Malaysia Assures Guaranteed Medal In Arena of Valor, Will Face China Or Thailand In Final

On Monday, September 25, 2023, the Malaysian esports team at the Asian Games 2023 have guaranteed their first medal at the ongoing Hangzhou Asian Games. Ironically, it happens to be Malaysia’s first medal and it comes from the realm of Esports.

The Malaysian team assured their place on the podium after advancing to the final of Arena of Valor earlier today. The team put up a stellar performance In the semi-finals. The semi finals saw them beat Vietnam 2-0.

Now, Malaysia will be looking forward to the finals wherein they will either be facing Thailand or China, and will aim at defeating them to claim the gold medal. 

Now the question is can Malaysia’s eSports team go on to become legends from and beat the Chinese esports team in the game. Interestingly, China is the home of the game since the developers of Arena of Valor is Chinese. Additionally, the final is being held at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Tuesday, which is also in China. Will Malaysia beat the Chinese in their home ground?

The Malaysian team did make history in the Arena of Valor team after they secured a 2-0 victory over the regional rivals Vietnam in the semi-finals at the Hangzhou eSports Centre.

If Malaysia manages to beat the opposing team in the finals and claim glory, Lai Chai Chein, Nicholas Ng, Yong Zhang Quan, Ong Jun Yang, Eng Jun How and Chong Han Hui will become Malaysia’s unexpected heroes by claiming the first medal for their country. But for this they will have to beat the Chinese team, which includes Sun Linwei, Luo Siyuan, Chi Xiaoming, Xu Bicheng, Jiang Tao, if they want to claim the gold medal.

It also comes as a relief for the country since the esports team has guaranteed a medal. This would mean the Malaysian contingent will take home at least one medal for their homeland from the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

The Arena of Valor Malaysian esports team captain Chai Chein seemed confident about his team and their efforts as he said, “Vietnam played well, but we were better,” 

China defeated Thailand 2-0 in the other semi-final.

The team came out on top by performing exceptional in the qualification tournament (AESF Road to Asian Games 2022) in Macau two months ago. Now the Malaysian team will try their best to winning gold.

“Of course, China hold a slight advantage as they are not only the hosts but are also the developers of Arena of Valor. This will always be the case. In the next Asian Games, Japan will have a slight edge as they will feature their games. However, the version played here is a blend of the original and international versions. So, it is untrue to claim that China have a full advantage,” he said.

“We had two weeks of intensive centralised training before arriving for the Games. We have four pro players actively involved in the leagues, so it’s not easy to have them all train together all the time,” said team manager Wong Kang Woon.