HANGZHOU, Sept 26 — Malaysia’s wait for first gold medal at the ongoing Asian Games have been further delayed, as the Arena of Valor esports team could not break the great Chinese Wall in the final, tonight.
In the gold-medal decider at the 4,500 capacity China Hangzhou E-Sports Centre, the host representatives had the upper hand with strong home crowd support to notch a 2-0 win against the Malaysian team in the mobile-based strategy game, developed by Chinese developers.
The Malaysian team of Lai Chai Chein, Nicholas Ng, Yong Zhang Quan, Ong Jun Yang, Eng Jun How and Chong Han Hui was subdued by China, comprising Sun Linwei, Luo Siyuan, Chi Xiaoming, Xu Bicheng, Jiang Tao and Li Heng for the historic gold as esports made Asian Games debut as medal sport.
Esports was hosted as demo-sport at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.
Malaysia advanced to the final after beating Vietnam 2-0 in the semi-finals yesterday, while China ousted Thailand with the same score.
Earlier, Thailand beat Vietnam 2-0 to clinch the bronze.
Team manager Wong Kang Woon said, despite trying hard, the players could not match the prowess of the mighty Chinese.
“China is a giant of this game and we are still trying to get there, challenging them is akin to grandson challenging grandfather. We are disappointed that we couldn’t deliver Malaysia’s first gold though we tried our best,” he said. — Bernama
