KUCHING: The Ministry of Youth and Sports is urging non-governmental organisations (NGOs), especially sports associations, to organise more events online for local youths to participate in with their friends while complying with the movement control order (MCO).
Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said that local NGOs could also work together with their counterparts from other states in organising online events such as football and mobile multiplayer online battle arena (Moba) games in which players from all strata of the society can participate.
“We call on our local NGOs, including sports associations, to continue looking for ways to organise more online events to better engage with local youths, and there are many electronic sports (eSports) games which can be included,” he said.
According to the Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister, the overwhelming response towards the inaugural ‘Sarawak Youth Stay At Home eSports Challenge 2020’, which was organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and Sarawak eSports Association (Sesa) had shown that such online events were appealing to youths throughout the state and also those residing outside Sarawak.
The first series of the event was held from April 10 to 13 while the second series was on April 20 to 22 where almost over 1,000 participants took part in the online games, namely Fifa 2.0, PUBG-Mobile, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB).
Abdul Karim said the ministry was open to suggestions with regard to the organisation of future online events and they were willing to collaborate with NGOs in bringing in more activities for local youths to participate in from within the comfort of their homes.
“This is part of our efforts to re-strategies our plans and programmes for the youths in order to reach out to those affected by the movement restrictions which strictly requires all of us to be at home,” he said.
“We therefore welcome our local NGOs to organise more online activities which will help our youths to fill their time meaningfully while staying safe at home throughout the MCO period,” he added.
He also congratulated the winners of the recent second series of the ‘Sarawak Youth Stay At Home eSports Challenge 2020’ that featured inter-team online games namely MLBB and PUBG-Mobile (Squad).
The overall champion in PUBG_Mobile (Squad) challenge was Okay Kayo eSports team consisting of Awang Aizat Audi Awang Azizzan Abdullah, Azryan Shahril Syuffianuddin, Hasfarizal Majid, and Hilman Damaq. The team won the RM3,000 grand prize after defeating VIP Sarawak team which came in second.
VIP Sarawak team, which brought home the RM2,000 prize, consisted of Muhammad Afiq Aiman Ruslan, Mohd Khairul Ikhwan Saat, Noel Collin Bujang, and Muhammad Syaifullah Azme.
The third placing went to the Cloud 9 Sarawak team which consisted of Mohammad Hadrifikri Mohammad Suhardi, Muhd Shaktiyan Amil, Awang Amir Asyraaf Awang Abdullah, and Muhd Arief Eusoff Alwi. They won the third prize of RM1,000 after defeating Sky X Gaming team which finished fourth with a prize of RM800.
Meanwhile, the overall champion in MLBB challenge went to Anti-Hyper team consisting of Korda Nangi (team captain), Mohamad Faiq Mohamad Toni, David Rengkang, Fredrickson Petrus Felix, and Spencer Bejie.
The team won the grand prize of RM3,000 after defeating Godz Uchiha squad which consisted of Mohamad Madani Ahmad (team captain), Mohamad Walid Shahmir Mohammad, Mohd Syarif Afiq Roslan, Mohd Amirul Aswad Ahmad, and Ryan Ngindang Roben – winning RM2,000 in second place.
Third placing and the RM1,000 prize went to UES Havox team which was represented by Muhammad Faizal Ridzuan Maula Salam (team captain), Muhammad Abdul Zaim Abdul Hadi, Tunku Khairi Tunku Hanizd, Mohammad Taqiuddin Wardi, and Rosal Hakim Aliah – defeating Ghost Casper team which came in fourth.
