Maxwell Longhouse, a 22-door Iban longhouse at KM21, Jalan Oya made history after it hosted an e-sports event and became the first rural e-sports arena!
Photo via Astro Awani
...which is very rare considering that an e-sports competition is an event that is usually reserved for urban areas.
According to Astro Awani, the Mobile Legends E-Sports competition jointly organised by the E-Sport Nangka Challenge Committee, the Nangka state constituency’s Rural Youth Brigade and Women’s Bureau, and the Nangka constituency Service Centre, received an overwhelming response with over 30 teams registering for the event.
The organising chairman, Abdul Taib Rosli, who is also the president of the Central Sarawak Electronic Sports Association said in a Facebook post that in order to comply with the SOPs that were implemented by the government, the association had to reject half of the registration for the competition.
Assistant Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research, Dr. Annuar Rapaee said that the players were willing to use their own mobile broadband to compete in the competition due to the lack of internet connectivity at the longhouse.
He also said that the move to hold the event at a longhouse was to provide an opportunity for youth from different communities to interact with each other, as well as to attract more rural youth to participate in e-sports, that is usually dominated by urban youths.
Besides that, it is also to help scout for new talents to represent Sarawak at the 2021 Malaysia Games (SUKMA).
“Seeing how this competition has received encouraging support from the youth, we will install broadband services at the Maxwell Longhouse so that the youth here can compete in Mobile Legends E-Sports,” he said.
Senarai Peserta Pertandingan Mobile Legends Nangka Challenge 2020 14 Pasukan telah mengesahkan penyertaan , hanya...
Posted by E Sport Nangka Challenge on Tuesday, December 1, 2020
The Central Sarawak Electronic Sports Association has been asked to organise similar events in other rural areas to allow more youth to participate.
This is actually pretty cool! We wish we were there to see it!
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
