Malaysia’s top Hearthstone player, Dr Yew Weng Kean aka WKYew has won the country’s inaugural e-sports Gold medal at SEA Games 2019 held in the Philippines. He upset favourite Werit “Disdai” Popan from Thailand with a score of 3-1.
WKYew is one of the nine e-sports players representing four e-sports teams sponsored by Boost e-wallet in this year’s SEA Games.
“On behalf of Boost, we wish WKYew a big congratulations on winning Malaysia’s first e-sports Gold medal at an Olympic-recognised multi-sport competition. This win is a historic moment for the e-sports universe in Malaysia, cementing e-sports as a mainstream competitive sport in the country and Southeast Asia and is proof that Malaysia indeed does have incredible e-sports talent as well as immense potential to thrive,” said Mohd Khairil Abdullah, CEO of Boost.
Boost also sponsors Ranger, Malaysia’s top Starcraft 2 player; Seven, Drmcp, TaintedOnes, Kun, Ryo and Kc who make up Malaysia’s top Arena of Valor team; and Zaba, Malaysia’s top Tekken 7 player.
WKYew’s achievement is Malaysia’s second e-sports medal after the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang team of Ahmad Ali Huzaifi Abdullah, Abdul Wandi Abdul Kadir, Jamil Nurolla, Izme Haqeem Hamsjid and Muhammad Hazeem Onn picked up a bronze medal on Sunday.
A total of 24 Malaysian e-sports athletes compete in six e-sports medal events including Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Starcraft II (PC), Hearthstone (PC), Dota 2, Tekken 7 and Arena of Valor.
This is the first time in history that the 11-country Games is including e-sports as a medal event.
It reflects a growing acceptance for competitive video gaming, after being a demonstration sport at last year’s Asian Games. It is still out of reach of the Olympics where gaming industry experts cite a lack of a unified world governing body; also a generational divide as key stumbling blocks to the sport.
As of 10.19AM, 9 December 2019, host nation the Philippines set a new SEA Games record of 114 golds to surpass its 2005 SEA Games medal tally of 112 gold medals.
This number has risen to 127 gold medals as of 6.55PM today. Malaysia lies a distant sixth place with a 49-gold medal haul on the ninth day of competition.
VIA Boost | Stadium Astro
