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COMMENT: Early exit for Singapore's Mobile Legends teams at MSC 2022 disappointing

EVOS SG after losing to Omega Esports at MSC 2022 (Photo: Yahoo Esports SEA)
EVOS SG after losing to Omega Esports at MSC 2022 (Photo: Yahoo Esports SEA)

I'll be mincing no words here. Despite their efforts, our Singaporean squads bowed out relatively early at the Mobile Legends Southeast Asia Cup 2022 (MSC 2022).

That's kinda sad.

Both EVOS SG and RSG Singapore lost 3-0 against Omega Esports and Falcon Esports respectively in the first round of the lower bracket, sending them out of the competition in Kuala Lumpur.

To be fair, the best international showing for Singapore squads have been the 4th placing.

This was achieved by EVOS SG at the recent M3 World Championship. They fought and lost against eventual champions Blacklist International in the lower bracket semi-final.

I can't help but wonder, though, if the poor finish so far is due to only playing within the MPL SG league, which splintered off from the combined MYSG league in 2021 and restricts the competition to local teams.

The Malaysia and Indonesia teams are much more competitive due to a bigger talent pool, while our Singapore players from EVOS and RSG are paying the price of being the big fish in a small pond, with the two teams being the only finalists for the MPL SG in three consecutive seasons.

There's a larger ocean out there with sharks they can feed on to grow, in my opinion.

If anything, this reminds me of when Singapore stopped playing in the Malaysia Cup in 1995 to form their own S-League.

The Singapore Premier League, as it's called now, hasn't been exciting honestly, and I don't even know anyone in my social circle that watches it. Goal 2010 wasn't even met halfway, and we've still not even qualified for the AFC Asian Cup since ever.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into things, and putting down our local pro-amateur squads.

But to really improve, you need to be playing against the best, to challenge yourself against the best.

Punching down against slightly lower skilled players won't make you better in the long run. You don't learn anything from it.

Conversely, you could argue that it helps raise the skills across the board locally, but after three seasons of MPL SG, and always having the same two teams in the Grand Final, your guess is as good as mine about the quality of MPL SG.

Let's just have MPL MYSG again, now that the pandemic is over.

Both countries would be better off in the long run. We can have a two division system, allowing for teams to move up and down each season.

Alternatively, we can always do what we've always done in sports, and import players from MLBB powerhouse countries like the Philippines.

But obviously, this is just a short term solution for medals, and a terrible one at that. So don't do this, please.

Aloysius Low is an ex-CNET editor with more than 15 years of experience. He's really into cats and is currently reviewing products at canbuyornot.com

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