh echo etc, and their dad or whoever the guy was.. Showed trued dedication, and I hope they enjoyed their time also. Thats the kind of dedication that made Korean, and Us e-sports WORK.

I think a few points have been proven already in this thread.

I have attended multiple game events in Malaysia and they are all the same in terms of habits mentality etc. It all would have transpired from one particular scene and spread at a time. It could have been broodwar or wc3 or dota.. Or even fifa..

The game I am trying to market originally is sc2 because its easier to watch from an external point of view. (People who dont play the game).

If DOTA was a game that 1) was new 2) was entertaining to those who dont play it and 3) not a team game full of people who threaten to kill me at lan cafes..

I would support it.

CS:S was a failed game... 1.6 crapped all over it and the game itself is a failure. Hence cs:GO being rushed.

I was once a CS pro. I wish CS was a good game to bring to the world, but other than playing it, its pretty crappy to watch. Especially with the calibre and accuracy of todays pros.

re:training centre.. Because when I offered to do this, most people had conditional show up times.. Which was too much for me to handle. I am not someone who arranges my life to suit myself.

re: Super rich to drag into the community. I have the money at my disposal, but I am not an idiot. I will only spend wisely. I am trying to come up with the unique recipe to make things work. Its entirely possible to happen, but I need the people power (about 100 or so followers who will show up as much as possible to any event) If I can get this. I can make it work.

But at the same time, I have to justify the amount of work I am doing for e-sports.. Currently 30+hrs a week. And remember I run a global financial services company.

I guess the point of my article was "HALP GIZE, I NEED EASY SUPPORT"...I know i have alot of peoples support. But I am hoping that the sc2 community can be the ones to buck the trend and make everyone else jealous.


re: Gosugamers dota guy.. He is just protecting his product. I know very well that the dota community here is like the dota community in Aus... Unpredictable, sometimes violent and very bad mannered. I would happily enter an argument about this given my experience with Malaysian dota gamers in the past (at cyber cafes and stabbing threats.. ya know).

re: CS 1.6, I was a 1.6 pro. The community has always been solid and supportive. But the global viewership is complicated. Its not an easy game to watch, but a damn good one to play.

Perhaps a solution is if all communities join together and support each other. But that would have to mean an end to the bs flaming between games....

Prize money is not the solution to lack of good/interesting play. More events yes, more prize money ... maybe when the calibre increase.

I prefer ice lemon tea!!!!!!

omg politics.. Brain = explode.

If you venture into corporate malaysia. Its extremely hard to find anyone interested in giving funds to e-sports. The market here is too regional and not international.
And until players start to perform in a highly funded game at the global level, it will remain that way. Anyone who jumps in (like FXO) is sacrificing funds for growth.