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Garena World's success a hint of what to expect from esports debut in SEA Games?

Garena World's success a hint of what to expect from esports debut in SEA Games?

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Esports tournament Garena World attracted near to 270,000 people at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre over 6 to 7 April. As various national esports associations organise their respective national qualifiers in anticipation of the first esports medal event in the biennial SEA Games this November, representatives headed down to Garena World to glean useful insights. Singapore Esports Association (SGEA) president Ng Chong Geng was one of them, according to a report by The Straits Times. Ng said to the news outlet, "The most relevant thing to Singapore from Garena World is to show that there can be an audience." While gamers tend to have no incentive to leave their homes to play games or watch esports because of "uniformly good connection speeds", he said that they can be attracted to an esports event if production and marketing are done well. Among the five esports games confirmed for the SEA games was mobile title, Arena of Valor (AoV), which had accounted for more than half of Garena World's SG$723,630 total prize pool. According to Garena, which developed AoV with Tencent Games and organised its eponymous flagship tournament, support from the games' respective developers or publishers is critical to the success of esports debut in SEA Games. Other competing games are Tekken 7, Starcraft 2, Dota 2 and Mobile Legends, and one more title yet to be revealed. In a statement to the media, Garena said that it is looking to build on the success of Garena World, particularly for Arena of Valor, it will hold the AoV International Championships. Held last year in the United States, the tournament at Vietnam in June will be a first for Southeast Asia. Speaking to ST, Garena's vice-president of strategic partnerships Jason Ng said, "We have the prior experience, from small things like setting up a network which has not been needed at a SEA Games before, to how you make an experience where all the action takes place in a grey booth engaging and accessible." Razer has also recently come on board as the official esports partner of SEA Games. It will be drawing upon its expertise and experience in esports, as well as its ecosystem of hardware, software and services to support the esports tournament. This includes facilitating discussions between Philippine SEA Games Organising Committee and various game publishers to select the games that will be featured at the SEA Games esports tournament. In addition, Razer will be supporting the final crop of Team Philippines esports athletes who will represent the host country at the finals. SGEA will be holding its national qualifiers later this month, and determining the top eight esports contestants representing Singapore in May. Without revealing any numbers, SGEA's Ng told ST that the signup rate has been encouraging but not record-breaking, with 30 entries for the most popular game, and five for the least popular. Representatives from Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar were attending Garena World alongside Ng. In other news, Singtel has partnered with the SGEA to sponsor Singapore’s SEA Games esports team. The sponsorship will entail funding for training, competitions and player stipends, as well as a scholarship component that gives access to educational opportunities. Simultaneously, the telco will appoint Singtel PVP ambassadors under the PVP esports banner in a bid to cultivate the budding gaming and esports scene in Singapore. The ambassadors will be esports teams and players in Singapore such as RZR Xian, Resurgence and Asterisk*.

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