1st M’sian Team at DreamHack

Team LZ

A team of 5 Malaysian cyber athletes left to Jönköping, Sweden today to participate in DreamHack Winter, the world’s largest digital festival; Malaysia’s first participation in this event.

The DreamHack festival is an important computer, gaming and multimedia extravaganza held twice annually in Sweden – DreamHack Summer and DreamHack Winter – that has 10 electronic sports tournaments offering prize monies worth over SEK 400,000 (approximately RM200,000). A total 11,000 participants are expected to flock to the DreamHack festival to play the latest computer games, attend seminars, watch films, perform music, visual arts, and lots more.

Calling themselves Team LZ, the Malaysian team led by Lam Wai Loong aka Gavin, 21, Abdul Azim Yazid aka Bobo, 20, Gerard Anand Saker aka Nico, 23, Ng Yew Siang aka Nyhix, 26 and Sanjay Anantharajah aka Sniggy, 21 will compete in DreamHack Winter. Held from 26 November to 29 November, 2009, Team LZ will compete in Counter Strike 1.6 (C) Valve category with over 32 teams from 18 countries around the world with the only other Asian team from Singapore. In addition to being crowned as champion, the winning team will also walk away with a prize money of SEK 200,000 (approximately RM100,000). The tournament will be streamed live via HLTV, so fans from all around the world can log in on the internet and view the matches.

“We are honoured to bring the first Malaysian team to the DreamHack festival, which is a Guinness Book of Records event that recorded over 10,554 computers and 11,060 attendees in 2007 while also provided cyber gamers with a colossal broadband speed of 40 GB/ps. In addition to participating in the tournament, Team LZ will be able to gain valuable experience competing with the world’s best gamers while learning about the latest advancements in the digital gaming arena from enthusiasts from all over the world,” said Jasmine Low, Managing Director of Go International Group Sdn Bhd.

Go International Group is the organiser of the annual Independent Youth Festival // Digital Delirium Xpo, a national digital festival and e-Sports tournament held from August to October this year at various locations in Penang, Kuching and Selangor. The festival celebrates digital culture and encourages youth to participate and be pro-active in the activities such as an independent concert, videography, professional gaming tournament, human beatbox competition and a bloggers review competition. The festival is recognised by MDeC as a contributing factor to Malaysia’s creative content creation initiative.

As a reward, champion teams are selected to represent the country at festivals such as DreamHack. In the DreamHack Malaysian Qualifer – Go International E-Sports Cup (GO.esc), Team LZ beat 11 other local teams to win the all—expense paid trip to compete in DreamHack Winter in Sweden. The GO.esc tournament is funded by sponsorship from DiGi Broadband and supported by E-Club Online Management, 1 Utama, Acer, Steel Series, Canon and more.

Earlier in September 2009, eight independent singer songwriters; Liyana Fizi, Reza Salleh, Rashdan Harith and band, One Buck Short were sent by the same festival to Sydney, Australia where they performed at the annual Malaysia Festival. Go International Group was instrumental in raising sponsorship from Malaysia Airlines for that purpose.

Low added: “The gaming industry is expected to show phenomenal growth in the future as more of our youths are getting interested in playing games competitively. We want to develop this into a sustainable sport and industry as we send Malaysian youths to compete and attend international events like this which will further nurture Malaysia’s pool of talents. This will also benefit the growth of Malaysia’s creative multimedia industry.”

Team LZ has wide experience in cyber gaming which includes participating in 1st Asian Cyber Games 2007, 1st World Cyber Games 2008, 1st Electronic Sports World Cup Pre-Qualifier Subang (Malaysia) and 2nd Electronic Sports World Cup (Malaysia). They are also the champions of Sudden Attack, a game played at the 1st Asiasoft Game Festival 2009 (South East Asia, Malaysia) and 2nd Boazman Championship 2009 (Singapore).

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Go International Group
•    Go International Group Sdn Bhd is a marketing communication solutions company, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with a portfolio of corporate and lifestyle clients.
•    Go international Group takes an active role in the empowerment and enrichment of the local community by creating and organising events such as the Electronic Sports World Cup 2008, Independent Youth Festival 2008, Doppelganger Open Mic Open Stage and Wayang Kata amongst others.
•    Corporate website: www.gointernationalgroup.com

Independent Youth Festival
•    Indie Youth Fest is organised annually by Go International Group to provide a healthy and competitive platform for members of the local youth community to flaunt and exhibit their talent.
•    Indie Youth Fest provides an arena where one “Team Malaysia” is selected to represent the nation at international festivals.
•    The 2009 season kickstarts on 1st & 2nd August at 1 Utama Shopping Centre, followed by a nationwide road show before culminating at 1 Utama once again from 14-18 October 2009.
•    The 5-day festival focuses on activities, which are relevant to youth today; and such, is divided into two zones – Digital and Indie.
•    The Indie zone focuses on music, visual arts, comics, video games, and films and youth entrepreneurship.
•    The Digital Zone features a gadget and games expo (Digital Delirium Xpo), an e-Sports tournament (GO.esc // Dreamhack Malaysia Qualifiers) and blogger clinics.
•    Go international E-sport Cup (GO.esc) provides Malaysian pro-gamers an opportunity to qualify for major international gaming events such as ESWC (Electronic Sports World Cup) in San Jose, USA in 2008 and Dreamhack Sweden Winter in 2009.
•    For more information you may visit the site www.indieyouthfest.com and its the blog  www.indieyouthfest.wordpress.com

About Dreamhack Malaysia Qualifier
Under the licensing agreement with DreamHack Sweden witnessed by Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) Vice President Creative Multimedia, Encik Kamil Othman, on 13 July 2009 at the MSC

About Dreamhack Malaysia Qualifier
•    Under the licensing agreement with DreamHack Sweden witnessed by Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) Vice President Creative Multimedia, Encik Kamil Othman, on 13 July 2009 at the MSC Cybercentre in Plaza Sentral, Go International Group will organise a national e-Sport tournament to qualify Team Malaysia to compete at DreamHack Winter in Sweden.
•    The official game is Valve’s Counter Strike 1.6, a first-person shooter game of five players, of which three must be of Malaysian nationality.

About Dreamhack (Sweden)
•    DreamHack Sweden – the Guinness Book of World Records holder for the largest LAN party with 10,554 computers and 11,060 attendees in 2007 while also providing gamers with a colossal broadband speed of 40 GB/ps.

•    Held twice annually in Jönköping, Sweden, the DreamHack festival is an important computer, gaming and multimedia extravaganza. DreamHack Summer this year hosted 10 electronic sports (e-Sports) tournaments and gave out over 400,000 SEK (approximately RM200,000) in prize money! A paradise for the digital generation, enthusiasts from all over the world flock to DreamHack to play the latest computer games, attend seminars, watch films, perform music, visual arts, and lots more.

•    More than 100,000 viewers watch and follow Dreamhack through the internet. Further information: www.dreamhack.se