With the Overwatch World Cup starting its online qualifiers, we managed to get in touch to the six heroes representing Team Malaysia. The round of group qualifiers are commencing at the time of writing, and will end by September 18, facing the Philiphines and Singapore for one of the 16 slots to Blizzcon.
We managed to ask them about various things regarding Overwatch, but first, here’s a quick bio of all the six heroes representing Team Malaysia.
Sados (Jason Pang)
- Age: 26
- Current Team: Unestablished FMH
- Role: Tank/Support
- Favourite Overwatch Hero: Reinhardt
- Favourite Overwatch Map: Numbani
- Hero That Needs Rebalancing: None
- Games currently playing aside from Overwatch: Only Overwatch
Darkaz (Ezzat Marzuki)
- Age: 20
- Current Team: Team Random
- Role: Tank
- Favourite Overwatch Hero: All the tanks
- Favourite Overwatch Map: Lijiang Tower
- Hero That Needs Rebalancing: None
- Games currently playing aside from Overwatch: World Of Warcraft, Dota, CS:GO and others
Wolf (Fan Weng Jian)
- Age: 22
- Current Team: Unestablished FMH
- Role: DPS/Support
- Favourite Overwatch Hero: McCree, Zenyatta
- Favourite Overwatch Map: Eichenwalde
- Hero That Needs Rebalancing: Genji
- Games currently playing aside from Overwatch: Dota 2
Vermillion (Vince Ang)
- Age: 19
- Current Team: M8 Gaming
- Role: DPS/Support
- Favourite Overwatch Hero: Genji, Hanzo, McCree, Tracer
- Favourite Overwatch Map: Lijiang Tower
- Hero That Needs Rebalancing: Mei
- Games currently playing aside from Overwatch: Dota 2
SOR (Syafiq Sulaini)
- Age: 24
- Current Team: Team Random
- Role: Tank/DPS
- Favourite Overwatch Hero: Zarya, Roadhog
- Favourite Overwatch Map: Hollywood
- Hero That Needs Rebalancing: Genji
- Games currently playing aside from Overwatch: Competitive Minecraft
MGUY (Matthew)
- Age: 22
- Current Team: Unestablished Sealions
- Role: Support/Flex
- Favourite Overwatch Hero: Genji
- Favourite Overwatch Map: King’s Row
- Hero That Needs Rebalancing: MGUY
- Games currently playing aside from Overwatch: World of Warcraft, some other games from time to time
History & Background
All of Team Malaysia are involved with the competitive scene, each one belonging to different teams across Malaysia and Singapore. The Unestablished Sealions and Unestablished FMH are teams under Singapore’s Unestablished Clan. M8 Gaming is one the many established Malaysian-based teams with presence in Overwatch and Hearthstone. They also organised the recent Overwatch Community Cup. Team Random has been playing around the scene in many local tournaments.
Most of them has prior experience with competitive gaming before jumping into Overwatch, and all of them have been gaming during the secondary school years- though Wolf played Counter Strike since he was 7! Team captain Sados has an already make his mark in South East Asia, with a win in the Overwatch Launch Showmatch in Singapore and in the Orange Asus Nvidia Overwatch Fun Tournament in Malaysia, as well as top 4 finishes in the ESL Communtity Cup #1 and #3. Darkaz started out with competitive gaming from playing Call Of Duty 4. SOR also has history rooting from CS:GO and COD 4 before playing for teams that includes Tbun.FF and Orange Esports.
On Practice & Tips To Getting Good
Since most of them are from separate teams, how do they practice? “Mostly scrims and competitive play,” Darkaz answered. Scrims are how most top teams get their proper practice. Having other teams with almost equivalent skill level to fight against is more beneficial as practice rather than just go to competitive mode. Though it is not easy scheduling scrims, so competitive mode is not ruled out in this case.
But what does make a good Overwatch team..good? When asked if there’s any criteria they feel a good Overwatch team needs, it’s communication. “Communication and team synergy” is what Darkaz places highly on. So, having a team of people playing together with mics is something that can help in the long run.
But what about getting yourself good as a player? MGUY suggests to not stick with just a main hero. “Play every hero to know what they do and their limits”. A reasonable tip, getting into the shoes of an annoying Bastion once in a while should get you enough understanding of what it can do, so the next time you encounter the omnic you know how to handle it.
“After that, it comes down to skill with practice”, adds MGUY.
This advice also holds true when climbing the competitive ladders. Though MGUY also suggests to bring in friends along if you have trouble. “If stuck, try to party up wish some people you can climb with! Never hurts to ask,” he added.
Thoughts On Overwatch e-Sports And The Malaysian Community
Since Team Malaysia has been playing Overwatch in its most competitive level around South East Asia, we asked how the region stands against the rest of the world. Sados believed we need more work to stand with the best in the world. “NA EU and Korea are the powerhouses of Overwatch. South East Asia’s skill and teamwork is no match versus the powerhouses”.
The mention of Korea is something noteworthy: A few weeks ago more Korean teams have entered the Gosugamers Weeklies, the weekly tournaments for Overwatch. Some of the teams had make a huge name from their successes from the tournaments. Luxury Watch Red in particular actually won one of the tourneys beating top teams like FaZe Clan and Splyce.
But there’s still hope for the South East Asian scene. We asked how the Overwatch community in Malaysia is and how can it be encouraged to grow. At the moment, we are on the right track. “Looks like it’s growing quite well,” chimed MGUY. Sados suggested government support is what needed to keep the e-sports scene alive and kicking. The recent Selangor Cyber Games should be something in line with what government support should be meant in this context, we believe.
What’s Next After The Overwatch World Cup?
At the time of this interview being published, Team Malaysia has won against Team Philippines and are now facing Team Singapore. Winner of this match gets a slot to go to Blizzcon for the main Overwatch World Cup event.
But what will happen to next for Team Malaysia after the World Cup wraps up?
“[I will] continue playing with my team,” Sados answered. With everyone in the roster already have a team to play, we can expect each of them lighting up the Overwatch SEA e-sports scene on a regular basis.
Best of luck to Team Malaysia!