4 Qualities to Have as a Decent Esports/Gaming Journalist

I know that, for the younger generation, becoming a YouTuber or esports athlete sounds more glamorous. Admittedly, that’s true. Most people don’t admire or even recognize journalists.

However, being a journalist is one of the professions with the most extended career age. In fact, most jobs behind the scenes have a longer lifespan. In Indonesia, there are Rosihan Anwar (departed) and Goenawan Mohammad (GM) — which are my idols. Both of them were still actively writing in their 80’s.

Some of my seniors behind the editorial desk only began to reach their career peak after turning 40.

On the other side, who doesn’t want to work following their passion? Gaming/esports journalists will continuously pursue and write those topics every day — even though it’s better too if you want to learn more than those fields (that I will discuss it later).

So, if you are a gamer or an esports fan who wants to find a job according to your passion and has a long career path, becoming a journalist in a gaming/esports media is a choice that you could take.

Via: World Scholarship Forum — via: World Scholarship Forum

However, I do believe that there is no easy job in this world if you want to reach the highest level. Yes, it’s easy to cook an instant noodle, but it’s a whole new world if you’re going to be a chef in a five-star hotel or restaurant. You should need no longer than a year to learn playing a guitar. Yet, if you want to reach the same level as Carlos Santana, prepare to spend dozens of years to get there. This is also the case with your writing and journalistic skills.

I started my career as a journalist/writer in a printed magazine in 2008. 12 years of experience in the gaming/esports industry seems quite decent; though, it’s nothing in the writing/journalistic field — since there are seniors such as Rosihan Anwar or GM I mentioned earlier.

So, if you are looking for a shortcut, I think you should close this page. In contrast, if you’re prepared for a long journey, these are some fundamentals to learn.

Above Average Language Skill

Personally, this is the first fundamental skill that has to be honed continuously — no matter how long you’ve been learning.

Why is this the first skill? Because, no matter how smart you are, you are useless if you can’t transform your idea into verbal language. This could be useful for other professions too.

Language skill isn’t as easy as most people imagine, though. Identifying and understanding language units such as word, phrase, clause, sentence, and paragraph are just necessary to have. Likewise, it’s also essential to fully understand 4 aspects of language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

These 4 aspects of language may sound simple enough. We could hear since we were born. We learned to speak when we were 1-2 years old. We should be able to read and write during our first year in elementary school. Yet, once again, it’s not that easy. Forget reading, I know a lot of people are struggling to become good listeners.

Meanwhile, in fact, you have to be a meticulous reader if you want to be a good writer. If you’re going to become a good writer and speaker, you must learn to be a great reader and listener. That’s just the rule of thumb.

I always emphasize to the writers in my team that we have to be fully aware when reading, especially our own writing. It’s simple: if you don’t love to read your own writing, don’t hope other people will like it.

Willingness and Tenacity to Explore Knowledge

The second most important thing to have, in my opinion, is our willingness and tenacity to dig information and to understand knowledge.

Your current knowledge is worthless if you don’t want to dig deeper tenaciously. We were born with zero knowledge. The difference between one person and another is only a matter of our willingness to accumulate knowledge over time.

This may sound trivial, and especially so in this age of democratization of information. Nevertheless, with so much knowledge in our fingertips, human become lazier and less inclined to investigate further.

For example, I’m not sure if all gamers know the difference between a game publisher and developer even though the information is straightforward to find.

In recent years, asking questions on social media has become more frequent even though the answers could be readily found using a search engine. Humans, you and me (since I don’t like the dichotomy of ‘we’ and ‘they’), prefer to be fed rather than finding the information themselves.

Games and esports are not that easy to learn, honestly. I know many people don’t realize the difference between esports and gaming industries. Understanding and memorizing esports teams, players, and competitions also take a lot of time. Furthermore, it’s indeed difficult to truly comprehend the gameplay of each different game.

Why is knowledge and our tenacity to dig deeper critical? Because, if you yourself don’t truly understand the subject you’re covering, then you can’t realistically expect your readers/listeners to be able to gain an understanding from your work.

