On Monday, 2 October, Malaysia secured the third-place position in the Dota 2 medal event of the 19th Asian Games by defeating Kyrgyzstan 2-0 in the bronze medal match. Dota 2 is a PC multiplayer online battle arena video game developed by Valve.
Despite high expectations for Malaysia to compete for the gold medal, they had to settle for bronze due to a challenging semifinal match against a strong Chinese team, according to Yahoo! News.
In the competition, Malaysia and China emerged as the top contenders for the Dota 2 gold medal, with both nations fielding national teams consisting of highly skilled professional players.
China’s lineup featured renowned players like Wang “Ame” Chunyu, Lu “Somnus” Yao, Yang “Chalice” Shenyi, Zhao “XinQ” Zixing, and Yu “皮球” Yajun, with the guidance of coach Zhang “LaNm” Zhicheng and veteran substitute Xiong “Pyw” Jiahan.
Notably, Malaysia’s well-known Dota 2 player, Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung, served as the coach for the national team.
Malaysia had a core group of players who were contracted by Chinese teams, including Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang from LGD Gaming, Daniel “Ghost” Chan and Thiay “JT-” Jun Wen from Xtreme Gaming, as well as Ng “YamateH” Wei Poong and Yap “xNova” Jian Wei from BOOM Esports.
Both China and Malaysia had earned their spots directly in the event’s playoffs by winning the Road to Asian Games preliminaries for East Asia and Southeast Asia, respectively, in July.
