The esports industry in Malaysia may be at its nascent stage, but organisations such as Urban Madness Esports are playing an integral role in growing the industry and have grown exponentially, particularly within the SEA region since its inception a year ago. In this exclusive interview, Shahirul Alfian Sjahrial, Co-Founder at Urban Madness Esports speaks about his motivation to be a part of the esports industry, achievements so far, facing challenges, short and long term goals and much more!
Q 1) As Co-Founder at Urban Madness Esports, what motivated you to form the organisation?
I realised this was my dream and true calling as there are extraordinary young talents in this fast growing multi-billion industry with endless opportunities and possibilities. The esports ecosystem has given me the motivation to strive to build a big and famous organisation in the near future. My motivation is simple, making money while doing the things I’m passionate about (playing games).
Q 2) What are some of the biggest and most significant achievements of Urban Madness Esports?
We started about a year ago, therefore we are a very new organisation, but we have managed to build the brand (Madness Esports) and have achieved positive growth in terms of exposure within the SEA region. We started off with the Mobile Legends Bang Bang team, which made it to the top 4 in the Tier 2 level in Malaysia. With that being said, one of our players turned Pro and played In MPLMY s8 last year.
We grew very quickly from over 50 competitive players in Mobile Legends Bang Bang, Valorant and Rainbow6, including players that are in our development program and recently qualified to VCT MY/SG Playoff, becoming the only Malaysian team that made it that far this year. We have over 100k +- followers combined throughout all players / content creators / brand ambassador's social media in Malaysia / Singapore / Philippines / USA / Vietnam within just 1 year.
We are aiming to organise a Valorant league at a SEA region level soon to help grow the community which is in-line with Riot Games’ direction for 2022.
Q 3) What are the various challenges that come with being a Co-Founder of an esports organisation? How did you overcome them?
Running an esports organisation in Malaysia is really tough. Obtaining seed fundings to run the organisation, getting sponsorships or partnerships is quite challenging. These are some of the biggest challenges and obstacles we face.
The feedback I usually get is amongst these three things.
1) What is Esports?
2) Not interested. We are only interested in the big esports names here in Malaysia.
3) No reply at all
It doesn't matter how good your achievements are, the major challenge is getting funding/ sponsorship / partnership from private corporations, government esports bodies and business owners. It’s because Malaysia does not have enough awareness about the esports ecosystem and the opportunities and revenue possibilities that exist in the industry.
There are other challenges as well. You ask how I overcame it? To be very honest, we never did overcome this issue. We are still open and actively searching for Seed Funding for our esports organisation. If you or any of your readers out there are interested in investing in us, we would welcome it with open arms.
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Q 4) What are your views on Esports being a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games? Do you believe it might feature in the Olympics one day?
I think it’s about time but the selection process needs to be really transparent and fair. I also believe they should include more gaming titles and platforms such as Virtual Reality. I believe that esports needs to be included in the Olympics soon as esports athletes are no different from traditional athletes.
Q 5) What are your short and long term goals as Co-Founder at Urban Madness Esports? How do you plan to accomplish them?
My short term goal is to solidify the organisation's fundings. My long term goal is being the first one to integrate WEB3 / MetaVerse / Crypto / NFT into the Malaysia/Singapore Esports Ecosystem to diversify revenue streams.
