Geek Events is proud to announce that we are the recipient of not one, but two Marketing Events Awards Singapore 2022 – Best Consumer Event: Esports, and Best Event on a Budget.

These prestigious awards were meant to honour outstanding work in Malaysia’s marketing industry with over 42 categories. The entries were judged by an independent panel of industry leaders and senior marketers. The Best Consumer Event: Esports award recognises the most creative and effective live sports or esports event. On the other hand, Best Event on a Budget is awarded to the event that had the best hype and brand awareness while on limited funds. This event should be one that has high customer engagement while being financially savvy.     

Thankfully, our event, Malaysia Esports Championship 2021/2022 (MEC 2021/2022), fit the bill. This event is the second edition of the Malaysia Esports Championship (MEC) series, hosted by Esports Integrated (ESI) and the Malaysian Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS), and organised by Alhamra Games and Geek Events. 

Held over the span of one month, from December 2021 to the second week of January 2022, this tournament had a prize pool of RM100,000. Four game titles were played –  Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, PUBG Mobile, DOTA 2 and FIFA 22. While the qualifiers were held online over 3 weeks, the Grand Finals were held offline over 3 days at KL Gateway Mall. This was one of the first offline events to be held in Malaysia since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

This event truly pushed us to our limit. We were informed at the last minute that the event would be held offline. This meant that we had to procure for venues, plan for printed marketing collaterals, file for insurance, apply for event licences, and coordinate with various vendors, talents, and crew in a month right as the COVID-19 Omnicron wave began to hit Malaysia. Overwhelming didn’t even begin to cut it. 

We like to make the impossible happen. 

Turns out that making the impossible happen is a lot of hard work and smart thinking. Due to the lack of budget, a good chunk of the manpower came from our own staff – setting up furniture, installing hardware, and coordinating logistics. To ensure a smooth event, we ran many technical rehearsals that include all the hardware we would be using in the tournament. We often ended up staying on site till the early morning with a call time of 9am that same morning.

The Grand Finals were 3 days long with around 100 people visiting each day, all while the Omnicron outbreak was sweeping the nation. We took extra precautions to ensure that we were following the COVID-19 restrictions strictly.        

Day 1 was the grand finals for FIFA 22 and DOTA 22. While that was happening, we had an impromptu media session with the Deputy Minister of the Youth and Sports Ministry. Running the event while coordinating with ten media outlets was not easy but we managed to pull it off. We faced some technical difficulties during Day 2 as the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang grand finals were taking place. Thankfully, we managed to overcome it. The final day was the biggest by far. We had the PUBG Mobile grand finals and had another media session – this time with the CEO of Impact Integrated. To top it all off, an awards ceremony was held for those in the Top 4 of all four game titles. 

With this endeavour under our belt, it shows that Geek Events can adapt to hardship and we will work hard to ensure quality no matter the price point. We are extremely grateful for our efforts to be recognised by these awards. Here is to more amazing events in the future.

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