People watch the ‘League of Legends’ 2017 World Championships Grand Final e-sports match between Samsung Galaxy and SK Telecom T1 at the Beijing National Stadium in Beijing, November 4, 2017. — Reuters pic
JOHOR BARU, Oct 24 — The development of infrastructure and grassroots programmes to unearth new talents is among the hopes of industry players for e-sports (electronic sports) in Budget 2022 to be tabled on Friday.
For international e-sports player Muhammad Mukhriz Lutfi Fariq Adlan, 22, despite having been involved in the field since the age of 16, there are still not many in the community who know about the potential and rewards offered in this field of competitive video gaming.
“To further develop this sport, for example, the sponsorship factor also plays an important role. There are still many shortcomings including in terms of financing. Our community seems isolated there are still many who do not know its potential or the income it generates. An income derived from e-sports is actually all right but less than if sponsorship is involved.
“Like other sports, such as football for example, when there is sponsorship, they (players) have the opportunity to develop themselves and after this it can be seen in terms of performance,” he said when met by reporters at the e-sports hub, HomeBois, here today.
Earlier, Deputy Finance Minister I Mohd Shahar Abdullah visited HomeBois, which is part of his itinerary in touring the state in conjunction with Budget 2022.
Apart from that, Muhammad Mukhriz, or better known as “IronPro”, also thinks it is necessary to create an academy to find new talents in e-sports as there is no specific platform for grassroots programmes.
HomeBois production manager Mohamad Nor Mohd Mochtar, 30, concurs with this.
“Malaysia is indeed a country that has proven talent abroad and there may be many talents that have not been identified so with the allocation in this Budget, we can unearth new talent,” he said.
He also said the allocations in previous Budgets had to some extent helped in creating public awareness and understanding about e-sports.
Meanwhile, Mohd Shahar said the e-sports industry had great potential to be developed as it had a high commercial value and was able to generate income for young Malaysians.
“That is why, since 2019, the government through the Finance Ministry has channelled allocations to support and encourage the development of the e-sports industry. In the previous three Budgets, the government had announced an allocation of RM45 million to develop the e-sports industry in Malaysia,” he said.
Therefore, he added that the government would ensure support for the e-sports industry under Budget 2022. — Bernama