Malaysia and Vietnam walk away the biggest winners at One Asia Cup 2012

Drawing out the biggest gamers from the five neighboring nations of South East Asia; Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, the One Asia Cup 2012 set itself up as the ultimate precursor to the mammoth of a gaming event coming only days later, TGX Malaysia 2012. Not to be confused with its more endowed significant other though, the One Asia Cup dished out its very own brand of top notch competitive gaming to the tune of RM28,000 with crowd favorites FIFA Online 2 and Counter-Strike Online providing the bulk of the entertainment.

As with any competition there had to be a winner – held in Malaysia, one would think the local teams would wield an advantage over their traveling foes and indeed they did. Coming out strong in every department the Malaysian representatives left an enduring mark on the tournament by featuring in the semi-finals for both FIFA Online 2 and Counter-Strike Online.

Surviving an early scare after being knocked into the losers brackets by the eventual finalists, team OrangeEsports fought valiantly against local outfits Noxious and Team LZ before climbing back up to podium where they looked to return the favor to the high flying Litelab (Singapore) for having unceremoniously dispatched them in round 2. Boasting an experienced team consisting of Fluckz, Aiman, GFI, Rico and Monsterrrr, Orange left it late to take the best of 3 series after having disposed of another Singaporean outfit (PowahRangers) in the semi-finals of the loser brackets in the most convincing fashion possible, 16-0.

Elsewhere the Malaysian gamers continue to make impressive headway as the competition progressed into the latter stages. Kushiroo, famed for his defensive plays and traditional no-nonsense pressing set up, thought he had done everything right—and he did—almost. Having been beaten down into the losers brackets Kushiroo must have thought he had done enough when he admirably battled his way back into contention when he put 4 passed NeoLgtFFiLos from Thailand in the semi-finals of the loser’s bracket. However, little did the home crowd expect their title hopeful to run into the great wall of Vietnam who goes by the name of KingThaiBao, who coolly saw out Kushiroo with the slightest of margins at 1-0.

Making his way into the grand finals, the diamond formation of KingThaiBao edged out the counter-attacking flair of the VEC 2011 1V1 Champion, ong.Trum in an exhilarating 5-2 match up which had the floor roaring with approval. In what was a highly entertaining round of games, both KingThaiBao, winner of FIFA Online 2, and OrangeEsports, winner of the Counter-Strike Online series, pulled of almost prophetic comebacks against their bogey teams by ousting them in the grand finals.

So walking out of the One Asia Cup, 2012 edition, Malaysia and Vietnam look the obvious winners in this episode of what is a very exciting month for eSports in the region. With The Games Expo Malaysia coming up in a matter of days, one can only hope that the thrills and spills of the One Asia Cup carry over into the last hurrah for eSports in South East Asia in 2012.

The One Asia Cup, organized by IAH Games, took place on the 14th to 16th of December 2012 at the MyCORE Centre in Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia, and was brought to you by official partners SMM, True Digital Plus, VT Games, with official sponsors Razer, AMD and Lenovo. For more information on the teams and final standings at the competition head on over to the official site.