The top Southeast Asian esports business developments in June 2020

Mobile esports titles continue to top the headlines in Southeast Asia in the month of June while the launch of VALORANT has also thrown up new opportunities for the region.

These are the big stories for the month of June, in collaboration with AFK Gaming.

Indonesia’s Bigetron Esports announces partnership with Xiaomi

Bigetron Esports
Credit: Bigetron Esports

Bigetron Esports announced a sponsorship deal with smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi. Bigetron is one of the region’s most popular organisations and is the current PUBG Mobile world champion.

The organisation has presence in other countries such as Thailand as well and fields rosters in PUBG Mobile, Free Fire, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Call of Duty: Mobile. 

ONE Esports announces partnership with Toyota Motors for online racing tournament

Toyota Motors ONE Esports
Credit: ONE Esports

Southeast Asian tournament organiser ONE Esports announced a partnership with Toyota Motors Asia Pacific to present the GR Supra GT Cup Asia 2020.

The initiative will see the region’s top competitors take part in a Gran Turismo tournament series. The competition will be open to a number of Asian countries, which will be handled by regional Toyota distributors which will then roll up to the Regional Final. The tournament will see active participation from Toyota Gazoo Racing, which is the company’s motorsports arm. In the past years, data from these competitions has been used to enhance the actual car, GR Supra. 

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MESF announces partnership with Dynasty Esports to create official national esports platform

Malaysian Electronic Sports Federation Dynasty Esports
Credit: Malaysian Electronic Sports Federation

The Malaysian Electronic Sports Federation announced a five-year strategic partnership with Dynasty Esports Private Limited.

The objective of the cooperation will be to provide a platform for effective management and regulation of the esports ecosystem within Malaysia. The platform will contain free open source esports event management, player engagement, tournament registration, players’ security guidelines, esports club registration, local esports news, national esports athlete registration, and more. It will also feature the country’s first esports leaderboard and ranking system for respective titles for Malaysians, and the national esports calendar for esports-related activities within the nation as well as international events that feature Malaysian athletes.

Additionally, MESF will soon be rolling out a national esports league plan that includes esports game titles on platforms such as PC, console, mobile, racing simulator, and virtual reality (VR) for Malaysia. This initiative is in alignment with the ‘Strategic Plan for eSports Development’ that was launched by the Ministry of Youth and Sports last year.

Riot Games and CTBC Bank partner for the League of Legends Pacific Championship Series

CTBC Bank x PCS
Image credit: Riot Games

Riot Games and CTBC Bank announced a partnership in support of the League of Legends Pacific Championship Series (PCS).The three-year deal will see upgrades to production volume and quantity and allow the operations to expand beyond Taiwan, with integration of broadcast facilities in Bangkok and Singapore. The aim of the partnership is to enhance player and fan experience and to fuel large scale engagement and outreach. 

Speaking about the partnership, Chris Tran, Head of Esports at Riot Games Southeast Asia, said: CTBC Bank’s commitments to integrity, innovation and care for their customers directly echo the driving principles of the PCS. We’re thrilled to team up with them on this groundbreaking partnership, which will provide meaningful and long-term value to our fans. We couldn’t be more excited to build the future of League of Legends esports in the region together.” 

Read the full article here.

Thai PUBG MOBILE champion roster Illuminate transferred to new owner

Valdus Esports PUBG Mobile
Credit: Valdus Esports

The reigning Thai PUBG Mobile champions, Illuminate the Murder, moved to a new home after their previous owner transferred the organisation to a new owner. The new team is known as Valdus Esports and is owned by private investor Pongsakorn Phromthet. Illuminate is a well-known team in Thailand, having built its reputation through the PC version of PUBG. It’s one of the few teams that continues to support the scene, despite many organisations having pulled out of the title.

AFK Gaming is an India-based esports media and content company that aims to provide quality and consistent coverage about teams, players, tournaments and competitive video games with a primary focus on the Asian region.

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