The Youth and Sports Ministry of Malaysia recently announced that esports will be included as part of the festivities during its National Sports Day Celebration which will be held at the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil from the 13th to 14th of October 2018.

Supported by the Ministry, you won’t have a hard time in guessing which games made the list, as the folks who are running it went down the popularity, rather than long-term development of the scene.

Mobile Legends, CS: GO, DotA 2 and FIFA19 all made the list – none of which were titles contested at the recently organized Esports Demonstration Games at the 2018 Jakarta/ Palembang Asian Games. The decision to focus on titles which are popular amongst locals, rather than what will take the Malaysian esports scene beyond the country’s borders is bewildering considering earlier claims of improving the esports scene in Malaysia. From the seven games listed, only PES was included in Jakarta, where the Malaysian pair crashed out in the semis.

For more info, you can check out their official Facebook page here.

To be honest, we are disappointed with the choice of games which as per usual, was limited to the tried and tested bunch, rather than trying out new ones. Titles such as Rocket League, World Of Tanks, Overwatch, League of Legends, Street Fighter V and Tekken 7 – all of which are popular worldwide didn’t even get a whiff.

Sure it’s alright to list popular titles but for how long? If Malaysia is ever to go big on esports, this whole mentality of resorting to comfort picks rather than pushing the boundaries and trying something new should stop. Hope this does not lead to the whole ‘Jaguh Kampung’ tag for our esports athletes in the future.

Fingers crossed.

*Kudos to Aksiz.com for the tip