Malaysia Is One of Eight Nations in the Asian Games League of Legends Event and China Is Not in It
Rosters for the Aichi-Nagoya esports programme were confirmed this week. Malaysia enters nine of the eleven medal events, and the defending League of Legends champions did not enter at all.
Rosters and the nation list for esports at the 2026 Asian Games were confirmed this week, and the most conspicuous name is the one that is absent. China, who won the League of Legends gold medal in 2018, are not entered in it.
Eight nations are: South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia. South Korea and Chinese Taipei were invited directly. The other six came through a qualifier held in Kuala Lumpur from 12 to 14 June.
Malaysia's team is Khairul "Atup" Amirin in the top lane, Beckham "Arashi" Ang King En in the jungle, Jireh "TheSleep" Soh in the mid lane, Lim "ClayX" Yew Siang at bot and Alvin "Felia" Lim Ming Siang at support, coached by Harsewak "Swak" Singh and Radzi "Ikuto" Rahman. South Korea have named Choi "Zeus" Woo-je, Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu, Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong and Ryu "Keria" Min-seok, coached by Kang "Hirai" Dong-hoon.
The esports programme runs from 23 September to 2 October at Aichi Sky Expo in Nagoya, inside a Games that runs from 19 September to 4 October. There are eleven medal events across thirteen titles: eFootball, Gran Turismo 7, Honor of Kings, Naraka: Bladepoint, Puyo Puyo Champions, Identity V, League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Pokemon UNITE, PUBG Mobile, and a martial arts event covering Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and The King of Fighters XV. The title list was fixed in February 2025.
Thirty-one nations are competing in esports overall. Malaysia and South Korea enter nine disciplines each, Hong Kong ten, Vietnam and Indonesia eight. Malaysia also qualified in Mobile Legends by finishing in the top five at the Southeast Asian qualifier in Singapore, which closed on 21 June and drew a peak audience of 1.27 million. The Philippines topped that qualifier at 6-1 with a 13-3 map record, with Cambodia second on the same record.
League of Legends is scheduled for 2 October, the last day of the programme. Mobile Legends is on 1 October. This is the second Asian Games at which esports medals count toward national totals, after Hangzhou in 2022, and an eight-team League of Legends field without China is a considerably shorter road to a medal than it was then.