KUCHING: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is one of those must-have games installed in one’s smartphone.
It is, after all, more popular than the old “Angry Bird” game.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is an online multi-player battle royale game developed and published by PUBG Corporation.
The game’s popularity is known from statistics based on surveys conducted on people aged 18-30 by Sarawak All Stars E-Sports Club (SAS).
In a press conference held at the Old Kuching Smart Heritage Agenda, E-Sports Games Camp at Waterfront Kuching, today, SAS adviser, Noor Nikman Salleh said, “Mobile games such as ‘Mobile Legend: Bang Bang!’ took around one week to attract a hundred participants but for PUBG it takes just 48 hours to pull in a hundred gamers.”
Mobile Legend: Bang Bang is a mobile multi-player online game developed and published by Moonton. It is the first to be included in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
The SAS was established in March 2015 as a club for the community under the Ministry of Youth and Sports Sarawak.
SAS president Amir Redzuan said, “The club aims to organise events in e-sports for those living under the Kuching North City Hall (DBKU) jurisdiction.
“We started organising e-sports event as there are potential in the industries. SAS also scouts for talents among youths for future e-sports competition,” he said.
Amir also hoped that the e-sports community would thrive throughout Sarawak to be able to represent Malaysia internationally.
Present at the press conference were state youth and sports officer Hazwan Salleh, Kuching North City Hall treasurer Mohamad As-Salihin Daud, DIGI channel marketing representative Mellisa Wee, and Unimas eSports Club adviser Ahmad Alif Kamal.
In 2018, the Minister of Youth and Sports Syed Saddiq emphasised medal potential for Malaysia at the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines.
He said, “We’ve been fighting, lobbying to ensure that eSports is included, not just as a demonstration but a medal sport, and we’ve been briefed recently that it will be included in the medal tally.
“We’ll be pushing for even more, not just Sea Games but for Asian and Commonwealth Games and the Olympics because the number of young people who follow eSports is massive.”
