PETALING JAYA, June 14 — Malaysia will be among the 10 Asian countries, and only one of four from South-east Asia including Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines vying for the Overwatch World Cup 2019.

Overwatch, a popular team-based multiplayer first-person shooter game will be part of the game developer’s BlizzCon 2019 in Anaheim, California in the United States in November which features developer panels as well as eSports competitions.

Apart from Overwatch, the event will play host to several world-level eSports showdowns including the Hearthstone Global Finals, StarCraft II World Championship Series global finals, the World of Warcraft Arena World Championship Finals and the inaugural global finals of the World of Warcraft Mythic Dungeon International.

The Malaysian management was announced earlier today along with that of all competing nations, and heading the Malaysian contingent will be general manager Kenn “Beagull” Leandre, community manager Sun “megikari” San and coach Jack “RagonSEA” Teoh.

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Speaking to Malay Mail, Kenn said details for the selection of players for the Malaysian team will be revealed soon, but it will include local events to woo interested players to participate in vying for a spot.

“Players selection will be underway soon as the deadline for initial 12-player roster submission is mid-July. We will whittle the team down to the final seven leading up to November.”

Malaysia is one of only four South-east Asian nations for the Overwatch World Cup 2019. — from Twitter/malaysiaowwc
Malaysia is one of only four South-east Asian nations for the Overwatch World Cup 2019. — from Twitter/malaysiaowwc

Meanwhile, he called on sponsors to help the team not just for getting Malaysia’s representation to Blizzcon for the global showdown, but also to help in the preparations for the event.

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"At the moment, we are open to any forms of sponsorship that will not only help get our players to Blizzcon, but also adequately prep the team leading up to it.

"A bulk of the cost would come from travel while additional support on gear, living expenses as well as training facilities would be welcomed.”

The team also reached out to Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman via Twitter to request for support.

 

The fourth annual international Overwatch World Cup, will be a week-long event of live competition be broadcast worldwide.

Three-time back-to-back champion South Korea leads the top five seeded countries which include Canada, China, France and the United States who will receive automatic passes into the group stage.

United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, Russia, and Finland are the next five seeded countries who will compete against eligible countries around the world to earn one of the remaining five spots in the group stage.

Thailand is the most successful South-east Asian Overwatch team to date, as they were the only team from the region to make it into the top 24 teams of last year’s Overwatch World Cup 2018.

Fans can follow Team Malaysia Overwatch via Twitter at @malaysiaowwc and check on their progress using #MYOWWC19.