KUALA LUMPUR: The country’s largest Dota 2 tournament has been announced today, boasting a massive prize pool of RM500,000.
The Malaysia eSports League (MESL), which kicks off on Sept 2, aims to nurture a new batch of homegrown Dota 2 players to compete against the world’s best.
The league’s organiser, Mineski Events Team (MET), said MESL also offers both amateur and professional gamers a chance to make their mark on the local Dota 2 scene.
“We want create a platform to develop more young talents like Chai Yee Fung (Mushi) and Tue Soon Chuan (Ah Fu), who have achieved success in the eSports industry,” MET managing director Kenchi Yap told the New Straits Times.
This follows Tue’s third place finish in the recently concluded The International Dota 2 tournament, in which his team won more than US$2.6 million (RM11.2 million) in prize money.
“We want to see the number of Malaysian representatives at The International increase next year,” Yap added.
Slated to run for six months, MESL will feature a qualifier, group and playoff stage before culminating in a grand final to be held in February next year.
The league champion will walk away with RM150,000, while the first runner-up will win RM50,000. The third-place and fourth-place finishers will take home RM20,000 each.
MESL’s title sponsor, mobile operator U Mobile, will award the champions with an extra RM50,000 if the players are active U Mobile users.
The league is open to all Malaysians, but foreign players can also participate if they have at least three Malaysians in their team.
Dota 2 fans will be able to catch the action live on streaming platform Twitch.tv or Astro’s eGG Network.
In January, Resorts World Genting played host to ESL One Genting, a premier Dota 2 competition that offered a collective prize money of US$250,000 (RM1,073,875).
Interested teams can register for the league at www.mesl.my.
