Esports history has hit another milestone.

For the first time ever, esports is featured as a medal sport in an international sports event, namely the SEA Games 2019. All matches have concluded on 10 December 2019. Let’s take a look at who won those medals.

The SEA Games 2019 Esports tournament was participated by 8 countries from the Southeast Asian region. The teams and players competed in 6 video games for a total of 18 medals. The event was held at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan from 5 December to 10 December 2019.

Here are the respective winners of each game:

Dota 2

• Gold: The Philippines
• Silver: Thailand
• Bronze: Vietnam

Arena of Valor

• Gold: Thailand
• Silver: Indonesia
• Bronze: Vietnam

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

• Gold: The Philippines
• Silver: Indonesia
• Bronze: Malaysia

Hearthstone

• Gold: Malaysia
• Silver: Thailand
• Bronze: Singapore

Tekken 7

• Gold: Thailand
• Silver: The Philippines
• Bronze: The Philippines

StarCraft II

• Gold: The Philippines
• Silver: Singapore
• Bronze: Vietnam

Here are the total medals won.

• Philippines – 3 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
• Malaysia – 1 Gold, 1 Bronze
• Singapore – 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
• Thailand – 2 Gold, 2 Silver
• Vietnam – 3 Bronze

Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia did not bring home any medals.

How did Malaysia fare?

Malaysia is very proud to have found its first esports gold medalist in Hearthstone player Dr. Yew “wkyew90” Weng Kean. That “Dr.” in his name isn’t just for show. He has a PhD in Electrical Engineering and is currently teaching as an assistant professor at Heriot-Watt University Malaysia in Putrajaya.

There’s no shame in bringing home a bronze medal. The Malaysian MLBB team Shopee Bosskurr deserves a great amount of respect for making into the top 3 MLBB teams in Southeast Asia. The team consists of:

• Ahmad Ali Huzaifi Abdullah
• Abdul Wandi Abdul Kadir
• Izme Haqeem Hamsjid
• Muhammad Hazeem Onn
• Jamil Nurolla
• Mohd Faris Zakaria

Overall, it was a great event that went quite smoothly. The true importance of esports at SEA Games 2019 is that it represents one of the biggest steps in merging together esports and traditional sports. No doubt this will improve the perception of esports as an industry and a lifestyle.

For the countries that didn’t bring home any medals, it was still a great experience to be able to compete on the international stage. With esports now being counted as one of the medal sports in SEA Games, we can expect another week of awesome matches in the 2021 SEA Games.

Image credits: Razer.