Booming games: Local e-sports athletes participating in the Selangor Youth Festival last year. As the local e-sports industry’s value skyrockets to tens of millions of ringgit in revenue, stakeholders and observers highlight the need for a standardised system to ensure fairness and protect the rights of players. — Photo courtesy of ESS
AZLAN (not his real name) has dreamed of joining an e-sports team since he was a child.
Now 23, he managed, through mutual friends, to land a 12-month contract late last year with a team specialising in a few popular online games. But just three months into the venture, he realised that things weren’t as rosy as he had imagined.