Besides knowledge about games and esports — which should be the foundation of all people who want to have a promising career in this industry (not only the journalists), in my humble opinion, learning about different fields will also provide an advantage for you. For example, I’m interested in learning more about philosophy, business, and psychology. Those interests are the ones that make me unique compared to the others in the same field.

I also firmly believe that our mindset is influenced by whatever knowledge we seek. Besides, I think it’s important to learn outside the box so that we are not trapped in our own narrow perspective.

Social Capability and Equilibrium

A great journalist must have a balanced capacity between personal and social capabilities. In other words, the ideal journalist needs not only rich knowledge but also many friends.

In my head, if I have to simplify human capabilities, I divide it into two categories. The first is our cognitive function as a human being, which could be how to think critically, how fast we could understand new concepts, how good we memorize things, etc. Second, it’s our emotional capability like empathy, self-control, or effective communication.

I know some brilliant people who have difficulties in making new friends. On the contrary, I also know many famous people who have numerous friends but are ignorant.

From my experience, I have to balance it out and stay in the middle — since every human has a time limitation. To develop our cognitive capacity or to make friends, we have to spend our time. Meanwhile, we only have 24 hours every day. That’s why we have to manage our time between learning new things or maintaining our network.

I do think there are other jobs which are more suitable for those who want to focus on one side. A programmer or engineer, for example, should have better cognitive capacity than social skills. However, your network is more important than cognitive skills if you want to be useful in business or become a celebrity.

To be a decent journalist, you have to find an equilibrium point between two sides. Nevertheless, I do think this balancing point is also vital for every profession. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg are not the smartest in their respective fields. They are just better in balancing out their cognitive and social capabilities.

Before going broader, social capability is necessary because interviews are an integral part of being a journalist. Whether you believe or not, there is so much information unavailable on the internet so you can’t just google everything.

Personally, I get more off-the-record information that couldn’t be published. If a story couldn’t be published, what’s the purpose? Those stories could affect my thinking in assessing or understanding so many things. I genuinely believe that our capabilities to evaluate everything will be influenced by how much knowledge we have accumulated.

Besides that, trust is one of the most important things to have. In fact, our personal relations will always be relevant to our professional career. For example, if I publish every story, I will lose the trust of my colleagues, which means I will get less information in the future. Moreover, being a journalist in this internet age doesn’t always have a positive image since there are so many clickbaits and so much quote twisting done to gain attention.

I do understand why media do that, actually. There are so many contents on the internet nowadays. That’s why media have to steal the attention in every possible way. However, honestly, I don’t want to sacrifice the trust I gained just to get more clicks or views.

Fortitude in the Journey and Pay Attention to Detail

Finally, we reach the last important aspect for a journalist in gaming or esports media.

Why is this part pertinent? Because gaming and esports industries are full of young people who don’t always have for the fortitude for a long process. Again, if you want to become famous in the shortest possible time, this career isn’t suitable for you.

As I mentioned earlier, the productive age of a journalist is quite long. It’s like a marathon instead of a sprint. So, you have to think further ahead building this career.

Via: Ethical Journalism Network — via: Ethical Journalism Network

Journalism has been around since the 1400s. Modern journalism started in 1703. Therefore, there are so many people with so much experience here. You may feel superior working as a social media specialist for 15 years because Facebook was launched in 2004 and, before that, there was no such profession (AFAIK). Another example, it’s justified if you feel arrogant when you have been learning Phyton (programming language) for 20 years since Phyton 2.0 was released in 2000.

Yet, in journalism or even language and literature (which are older), my 12 years experience is nothing. I have written this in the beginning, but I do feel the need to emphasize it again since I saw many people feel satisfied with only 1-2 years of experience.

The ability to pay attention to detail is also related to perseverance, I guess. I know that so many people want to finish doing something quickly. You can’t treat journalistic work in such a way — what matters is done. Indeed, the deadline is also another integral part of a publication, but that doesn’t mean putting aside so many details.

I think this is the complexity of being a journalist. On the one hand, you have to keep up with the deadline but, on the other hand, you just can’t sacrifice the quality.

Last Words

Most of my experience comes from journalism and writing about the gaming industry however I do think that every quality mentioned above can very much be relevant to other professions as well.

