Sources: Malaysia appoints VALORANT roster for Esports Nations Cup

Malaysia will compete in the VALORANT tournament at the Esports Nations Cup with a marquee captain. According to our information, Paper Rex in-game leader Khalish "d4v41" Rusyaidee will indeed represent his country at the event. As a key member of one of the world’s leading teams, d4v41 has been regarded as one of the best players in the world almost since the early days of Riot Games’ competitive FPS ecosystem. A four-time VCT Pacific champion—and three-time reigning titleholder—he also won Masters Toronto with PRX last year. The Malaysian IGL is currently competing at Masters London, where his team is considered one of the favourites, at least according to Sheep Esports’ power rankings.

d4v41 will therefore serve as the cornerstone of the Malaysian roster, which also includes a player newly promoted to Tier 1 for the first time, Xan "xan" Ng. Comfortable both on Duelist and Controller roles, xan recently reached an agreement with Rex Regum Qeon in VCT Pacific, as previously reported by Sheep Esports. His recent performances in Tier 2 have earned him a promotion to the top level, having won Split 1 of Challengers Southeast Asia under Motiv Esports.

He will also reunite in the Malaysian lineup with former Motiv teammate Sirajul "Riza" Azrie. The two previously competed together—and won—the Rest of SEA Regional qualifier for Split 1. Although Riza did not participate in the split itself, their partnership has already proven effective. To complete the roster, Malaysia will rely on Mathanraj "theDoctorr" Munisparan and Amirul "Fixy" Zaqwa, both of whom have primarily competed within the regional Tier 2 circuit. Finally, Malaysia has registered Darwish "toggle" Nazari as substitute, although he has been inactive since mid-2025.

It remains to be seen whether Malaysia will need to go through the qualifiers to reach the main event, scheduled to take place in Riyadh between November 8 and 15. As a reminder, of the 32 teams attending in Saudi Arabia, 16 will be directly invited based on player performance points accumulated throughout the official Riot circuit. Each registered player contributes points to their nation depending on their competitive results, and the combined total of the top five point-scoring players determines each country's ranking.

Unsurprisingly, d4v41 is Malaysia’s primary point contributor with 2,700 points—just 100 short of the maximum achieved by some players. xan adds a further 300 points, while the remaining roster members contribute no additional points. With a total of 3,000 points, Malaysia currently sits 15th in the standings according to Liquipedia calculations and could narrowly avoid the qualifiers. However, the final registered rosters may differ from the projected lineups, which could cause Malaysia to drop a few positions and potentially fall out of the top 16. In that case, the country would be required to compete in the Southeast Asia & Oceania qualifier.