Singapore, 19 May 2019 – After two days of intense competition, Indonesia’s PSG RRQ has emerged as the winner of the inaugural Southeast Asia Clash of Champions (SEACOC) at SG:Digital Wonderland after narrowly beating Singapore’s EVOS Sg, taking home the winner’s cheque of USD5,000 contributed by Infinitus.

The first semi-final game between PSG RRQ (ID) and GeekFam (MY) saw both teams hit the ground running with PSG RRQ securing a win by finishing the game curtly in order to stop GeekFam from catching up. The second game saw GeekFam take an early advantage, but an unrelenting PSG RRQ pressed on with the same strategy that brought them their first win, and managed to beat GeekFam to win two of three games and nab the first spot in the grand finals.

Said Muhammed Arif bin Abdul Halim AKA Rippo of GeekFam, “We differ our playstyles based on our opponents. Against PSG RRQ, we were more aggressive, and it worked really well in the early stages in both games, but we failed to take advantage of the momentum and lost. About 80% of the draft was planned out, and the issue we felt caused us the game was the team fights. After the first game, we talked about what we could avoid doing, from there we had an early good game but it was back to square one when we had a miscommunication during one team fight, and that led to the team’s downfall.”

The second semi-final group between EVOS Sg (SG) and Cignal Ultra (PH) kicked off to much fanfare, with EVOS Sg coming up tops in the first game after a long stalemate. Not to be outdone, Cignal Ultra turned the second game around and finished EVOS Sg off swiftly to bring both teams to a third-round tiebreaker. The longest game of the contest so far, the third game between Cignal Ultra mounted the pressure on EVOS Sg for much of the game, but a shrewd tactical display by EVOS Sg led them to outshine Cignal Ultra in the final minutes of the game to seal the second spot in the grand finals.

Said Angelo Kyle Arcangel AKA Pheww of Cignal Ultra, “We made some mistakes in our first game; we didn’t take advantage of our momentum and it was costly. For the second game, we picked Hayabusa in the drafting stage and that gave us an advantage from the start. We didn’t repeat the same mistakes we did in the previous game and held on to our momentum to win that round.

We are proud to make it to the semi-finals but are still disappointed that we didn’t manage to make it to the finals. All in all, we felt that EVOS was a really tough team to compete against – they put up a great fight.”

Officiated by Mr S Iswaran, Minister for Communications and Information, the grand finals between PSG RRQ and EVOS Sg saw the Indonesian team lay down the law early in the game and dismantle the home team succinctly. EVOS Sg picked up in the second match, taking their time to pressure PSG RRQ into a loss, but it was not enough as PSG RRQ rebounded quickly and shut their opponents down in the third game to be crowned the first ever champions of SEACOC.

M Ikshan AKA Lemon of PSG RRQ, “It feels really amazing to win. EVOS is probably one of the best in Singapore – they put up a tough fight throughout. Our team combination was meant for a full team fight but we got a little complacent, allowing EVOS to catch up. It boiled down to our skills and mentality – we kept composure and read the map, changed our strategy to counter what EVOS picked and were then able to control the game. We want to thank all our fans for supporting us from the start and we hope they will support us till the end.”

Robert Boon AKA OhDeerBambi of EVOS Sg commented, “We had a little bit of miscommunication at the start – different ideas on how to play the early stages – but we managed to keep our composure and work as a team again. It’s all about mentality; the last game meant that whoever won would be champions and that got us nervous – it’ll be something we will work on for future games.

“I’m more than satisfied with our performance. We are very proud of what we have achieved today against all the top teams in this region. PSG RRQ has been dominant throughout this competition so we are very proud to be able to get a game off them. We are very thankful for all the support and would like to apologise for not winning this time, but we will be much better moving forward and become a team and make our fans proud.”

The grand finals of the Southeast Asia Clash of Champions concluded a weekend of thrilling gaming action from the top esports teams in the region. Competition aside, the weekend also saw visitors participate in panel discussions on opportunities and careers in esports, play games with their family as part of the family challenges, and explore the latest technology and interactive exhibitions at SG:Digital Wonderland.

“We hope the programming arranged his weekend has given both fans and newcomers to esports, some insights into this booming industry. For the fans, it was an opportunity for them to gather with their peers to watch live gaming action and to meet their heroes in real life. For newcomers, we hope this has given them a good introduction and piqued their interest to find out more about esports. We want to thank all our partners and sponsors who have come along with us on this journey and helped us put together a successful first event and we look forward to organising even more competitions in the future,” said Mr Yip Renkai, Managing Partner of Reddentes Sports.

Final Results

  1. PSG RRQ (ID)
  2. EVOS Sg (SG)
  3. Cignal Ultra (PH) and GeekFam (MY)
  4. Team Flash (MY)
  5. Burmese Ghouls (MM)