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A Day With Malaysia’s First Esports Gold Medalist – A Picture Essay
At the recent SEA Games 2019, history was made as esports was included as a medal sport for the first time ever. Six games were selected and eight countries participated. Malaysia’s Hearthstone player Dr. Yew Weng Kean brought home the country’s first esports gold medal.
Dr. Yew “wkyew” Weng Kean showing off his SEA Games 2019 gold medal. Yew said he never expected to be Malaysia’s first esports gold medalist but once he made it into the national team, he was determined to win the tournament.
The event celebrating Dr. Yew’s victory was held at the M8Hexa Esports Hub located in Kota Warisan, Sepang. Aside from having facilities for console, mobile, and PC gaming. There’s also a pool table for customers to enjoy.
Malaysia’s Hearthstone team coach Muhammad Izzat “EzXarT” Mohamed Isa also attended to share his journey in guiding the team to victory. Hearthstone team member Hee “lalasong” Zi Song couldn’t attend due to having work in Singapore.
Dr. Yew explained that one of the most helpful decisions made during training was to hire a sport psychologist. The Youth & Sports Ministry did hire sport psychologists for the Malaysian teams but it was difficult for esports to get a hold of these personnel. So they hired former national badminton player Daphne Ng as the team’s sport psychologist.
Just like any other game played competitively, understanding the meta was crucial in bagging the Hearthstone gold medal. In preparation for the tournament, the coach and players spent hundreds of hours studying their opponents’ playstyles.
This is just the beginning of greater things to come. Dr. Yew hopes that esports players and fans in the country continue to do their best so that more gold medals will be brought home by future Malaysian esports athletes.
The Malaysian esports teams didn’t achieve their target of bringing home two golds, two silvers, and two bronzes. However, it’s more important to celebrate what we won and keep working towards our future goals.
Esports at SEA Games 2019 will forever be remembered as a historical event for the entirety of the Southeast Asian esports community. It’s the first time an event of this scale and importance occurred not only in the region but in the entire world.
For a recap of all the winners at the SEA Games 2019 Esports event, read up our full roundup here.
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