PETALING JAYA, April 12 — Popular e-commerce retailer Shopee has stirred a debate among the Malaysian gaming community after announcing it would be officially sponsoring a team for popular game, Mobile Legends.

The moniker of the rebranded team which used to be known as Team Saiyan and previously backed by Air Asia, is now officially Team Bosskur or Shopee Bosskur.

Gaming website kakuchopurei.com reported that team members will also be bestowed nicknames with the Shopee branding, with the outfit comprising Faris Zakaria (Shopee Bosskurr Soloz), Abdul Wandi (Shopee Bosskurr Logan), Andi Alfian (Shopee Bosskurr Gripex), Herwin Baharuddin (Shopee Bosskurr Rush), Sopian Sultan (Shopee Bosskurr Penjahat) and Ahmad Fuad Razali (Shopee Bosskurr Fredo).

According to the website, Bosskur manager Nureddy Nursal (otherwise known as Shopee Bosskurr Daddy) said the team’s biggest focus right now is to “qualify for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) and represent Malaysia to make our country proud”.

‘Bossku’ was popularised by the “rempit” culture of working class riders, although it arguably originated from the lexicon of the young, middle-class Malay in Sabah where it is usually intentionally misspelt “busku” or “bussku”.

However, former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has embraced the term, with his tagline “Malu apa, bossku” or “What is there to be ashamed of, boss?”, leaving prominent members of the gaming community debating about the appropriateness of the name, given the link.