For me, the most significant difficulty as a journalist is finding the equilibrium point. Too much time spent on studying without doing social activities isn’t ideal. While having so many friends with so little time on reading will make your writing banal. Furthermore, a balance between keeping up with the deadline and paying attention to detail could take years to acquire.

Lastly, I’m not perfect with so many flaws. I need so much more time to improve. Nevertheless, those things I shared above are the ones that carry me to this point, and I hope this article could be useful.

Feat Image: via Deposit Photos

Together with Gameloft, Honda Prospect Motor Launches Brio Virtual Drift Challenge

Together with Gameloft, Honda Prospect Motor launches a mobile racing game, Brio Virtual Drift Challenge. In the game, players could use two cars Honda Brio RS and Honda Brio Satya. Meanwhile, there are 16 racing tracks that you can use. As you can guess from its name, players have to do many drift challenges to get points.

Brio Virtual Drift Challenge has two modes, Campaign Challenge and Quick Race. In the Campaign Challenge, players have to pass through various obstacles continuously. They can unlock new circuits by gathering points from each level. On the other side, in the Quick Race, players can choose available circuits that have been unlocked through the Campaign Challenge.

“Following consumers’ current behaviours, digital media consumption, especially on mobile devices, keep rising.” Said Yusak Billy, Business Innovation and Sales & Marketing Director PT Honda Prospect Motor in a press release. “That’s why we believe this mobile game is the suitable media to spread the spirit of racing to more people.”

Besides launching the game, Honda also holds competitions for Brio Virtual Drift Challenge players. With the total prize pool of IDR 32,250,000, the competitions will be split into 3 periods. The first period will be held on 24 September-7 October 2020 in Oriental Town track. The second one will be held on 22 October-4 November 2020 in Snow Aftermath track. Last but not least, the third period will be held in Seaside Village track on 18 November-1 December 2020.

Those virtual races are not the first from Honda. Before this, they held Honda Racing Simulator Championship. It’s aimed at sim racers, instead of mobile gamers. Those sim racers competed in rFactor 2.

The original article is in Indonesian, translated by Yabes Elia.

4 Deadliest Teams at PMPL ID 2020 Season 2

It has been four weeks since PMPL ID 2020 Season 2 started. The competition between teams is so tight. Every week there is always a new team that comes out as the weekly champion. Apart from that, there is still such a thing as The Big Four or the four strongest teams in PMPL ID 2020 Season 2. The Big Four is arguably the strongest, because of the large number of kills collected by the team.

The four teams are ION Esports, Bigetron Red Aliens, MORPH Team, and Geek Fam ID. What made the team so deadly? Check out the analysis from Achmad Fauzan “El Dogee” as the shoutcaster of PMPL ID 2020 Season 2 below.

ION Esports – 193 Kill

(Dari kiri ke kanan) Hijrah, RedfaceN, Liquid, Auro, empat roster tetap ION Esports di PMPL ID 2020 Season 2. Sumber: Mineski Indonesia — (Left to right) Hijrah, RedfaceN, Liquid, Auro, players of ION Esports in PMPL ID 2020 Season 2. Via: Mineski Indonesia

“They are known as a very tactical team and not afraid to play outside the zone,” said El Dogee about the debut team promoted from PINC 2020. Furthermore, El Dogee mentioned Eksarachman Jayanto “Redfacen” and Sabda Bisma “Auro” as the key players that made ION Esports so ferocious.

“A team facing ION will be confused in guarding its perimeter because Redfacen is so good at looking for loopholes to overthrow their opponents,” El Dogee explained.

“Auro himself had indeed disappeared from the competitive world for quite a long time. But he proved that his experience and individual abilities are still sharp. Moreover, he is playing with talented players from ION Esports, which makes Auro even more ferocious at PMPL. “El Dogee continued.

For the time being, Redfacen has collected 71 points and has the potential to hold the Terminator title at the end of the season.

Bigetron Red Aliens – 176 Kills

Sumber: Rilis Resmi PUBG Mobile — Source: PUBG Mobile Press Release

Asia’s best team for the 2020 season is relatively inconsistent so far. It’s shown by the lousy score they got in week 3 of PMPL ID Season 2. Apart from that, the ferocity of this team cannot be denied, especially seeing the total number of kills they got.

