In a case of mistaken identity which can be easily forgiven due to ignorance, the Malaysian Overwatch World Cup Team was recently accused of “copying” a logo from an English football club when designing their ‘alternate’ jersey for the upcoming tournament in November.

Former Rogue main tank and current Game Producer for the Overwatch League, Jonathan “Reinforce” Larsson in a stream wrongly claimed that the Malaysian team “ripped off the logo from Portsmouth FC”.

“They have the exact same logo as the football club,” he chimed when asked to clarify by co-host Brennon “Bren“ Hook. You can watch the clip of the exchange below.

Heads up, Jonny: they aren’t the same.

For those who are not sure what he is referring to, here’s a quick breakdown. This is the logo of Portsmouth FC which currently plays in the English Football League 1.

In comparison, here is the Malaysian jersey which sports the moon and crescent design on the chest area.

The crescent represents Malaysia’s official religion while the fourteen-pointed star, known as the Bintang Persekutuan (Federal Star) represents the 13 states and the Federal Territories of Malaysia.

While most folks are more accustomed to the horizontal orientation of both star and crescent as seen on the Malaysia flag, the Overwatch committee used a vertical alignment for the Malaysian Coat of Arms, as seen below.

As someone who had a hand in designing the team’s ‘alternate’ jersey (alongside the designer, of course) due to my role as the General Manager of the Malaysian Overwatch World Cup team, we can assure you that the crescent and fourteen-pointed star design were selected, due to both being uniquely Malaysian and are the best representation of Malaysian unity. If you noticed, while the rest of the jersey was either in orange or black, both the crescent and star remain yellow to ensure they pop out.

Malaysia will be competing in the 2019 Overwatch World Cup at BlizzCon this November. As part of their fund-raising activity for the tournament, the team is selling a limited edition ‘alternate’ jersey as seen above. You can find more details here.

Editor’s Note: Kenn Leandre, who is also the founder of Kakuchopurei, is currently serving as General Manager for Team Malaysia at the 2019 Overwatch World Cup.