Malaysian 'Cyber athletes' clinch Silver Medal at Electronic Sports World Cup

Team Kingsurf competes against the rest of the world at the sixth Electronic Sports World Cup in San Jose, USA from 25-27 August 2008

San Jose, USA, 28 August 2008 – The sixth edition of the Electronic Sports World Cup, the most exciting electronic sports competition which gathered 650 video gamers from 40 countries in San Jose Convention Center in California from 25-27 August 2008 came to a close today following an intense three days of competition.

Organised by ESWC Master Licensees Go International Group Sdn Bhd in Malaysia, the Malaysian contingent comprised of a team of six Malaysian youth aged between 18 to 23 years old. "The sportsmanship showed by our Malaysian team was highly commendable. The ESWC offers youth a platform to not only pit their skills in video games, but also to play against the top gamers from around the world. An added incentive was the opportunity to win large amounts of cash rewards which can help them better their game for more global competitions," said Jasmine Low, Managing Director from Go International Group and Team Manager for the Malaysian Contingent in San Jose, USA. In the first worldwide international competition for Warcraft Defense of the Ancients (5v5 DotA), gamers competed for the US$26,000 prize pool for first, second and third placings.Showing no signs of jetlag, Team Malaysia Kingsurf was on a winning streak by winning first place in Group A having beaten teams from Pakistan (S3X), Sweden (SK Gaming), Canada (Nafu), France (Serious Gaming) and United States (EvilGeniuses) on Day 1 of the competition on 25 August 2008. Day 2 followed with Singapore's Team Zenith sweeping wins in Group B from favourites from Romania (TheElderGods), Denmark (MeetYourMakers), United States (Jukes on You) and Brazil (Fearz). Both Singapore's Zenith and Malaysia's Kingsurf secured a place in the Winner's bracket for the finals on Day 3 whilst Denmark's MeetYourMakers met with the United States' Evil Geniuses. Following an hour and a half's play in one of the most popular games in Asia, Team Kingsurf were defeated by Singapore's Zenith and took home the Silver medal.

Team Malaysia Kingsurf from Johor Bahru are Lee Wen Chek a.k.a. "Xiaogui" (age 20), Ng Wei-Poong a.k.a. "Yamateh" (age 18), Lee Vei Siang a.k.a. "PapaXiong" (age 18), Ng Kim Jen a.k.a. Sakura (age 20) and Mar Yung-Chia a.k.a. xaOmA (age 20). Another of Malaysia's players, Tang Chee Keong "Luige" played in the car racing game, Trackmania Nations Forever and secured 25th placing amongst the 30 contenders from around the world. The six gamers created history as the first professional gamers to have the privilege to meet with Prime Minister YAB Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi before departing for San Jose, USA last week.

Hosted by NVIDIA during the NVISION, the ESWC 2008 held for the first time outside of France, provided over 360 computers with games on the main stage broadcasted via the Internet during the entire tournament. Highlights of the three-day event included an appearance by astronaut Buzz Aldrin, keynote speeches by Co-Founder and CEO of NVIDIA, Jen-Hsun Huan and the successful completion of Guinness Book of Records for the largest LAN party in the world!