Riot Games brings its first Student Ambassador Programme to Malaysia

• Twenty-eight ambassadors from 28 Malaysian universities and colleges were selected
• Programme aims to develop students’ leadership, communications and collaboration skills

RIOT Games, the company behind popular eSports title League of Legends (LoL), recently announced that it has introduced a new initiative in Malaysia called the Riot Games Student Ambassador Programme.

The programme, the first of its kind in the world, is targeted at university and college students in Malaysia who have a passion for gaming.

Slated to run over a one-year period from April 2017 until March 2018, the programme is said to help train student ambassadors to develop transferable career critical skills that would be useful to their development as future professionals regardless of whether it's in gaming or other fields.

Riot Games said it has already selected the first batch of student ambassadors from hundreds of online applications, narrowing it down to 28 students from 28 universities and colleges throughout Malaysia.

Riot Games Singapore and Malaysia general manager Benjamin Pommeraud (pic, below) observed that eSports in Malaysia is gaining traction and Riot Games is confident that Malaysia will be the biggest country in the region for eSports as institutional players and sponsors are interested in the space.

“Hence, it is critical for us to develop the network of professionals in the field for the future of gaming,” he said during a media briefing held at the Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation campus in Bukit Jalil.

Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) director of creative content and technologies division Hasnul Hadi Samsuddin agreed with Pommeraud that in order to build a sustainable game economy, the focus should not just be on the people who play games but also include everyone else.

While development of professional eSports players in the country is crucial, Hasnul is of the opinion that there needs to be equal emphasis on creating careers for others in the ecosystem be it tournament marshals, events organisers, shoutcasters and many other areas.

According to Riot Games, students under the programme will be tasked to build community-based activities on their campuses as well as engaging with their faculty. This would include organising events such as organising game competitions, viewing parties of major eSports events and organising career talks.

Programme lead of Riot Games Student Ambassador Programme Mark Sargeant explained that by taking part in these initiatives student ambassadors would be able to improve on skills like leadership, critical-thinking, communication, collaboration, events management and budgeting skills.

Sargeant said the selection criteria for ambassadors looked at the student's academic excellence, with a minimum requirement of an average Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.5 out of four as well as their charisma, personality and passion for games.

“We want to give each student ambassador ownership of their own activities by setting aside a budget for them to use. From there they will need to plan and understand how their local game community works on the campus,” he said.

At the end of the programme, student ambassadors will receive certificates, testimonials and notably partial scholarships for furthering their studies.

Top ambassadors will receive an all-expense paid trip to watch the Finals of League of the Legends World Championship next year.

Riot Games hopes to evaluate the success of the ambassador programme and may look to include more universities and colleges for the second batch next year.

For more information about Riot Games Student Ambassador Programme visit riot.com/rsamy

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