Malaysia’s first eSports academy established by APU and eSM

It's about time something like this happened. eSports Malaysia (eSM) and the Asia Pacific University (APU) have launched what is pretty much the gamers’ dream made manifest - the APU eSports Malaysia Academy.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoA) was signed between Datuk Dr. Parmjit Singh, CEO of APIIT Education Group, and Dato’ Latt Shariman Abdullah, President of eSM.

The APU eSports Academy will now serve as a platform for those wanting to contribute to the competitive gaming scene to achieve their dreams. Students will now have somewhere to go to whenever they are in need of support, training and other guidelines in order to make it in the world of competitive gaming, be it as a gamer, team manager or even as a shoutcaster.

So what does this all mean? According to Rinie Ramli, Secretary General of eSM, this means students will have access to semester-long courses on the gaming field of their choosing.

For those who want to be competitive gamers, there will be courses that were planned and will be carried out by professional gamers on the basics needed in four games - FIFA Online, Counter-Strike, Dota 2 and League of Legends. For those interested in playing a role in the world of competitive gaming in other ways, there will be courses on being effective team managers and shoutcasters as well.

Courses are slated to start in by the first week of April. From the sound of it, it would be the course for gamers that will commence first, as there are experienced professional gamers who have signed up as trainers for the four games have already. As for the jobs behind the scenes like tourney managers, we'll have to wait for further announcements after APU and eSM have identified qualified individuals for the job.

There will be other things going on as well, including tournaments and industry talks.

Perhaps in the future, we can expect full diploma or degree courses in these fields. It may be farfetched a dream still, but this is a good start, one that the local eSports scene desperately needs for competitive gaming to thrive. Hopefully this is the next step for our local talent to be recognised and properly representing Malaysia as national athletes, and not having them seeking greener pastures representing a team of another country.

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