Geek Events: Malaysia Esports Championship, Dew Challenge and Garena Free Fire: MCP Majors.
Almost all aspects of traditional sports have seen a halt since the hit of the COVID-19 pandemic with stadiums, courts and rinks going under due to social distancing practices. Esports has since had its time to shine despite the economic disruption.
It is not entirely accurate to say that esports is completely unaffected by the pandemic. While the transition to go online was relatively easier for the industry, with some tournaments finding a way to work around the pandemic (online), live events are also a major part of the professional esports industry and in this way it was not completely immune to the impact of COVID-19.
The past weekend marked a proud moment for the Geek Events team. We simultaneously ran the Malaysia Esports Championship (MEC) Grand Finals, the Dew Challenge Grand Finals and the Garena Free Fire MCP Majors. In the midst of a pandemic and a movement control order being announced 10 days before the events, it gave us very little time for planning and execution to ensure we adhered to all the SOPs to achieve maximum safety.
Big shifts had to be put in place in terms of our labour force; splitting the team to different offices, determining those that could work remotely, ensuring the daily disinfection of the offices, but we made it work. With only a couple of esports organisers present in Malaysia, Geek Events is one of the few esports events organiser that has been able to pull off three events running simultaneously in one weekend, with thousands of concurrent viewers across each event.
We had a dedicated team of over 60+ people working to pull these three events through, with a lot of the team working remotely. Furthermore, dealing with several stakeholders; from Esports Integrated, Garena, Tencent, Moonton and PepsiCo.
The events Geek Events ran this weekend included:
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Malaysia Esports Championship (MEC)
MEC is the first national competition initiated by Esports Integrated (ESI), a government-corroborated local initiative, seen by the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS), in collaboration with Geek Fam and Alhamra Games. The Malaysian tournament featured four of the current most popular esports titles in the region; Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) and PUBG mobile for the handheld device, Dota 2 for the PC, and FIFA 21 for the console.
Geek Events was announced as the official esports partners of Esports Integrated (ESI) to launch the Malaysia Esports Championship, with a prize pool of RM 100,000. The Malaysia Esports Championship boasted over 10,000 Malaysian players registered for the qualifiers, a peak concurrent viewership of over 15,000 and a total overall viewership of more than 1.5 million views.
The Malaysia Esports Championship gained nationwide media coverage from a reputable media source such as TV3 Buletin Utama. Watch the highlights of MEC featured on Buletin Utama here:
- MEC 2020/2021 – DOTA 2: https://www.facebook.com/esportsintegrated/videos/344120149993771
- MEC 2020/2021 – Mobile Legends Bang Bang: https://www.facebook.com/esportsintegrated/videos/844338156415606
- MEC 2020/2021 – PUBG Mobile: https://www.facebook.com/esportsintegrated/videos/434276608006010
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Dew Challenge: PUBG Mobile
Mountain Dew and PUBG Mobile teamed up to create The PUBG Mobile Dew Challenge, the biggest amateur PUBG Mobile tournament in Malaysia and Singapore with a prize pool of RM 200,000.
Geek Events handled this tournament from start to finish. As part of our brand activation with Mountain Dew, we integrated the text codes into Mountain Dew bottle caps to register for the tournament and as a result, over 2,000 teams registered.
From developing the website, conceptualising, marketing, tournament administration, brand activation, talent management, live event production, broadcasting and sponsorship hunting etc; we were immensely proud of the turnout, with over 2,000 participating teams or over 11,000 registered players across Malaysia and Singapore.
With these crazy numbers achieved, the Dew Challenge was a massive success, and we look forward to bringing more innovative methods for brand activation for our clients through the huge and exciting esports world.
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Garena Free Fire: MCP Majors
Free Fire was the most downloaded game of 2020, and we are very proud to say that we had a little hand with Free Fire Malaysia Solos, Tri Nation Cup and Continental Series: Asia in 2020. Through these lasting relationships with game developers as well as through innovative conceptualisation, Geek Events is one of the only esports organisers that have had the honor of hosting so many prestigious events such as the Free Fire MCP Majors 2021.
The MCP Majors League Stage will go on for a consecutive 6 weeks with a prize pool of USD 50,000. With it only being in its second week, we’ve already seen a peak concurrent viewership of over 10,000 and close to a million views across the second weekend.
The esports industry’s ability to attract millions of active participants and viewers is an impossible factor to look past for entertainment sectors. Moving forward, more partnerships and events at larger scales can be predicted with the entertainment industry, as they can look on to benefit from the steadily increasing momentum that the gaming industry provides.
We look forward to turning the pandemic into an opportunity for industry growth. So far, it can be expected that esports will adapt and rise around most restrictions. At the very least, the pandemic will have managed to draw the attention of media companies towards the extremely engaged consumers of the esports market.
Whether it’s big tournaments, community gatherings or online competitions – if it’s for gamers or geeks, you can rest assured Geek Events can provide the best experience. Find out more at: https://geekevents.asia/