History
Malaysia is home to approximately 30 million people. Known in the past of being a shipping hub of Asia, it is now one of the fastest growing medium-sized nation in this era. Its diversified culture, all year tropical climates and low cost of living, along with general English speaking population, makes Malaysia a destination to many for vacations as well as migrants.
Its capital city is Kuala Lumpur where roughly 10% to 15% of the entire nation's population are centred in.The city centre itself is a financial and retail hub whereas the outskirts focusses on Malaysia's other main economic sources - plantation (palm oil) and petroleum. The iconic Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) Twin Towers (pictured above) is nestled in the heart of the city, and its a majestic sight both during the day and night.
Magic the Gathering in Malaysia
Magic the Gathering (MTG) arrived at Malaysian shores the year it was released back in 1994. During its initial years, it faced competition from other CCG games such as Illuminati , Star Trek CCG, Star Wars CCG and Netrunner. By 1997, MTG was starting to gain momentum and the first Malaysian Team qualified for the World Championships held in Japan.
Not long after, Malaysia was already in the limelight, hosting its first ever Grand Prix in Sunway Pyramid, which was also held in conjunction with the Magic Invitationals (which Chris Pikula eventually won giving us Meddling Mage). Malaysia held their own in their first ever Grand Prix, with Ryan Soh taking first place. But more importantly it was the start of competitive Magic as Games Castle assemble Malaysia's first ever competitive contingent (with Ryan taking top prize, Tham Tishen coming second and a very young Au Yong Wai Kin coming 4th).
That was 15 years ago.
Since then, we had the dominance of the Soh brothers (Terry and Joe), Sim Han How making top 8 of the World Championships in Sydney, Raymond Tan capturing Malaysia's first Grand Prix win in over 10 years and the famous Morgan Ramachandran who wrecked havoc in the World Championships in Toronto, Canada.
Malaysia went to the next level in December 2014 as they went unscathed during Day 1 play of the World Magic Cup led by Raymond Tan along with Joe Soh. The team did its best impression of a FIFA World Cup, taking down the Slovak Republic live on TV where players paused their respective matches that Friday night during FNM to capture the Malaysian superstars in action.
For those who got an extra hour to kill, do watch the video again for the live action.
So what does 2015 hold for Malaysian Planeswalkers? Hopefully more great Magic and more great achievements!
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2015 has come and gone and Malaysia has achieved a lot in the last twelve months! Check out below for a quick wrap up of Malaysia's achievements in 2015:
Rick Lee started Malaysia's international campaign with a bang by going 8-0 with his Abzan Aggro at Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir. He would run bad in Day two, but that set the tone for rest of Malaysia throughout the rest of the year. Malaysia would not come close to Rick's feat for the rest of the year, but there were more good things to come.
The first ever RPTQ was held in Spartan Games Arena, Kuala Lumpur. 60+ hopefuls including 14 Malaysians attended. The Top 8 placed 3 Malaysians - Chye Yian Hsiang, Raymond Tan and myself. I defeated Raymond in a close three game set but Chye lost out in a heartbreaker. I was off to Vancouver!
Dev Singh went to Grand Prix Shanghai with moderate expectations. He wanted to at least cash, but something happened. He couldn't stop winning. And he went all the way to the finals against Yukki Ichikawa, which after being up a game, the Platinum Pro came from behind and took it. Still, it was good enough for a second place finish and invite to Pro Tour Vancouver.
Pro Tour Vancouver came and went. All Malaysians (Raymond, Dev and myself) made Day 2, but all crashed out in the Draft portion. Raymond was the only one who cashed but Dev and myself had a blast gorging on delicious Canadian summer cuisines.
All hail our new Champion! Chye Yian Hsiang took the top spot of Grand Prix Hong Kong convincingly, navigating his triple Topan draft backed with Pia and Kiran Naalar to the crown. A Grand Prix Top 8 has eluded Chye for many years, but this time around, there was no one stopping him.
It was late November and with the final Grand Prix heading into World Magic Cup, veteran Joe Soh made the trip to Kobe, Japan. He had one GP Top 8 from the 2014 campaign but have been blanks thus far. In Kobe he rode his own brew of BW Warriors and stunned many opponents with "Dashed" Mardu Strike Leader on his way to a second place finish.
And finally there was the World Magic Cup in Barcelona. Team Decards dominated the WMC Qualifier season by capturing two of the three available slots and pairing with Decards Captain himself, Raymond Tan. 6 weeks of preparation went into the toughest Standard portion in years and a slew of poor draws and bad pairings threw the WMC team off its tracks and not making Day 2 for the very first time. It was bound to happen....
So what's in store for 2016? Chye and Joe are both neck and neck in for the Malaysian captaincy and I'm pretty certain its going to be a furious race to the finish!
