Cambodia's e-sports team Impunity KH won the first bronze medal at the 14th IESF World Esports Championship in Bali, Indonesia on Dec 12. - SUPPLIED
PHNOM PENH (The Phnom Penh Post/Asia News Network): Cambodia's e-sports team Impunity KH have just made history by winning the first bronze medal for the kingdom at the 14th IESF World Esports Championship in Bali, Indonesia.
The result has boosted the confidence of the team and of E-Sports Federation Cambodia (EFC) officials as they look ahead to the competition at the 32nd South-East Asian (SEA) Games hosted by Cambodia in 2023.
EFC secretary-general Lun Samdy, who led a delegation along with Impunity KH to the World Championships in Bali, said the medal was the result of team effort and that the victory was in line with the EFC's expectations before the competition.
Samdy spoke to reporters upon the delegation’s return on Monday (Dec 12) following the Dec 1-11 competition.
"The EFC committee decided to send the Impunity KH team to join the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang tournament because we saw there were real chances to win medals even with the strong teams from host country Indonesia and as well as the Philippines competing. And the results were as we expected – a bronze medal win," he said.
For the 14th IESF World E-Sports Championship, there were six featured games: eFootball, Dota2, Tekken, CS: Go, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG Mobile, with more than 700 e-sports athletes from 107 countries taking part.
Cambodia competed only in “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” event and won a bronze medal, a first for the kingdom.
"We have had strong teams that participated before, but we had never won a medal. Even though we only won the bronze medal, it proves that e-sports in Cambodia is growing and moving forward," he said.
At the competition, the Impunity KH team played four matches. In the first match, they beat Namibia 2-0 and then downed Malaysia 2-1 in the second match. In the semi-finals, they lost 2-1 to hosts Indonesia and then lost to the Philippines 2-0 in the semi-finals.
Impunity KH won the bronze medal with a cash prize of US$20,000. The team from the Philippines took second place with a $30,000 prize and hosts Indonesia took the gold medal and $50,000 in prize money.
