PETALING JAYA: The Youth and Sports Ministry will continue to develop e-sports infrastructure to make Malaysia the hub for video game-based sports activities.
Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker said this was already in the e-Sports Strategic Development Plan 2020-2025, in addition to the hosting of activities and competitions.
He said e-sports was a growing industry and capable of having a big economic impact, with 435 million global spectators.
"e-sports is also a multi-million dollar business, with the industry set to generate US$1.6 billion for this year alone," he said after the ESL One 2022 Championship media conference here today.
Ti said Malaysia's capability in hosting the ESL One championship, which will see 12 of the world's best teams taking part, spoke volumes of the country's potential to continue to be selected to host international-class e-sports competitions in the future.
"We can see from the ESL One championship this time that tickets have been sold out, with more than 4,000 snapped up. In fact, the number of viewers is expected to be about 15 million since the competing teams have a large fan base," he said.
The 12 teams competing in the ESL One 2022 championship, to be held at Resorts World in Genting Highlands from Aug 23-28, are Team Secret, OG, Fnatic, Alliance, Team Liquid, Nigma Galaxy, Entity, Team Aster, Boom Esports, Talon Esports, TSM FTX and Thunder Awaken.
The teams will compete in the Dota 2 video game for the US$400,000 prize pool.
This will be the third time the championship is hosted in Genting Highlands after the hugely successful 2017 and 2018 editions. -- BERNAMA