The Malaysian Football League (MFL) today announced a partnership with
one of the biggest brands in gaming industry, Electronic Arts (EA), the publisher of FIFA Gaming Series in a joint-effort to create the eMalaysian Football League (eMFL), the first ever official esports league in Malaysia.
MFL will be the second league in Asia to partner with Electronic Arts to organise an esports
league event after Saudi Arabia’s eMBS Cup.
MFL together with Electronic Arts will jointly organise eMFL which will be an official licensed league event to be played on Playstation 4 platform using the latest FIFA20. The aim of the partnership between the two parties is to provide a platform for top Malaysian FIFA20 players the opportunity to further their careers at the highest level of football esports tournament while representing one of the 12 clubs in MFL CIMB Super League which are Johor Darul Ta’zim, Selangor, Melaka, Sabah, UITM FC, PDRM FC, Pahang, Perak,
Felda United FC, Terengganu FC, PJ City FC, and Kedah.
MFL has also appointed GB Esports Sdn Bhd which is the leading esports tournament organiser for the console category segment in Malaysia as its exclusive esports partner to jointly manage and promote the tournament. This cooperation between MFL and GB Esports Sdn Bhd aims to elevate the performance of FIFA esport athletes to an international level.
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For this year’s inaugural tournament, eMFL will proudly be sponsored by TM as the tournament Strategic Partner, co-sponsored by BenQ as the tournament Official Gaming Monitor and supported by Esports Kuala Lumpur (ESKL).
MFL Chief Executive Officer Dato’ Ab Ghani Hassan believes that eMFL not only boosts commercial value of electronic sports in the country but also create a path for the younger generation to become a professional esports athlete in the future.
Dato’ Ab Ghani also said that he believes that the eMFL competition will allow all football supporters to enjoy spectating this tournament while waiting for the Malaysian League to be resumed after being postponed since March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The eMFL serves as a great development platform for the younger generation. Nowadays, the Malaysian League has evolved into a digital channel where I believe the younger generation now not only has the option to be a football player but also to be a professional esport player.
“I hope that each player will do their best in this competition as they will be up against the very best FIFA esports player in the country. I hope that each player will play valiantly for each of the Malaysian Super League clubs that they represent.
“So, let us see the talents of our young players in the eMFL and of course, we should enjoy this tournament as much as we give our support to them while waiting for the Malaysian League to be resumed,“ he said.
Dato ‘AB Ghani has launched the inaugural edition of eMFL today. The launch was attended by TM General Manager Hamidun Ismail, BenQ General Manager, Brian Lee and Esports Kuala Lumpur President, Hisham Darus.
eMFL consists of 2 stages; Qualifiers and League. In the qualifiers which have been played in March, 25 Malaysian verified status players competed against each other in swiss round format to compete for the top 12 spots in the league stage. Each of these top 12 players will then represent one of the MFL CIMB Super League clubs.
The tournament format has been changed with all the matches to be played online due to
Pandemic Covid-19 and taking into account the Malaysian Government Rules and Regulation together with EA’s guidelines .
eMFL will kick off on 1 July 2020 and take place over 10 days until 10 July 2020. All matches will be broadcasted live on Facebook starting at 8.45pm on match days. Fans will be able to follow all the action live on https://www.facebook.com/eMFLmy/.
A round robin format will be used during the league stage and the player with the most points after 22 matches will be crowned as first ever eMFL Champion.
This collaboration is an exciting for MFL to demonstrate its strong commitment to develop the esports industry in line with Malaysia’s national agenda to become Southeast Asia’s premier esports hub.
This latest collaboration sees Malaysia follow in the footsteps of the professional football leagues of Spain, England, and Germany, which have partnered with EA to organise esports leagues. FIFA20 is one of the most popular video games worldwide and MFL is pleased to partner with EA. MFL sees this as the first step towards further collaboration with EA in the near future to include the Malaysian Super League in future iterations of the game.
Result of eMFL Player-Team Draw held at MFL Office on 29th June 2020 :
1 Ahmad Shahrin Shaharudin – PDRM FA
2 Alif Dani Noor Badarrudin – Melaka
3 Faaiz Zainuddin – Pahang
4 Iskandar Mirza Mohd Mustafa – Selangor
5 Muhamad Luqman Haziq Hajiman – Johor Darul Ta’zim
6 Muhammad Zainun – Sabah
7 Muhammad Akhmal Roslan – UITM FC
8 Muhammad Faid Mohd Said – PJ City
9 Muhammad Faiz Hariry Mohammad Fadzai – Terengganu FC
10 Muhammad Imran Burhanudeen – Kedah
11 Muhammad Muzaffar Zuhair Mustaffa – Perak
12 Mirza Mohammad Nabil Beg Mirza Mohammad Taiyab Beg – Felda United FC
