Slowly but surely, the Malaysian support for the e-Sports community continues to grow.
Not just locally, but even international countries are beginning to see the rise of e-Sports in Malaysia with our country hosting one of the biggest e-Sports events and multiple local talents making waves overseas.
And now to help broaden the support even more, local university Asia Pacific University (APU) is collaborating with electronic sports governing body eSports Malaysia (ESM) to launch Malaysia’s first ever academy focused on this industry called APU eSports Malaysia Academy.
Located in Bukit Jalil, APU becomes the first university to feature such an establishment.
Support Within The System
APU has always shown their passion and support for the local gaming industry with a few of their own students actually making names for themselves in competitions. Having Wan Hazmer, the Lead Game Designer of Final Fantasy XV, as an alumni of their university is also additional street cred.
So it’s no surprise that they’re continuing their support by being the first university to take this step and help the industry expand even more.
Quick facts about the academy:
- It will be jointly managed by both APU and eSM
- It will act as a platform to help the development of professional gamers to hone their skills
- Students that join this course can get support, training and other guidelines to help them pursue a career in competitive gaming
- They hope to help groom professionals within the e-Sports ecosystem in roles such as event management, team managers, coaches, shoutcasting, referees and others
- There are plans to host game tournaments, seminars and industry talks from various experts.
Besides that, there are talks of the academy wanting to connect local competitive gaming professionals and organisations with the global e-Sports industry and talents to get recognition from a wider audience.
So What Are The Courses?
Now that you’re psyched out over the academy, let’s talk about what the courses entail.
According to Rinie Ramli, General Secretary of eSM, students that enroll in this academy will have access to semester-long courses on their desired gaming field.
Those with big dreams on making it in the competitive gaming scene can sign up for courses carried out by professional gamers themselves on the basics needed within four games.
The games are: FIFA Online, Counter-Strike, Dota 2 and League of Legends. Note to the people designing the courses—maybe add Overwatch too?
There will also be courses for those planning on taking up the role of team managers and shoutcasters as well.
Not much information on requirements or certification to enrol is available yet but for now, it is understood that the courses are open to everyone. The classes will take place during weekends with the academy starting operations in the first week of April.
The first batch will focus on gamers as APU and eSM have managed to gather experienced professional gamers to sign up as trainers for the four games mentioned.
For the other courses such as tourney managers, APU and eSM will announce them once they have identified qualified individuals for the job.
Although there are still a few questions to be asked about the academy, it is exciting to know how there is now an institution that deals with e-Sports and can help interested parties have a proper avenue to get in the scene.
Feature Image Credit: APIIT & APU – Malaysia’s Award-Winning University Facebook
