February 15, 2023
PHNOM PENH – E-sports outfit One Last Time (OLT) won the Attack Online 2 (AK2) League 2022 National E-Sports Championship and will represent Cambodia at the 2023 SEA Games after defeating the team JET II in the AK2 finals on February 12.
AK2 is a “first person shooter” video game for mobile devices and PC that is popular in the Cambodia.
OLT coach Chhun Haing Chor, also known as Sento, said his team played really well considering that they won all six matches. He said he was confident that his team would be able to take home gold medals at the AK2 league championship.
“This is the first time that Cambodia has hosted the SEA Games and there will be an AK2 event, a game we have played often. We have experience and more importantly is that we won the finals to become the Cambodian team to enter the SEA Games in the AK2 event to play against other countries,” he said.
“We really have high expectations because for this event we have a lot of experience,” he said. “Though our players are young, they have the talent and competitiveness. They think fast and are strongly determined to take home medals. So I hope that we will be able to pick up gold medals for the nation.”
The fifth season of the AK2 League was organised in cooperation with local firm Sabay and began in January 2022 with AK2 team matches and personal mode events. OLT won the team championship while the one-on-one champion was Seak Ly Sokheng from Team MAX.
Lon Samedy, secretary-general of the E-sports Federation of Cambodia (EFC), said that after this match, all seven members of OLT will be trained as a national team to prepare for the AK2 event. For the personal mode competition, the federation may field two or three people, depending on the registrations from other countries.
“AK2 was born before the federation, it came in 2010 and already won medals before we formally formed the federation in 2014. Once we had the federation, our Cambodian team won medals for the nation in the event [several] times. The team came in first and second in the past, so for this upcoming SEA Games we hope to do well,” he said.
Chy Sila, CEO of Sabay and vice-president of EFC, said that as the host country Cambodia is well prepared to pick up medals in all kinds of sports. E-sports have also introduced an AK2 event as the game is gaining popularity in Cambodia.
“This is for the first time that Cambodia is hosting the SEA Games. So, participating in the SEA Games this time makes our players of E-sports proud. AK2 is the event where we have the most potential among other e-sports events and we hope to be able to pick up medals,” he said.