So, i been thinking a lot about Malaysia e-sport, why it is so gloomy in Malaysia, why it can't be as epic as the Koreans and the North Americans?
It's just i mere opinion and hopefully we can discuss this =D

e-sport

The definition of e-sport is, "Electronic sports comprises the competitive play of video games. Other terms include competitive gaming, professional gaming, e-sport, and cybersport. Games that are played as electronic sports normally belong to the real-time strategy (RTS), fighting, first-person shooter (FPS), massively-multiplayer online (MMOG), and racing genres. They are played competitively at amateur, semi-professional and professional levels including in leagues and tournaments." (taken from Wikipedia)

My article will be divided into 2 category, which is
1. Why e-sport is viable in Malaysia.
2. How to support e-sport growing in Malaysia.



Why e-sport viable in Malaysia?



Location

As we all know, Malaysia is located at the center of SEA, and we have a-lot of neighboring country such as Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippine. This will make it easy for Malaysia to actually be the focal point of e-sport growth. This are proven in history, where Malacca are the center of trading in their time. I know that e-sport have little thing to do with location because it is using the internet. But, when it come to e-sport, doing tournament online is not enough, we need a LAN event, and this is where location will take an effect, it will be easier for player from singapore, Thailand to come to Malaysia to join the event.



Amount of gamer

How many starcraft 2 gamer are here in Malaysia in general?? roughly around 400 people. (taken from lowyat Chatroom and List of Starcraft 2 Players, char code) How many dota gamer out there? A LOT? How many counter strike player out there?? A LOT. By judging from the amount of gamer out there in Malaysia, there is still hope for e-sport to actually grow in Malaysia. I know you guys will say, the starcraft 2 will sink in all of the games. But you have to remember, the first time MLG introduce starcraft2 in their gaming pool, it was a small gaming section, but now it had grow alot. So, in my opinion starcraft2 can grow, but it need some kind of exposure.

Sponsor

Money are needed to ensure that e-sport can grow. Without money how can a gamer make a living out of it? what we need a good amount of sponsor. Well who would sponsor the e-sport? Who will give such amount of money? Looking from a company point of view, even they are sponsoring an event, they are actually are asking something in return. What is it?ADVERTISEMENT. With good amount of "advertising pool" they will earn profit from sponsoring. Which company can benefit from sponsoring all this event? Of course computer company, electronic company, Cybercafe, Energydrink and so on. We have alot of factory located in Malaysia such as, Western digital, Intel, Creative, Dell. All of this company have their factory located here in Malaysia. That mean Malaysia have a market value. This will attract them to sponsor an e-sport event in Malaysia.








How we can get their sponsor, I will elaborate in next sub-topic.




How to support e-sport growing in Malaysia.


Social Media

We need some kind of social media which player can interact with each other. Forum like lowyat is one of a good example of good social media. With social media, we can get networking, interaction, community. Without a social media, the gamer in Malaysia cannot be united and they will act as an individual gamer. Remember a community of gamer will draw more attention then an individual gamer. For an example, NA have their gaming social media such as teamliquid, reddit and the koreans have ther own social network* i forgot the name*. With all the attention, then we can get more spectator. More spectator, means more marketing value. with more marketing value, there will more a lot of sponsor.

Gamer civil war

What i meant as gamer civil war is dividing the gamer by the game that they they play. For an example dota religion, HoN community. All the gamer should unite and respect each other as gamer so we can create a peaceful and stable gaming community. A stable gaming community will open a window of opportunity for a centered gaming arena. Which mean a competitive platform which have a lot of game in their gaming pool would be possible. With this We can attract more viewers.

Competitive Platform

We need a competitive platform, which can attract all the gamers from their cyber-cave to come out and compete. Right now we have a competitive platform. there are a lot of tournament, but there is no major tournament other than WCG (world cybergame). All are the other tournament are mostly inconsistent. We need a consistent competitive platform so that the gamer will have a target which will make him improve his/her gaming skill. The consistent platform which will also give the player fame. Sometime, money or price pool is not enough, but with fame are included in the price pool, I'm sure that all the gamer will come out and compete. Creating Malaysia Gaming League Or a weekly tournament will be a good idea. ^^

Example of Malaysia competitive Platform


Here is NA Gaming League




Audience

Audience are very important to help the growth of e-sport in Malaysia. Without audience it will be like an empty concert. How do we will get the audience attention? We cannot force them to watch we play starcraft2 or dota, or any game. But, we can give them an entertainment value so they will be attracted to watch us compete. Everybody want entertainment. After a long day of hard work, tough school, a gaming channel which would provide as a stress relief medium will be a good choice for them. A pro-gamer should act like an entertainer to entertain the audience. It will be like the modern day Colosseum.



Entertainment value can also be improve by casting, streaming. Right now we already had a few caster in Malaysia.
For an example:

Starcraft 2
Ash
Quazacolt
Keretapir
Badtooth
Cobo
Nizora
SiewKaiz

Dota 2
Ixara

More than 1 Game
Radkiller

Go and support them, give their link to your friends and family so we will have more audience. =D

Market Target

We are a small country, so we cannot expect to attract the pro-gamer from NA or Korea to compete here, but we can have a small market target. We can have the SEA as our market area. If the e-sport in Malaysia grow, It is possible to attract player from neighboring country to come and compete here. In the end, we might be be a focal point of e-sport in SEA.

Media Coverage

With a constant of viewers, we will have a media coverage. This is the peak of Malaysia e-sport. With the media coverage, the sponsors will be attracted to sponsor the League or gamer. With all the sponsor coming in, pro-gamer can make a living by playing game competitively.

Example of media coverage we can attract:


The End

This is just my 2 cent. I hope this article will open a discussion about Malaysian e-sport.

Thank you for reading.

edit log : adding picture

p/s sorry for any grammar or spelling mistake.

This post has been edited by Volhart: Jan 15 2012, 04:43 PM


Attached image(s)

I need to put picture.. =D
hahaha.. hurm, maybe.. but i don't have the experience to talk about the general gaming, because all I've been watching is starcraft2.. ^^

but if mod think it is more suitable to put this topic in general Gamers hideout, feel free to move it.

It's hard to find a gamer that as talented as day9, but i think if we have a regular commentator that have dedication will be sufficient enough. With a regular commentator, it can help to grow Malaysia e-sport. Hopefully it will encourage more people to start commentating and analyzing games. With more commentator, there will a lot more chance to find a really talented commentator =D

Final issue? too bad.. T_T