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#TECH: Nurturing champions

Malaysian gamers have great potential and local telco Yoodo is going all out to help them

MOBILE gaming is a huge industry and Malaysian youth have great potential in this new-age "sports". Telecommunications company Yoodo understands this and has been putting in a lot of effort to put Malaysia at the top of the game.

As the country's first fully customisable and 100 per cent digital telco, Yoodo has a desire to build a bigger and better mobile gaming scene, from sponsoring tournaments to partnering with game developers. The company was involved in some of the biggest e-sports championships in the country, namely PUBG Mobile Pro League, Mobile Legends M3 World Championship, PUBG Mobile Campus Championship and Mobile Legends Professional League Invitational.

Yoodo's head Chow Tuck Mun said mobile gaming is an exciting opportunity for a digital telco like Yoodo to tap into.

"It's a rapidly growing mobile market, and we will continue to stake a claim in the scene as the go-to telco for gamers. It diversifies the business using existing capabilities as a data provider and uplifts the Malaysian e-sports ecosystem," he said.

BUILDING TEAMS

Besides launching gaming events, the company also partnered with e-sports organisations to build teams to compete in two major titles in mobile gaming — PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends.

Yoodo has two teams — Yoodo RSG, an all-Malaysian team with RSG specialising in Mobile Legends and Yoodo Alliance-4Rivals, a team the telco formed with the Swedish e-sports organisation, Alliance, for PUBG Mobile.

"We fully support the mobile gaming industry, not just through investing in events, and partnering with game publishers. To prove our commitment, we support young talent and invest in their future to be, one day, the best players in the industry," said Chow.

"This is one of our ways of contributing to the growth of Malaysia's mobile gaming industry," he said as he proudly shared how the teams fared in some of the latest tournaments.

NEEDS VS OFFERINGS

The telco is committed to improving the quality of connectivity and data offerings to its users in tandem with the growing technology industry.

There is steady improvement in the industry but users need to understand that everything is interconnected and relies on each other.

"Right now, everything seems to be on a par, technology-wise. We always need to consider all aspects of the ecosystem. Users too need to understand that when they ask for more speed, faster load, no buffering — are their devices capable of handling the speed, and vice versa? The same goes for games. Both publisher and game developer must be in sync and grow along with the needs.

"The same goes for the gaming industry," said Chow.

"As developers create more graphically demanding games, devices need to be ready to support them. Likewise, as a data provider company, we need to make sure our services are just as great," he said.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR BRANDS

Chow believes that the gaming industry has opened up new opportunities for brands.

"What is interesting to see is that the gaming industry, as part of its efforts to be more relatable to the players, is creating opportunities for everyone, including non-tech companies, to be part of its production," he said.

Yoodo's partnership with Tencent, the developer of PUBG Mobile, and Moonton, developer of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, has managed to pull off some of the most exciting exploits in both gaming and marketing with experience-enhancing opportunities and in-game brand placements.

Other than its team partnership with Alliance and RSG, and sponsoring gaming tournaments, Chow said the company is always looking at other means of collaboration and potential expansion of gaming title involvements.

"We are on the lookout for more talent in the gaming industry, including castors, content creators as well as gaming influencers. They are part of the gaming community and we are all about supporting the community," he said.

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