Garena Malaysia is committed with their cause to help the esports scene grow at a collegiate level, as seen in their Garena Student Alliance (GSA) initiative. When we last saw these university students at the official GSA launch, they have already established esports clubs in their respective campus and are running events on their own. Guest speakers include Mark Westbourne of Riot Singapore.
Garena Malaysia is continuing the effort by providing a crash course on the ins and outs of esports with Garena Bootcamp 2017. The two-day seminar will be attended by 86 participants from 44 Malaysian campuses, which even includes campuses that has yet to establish a GSA-affiliated esports club. In addition, 20 Riot Student Ambassadors will join the workshop.
The following list are the universities that are participating in the Garena Bootcamp:
- KDU Glenmarie
- Multimedia University (MMU) Cyberjaya
- SEGi College Kota Damansara
- SEGi University Penang
- Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak
- University of Kuala Lumpur (UNIKL)
- University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC)
- Limkokwing University of Creative Technology Sarawak
- Asia Pacific University (APU)
- Taylor’s University
- UCSI University
- INTI College Penang
- Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR)
- Berjaya University College of Hospitality
- Curtin University
- HELP University
- i-CATS
- International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
- INTI International University Nilai
- Multimedia University (MMU) Melaka
- Monash University
- Politeknik METrO Kuantan
- Southern University College
- University of Science, Malaysia (USM)
- University of Malaya (UM)
- Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS)
- Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNIRAZAK)
- Wawasan Open University
- YPC International College
- MARA Polytechnic College
- UiTM Sarawak
- Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) Pahang
- Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (UTeM) Melaka
- UTM Kuala Lumpur
- UiTM Shah Alam
- Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP)
- Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)
- Management and Science University (MSU)
- Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP)
- University of Selangor (UNISEL)
- Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN)
- Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) Kampar
- Sunway University Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TARUC)
Topics that are covered in the Garena Bootcamp includes event planning, effective event marketing, tournament rules & formats and an introduction to the GSA Championship.
“Our primary objective is to educate the students through hands-on experience and hope the Malaysian campus scene becomes the pioneer region for Southeast Asia,” said Yasmin Liyana of Garena’s Campus Outreach Team.
The end goal of the Garena Bootcamp is to help develop collegiate level esports, and specifically to prepare the students for the GSA Championships. The tournament will be organised by students from the GSA themselves and unlike Garena’s Malaysia Campus League (MYCL), the prize isn’t a slot to an international tournament, but cash and partial scholarships.
It’s great to see interest in developing the esports scene at a university level. Several universities around the world has already embraced collegiate esports, and hopefully it can catch on over here as well.