One of the keys is, of course, Muhammad Abi “Ryzen”. For the time being, Ryzen has collected 47 kills. Regarding this performance, El Dogee stated: “The spirit and mentality of this player are no longer in doubt. He can withstand 2 teams alone and still do damage. Not only that, but Ryzen’s name is also always displayed on the Terminator leaderboard, regardless of the tournament. ”

MORPH Team – 172 Kill

Sumber: Instagarm @pubgmobileesports.id — Via: Instagram @pubgmobileesports.id

After skyrocketing in the third week, MORPH Team withered when entering the fourth week of PMPL ID 2020 Season 2. Apart from that, MORPH Team remains one of the strongest teams in the PUBG Mobile Indonesia scene. Excel Tio Ananta “Frenzzy” and Afrida Imani “Zaay” are essential pillars of the MORPH Team.

“I believe the MORPH Team has a bright future with Zaay and Frenzzy. The two players are still young, yet have fantastic aiming skills. Even though they tried different roster composition in the first 2 weeks of PMPL ID 2020 Season 2, they evolved into a ferocious team on week 3.” El Dogee expressed his opinion on the two players.

Apart from the two of them, El Dogee said that Herli Juliansah “Jeixy” is also another vital key to the brilliant performance of the MORPH Team. “Jeixy has a good experience. He is an important figure who can control the team, especially in a war situation.” El Dogee answered.

Geek Fam ID – 154 Kills

This team was at the lowest position on PMPL ID Season 1. As a result, the management of Geek Fam decided to bring in 3 new players this season. The decision has paid off, seeing Geek Fam ID’s position as the 4th team with the most Kill gains until the third week.

“They are a team that prioritizes kills over placement. It’s no wonder that they are more daring to open fire, chase, and silence the opponents in front of them. Their placement point might not be much, but the number of kills they got made up for that gap.

The key? Wahyu Ari Subakti “Mort” is one of them. Mort probably has less kills compared to his friends. But El Dogee argued: “Several fights, especially 1vs1 situation, Mort can often win duels and get a crucial clutch moment, which makes him a player to watch out for Geek Fam ID opponents.”

—

Can one of the four teams win the PMPL ID 2020 Season 2 trophy later? Seeing Bigetron RA’s position which has been declining lately, the chance to steal the title of the best Indonesian PUBG Mobile team seems to be getting bigger for other teams, including one of the parts of The Big Four.

The original article is in Indonesian, translated by Yabes Elia.

Aiming on Gen Z and Gen Alpha, F1 Launches F1 Mobile Racing Esports Series

Formula 1 entered esports in 2017. At that time, they started by doing F1 Esports. Monday, 7 September 2020, F1 launched new esports tournament, F1 Mobile Racing Esports Series. This virtual race is aiming for the mobile gaming market. F1 Mobile Racing, made by Codemasters, will be played in the competition.

“Mobile esports is a booming industry as Gen Zs and Gen Alpha spend more time gaming and on their phones. We see huge potential to develop our product set and expertise in this area in our ongoing effort to reach out and build our younger fanbase, providing ever more touchpoints for them to engage with Formula 1.” Said Julia Tan, Head of Digital Business Initiaves and Esports, Formula 1, cited from Esports Insider.

F1 Mobile Racing Esports Series will start on September 2020. The qualifying round will run for the next 3 months. Qualified racers will continue to the final rounds, on December 2020. Final rounds will run for 9 days.

Besides holding mobile esports competition, F1 will carry on F1 Esports Series. Backed by Aramco, this tournament already enters its fourth season.

“This is part of F1’s strategy to continue making the sport more accessible to our fans through gaming and esports, especially with F1 Mobile Racing developed by Codemasters being completely free to download and with participation being free and open to all. We are excited to kick off our search for our inaugural F1 Mobile Racing Esports Champion 2020!” Said Tan.

Last month, F1 also announced their F1 Esports Pro Series. That competition will feature US$750,000 (around IDR 11.2 billion) prize pool. Since the pandemic, esports industry, especially racing simulation, has been growing rapidly. It’s no wonder since there are many races replaced by esports tournament. On March 2020, F1 held Virtual Grand Prix to replace cancelled Grand Prix.

The original article is in Indonesian, translated by Yabes Elia.

Do We Need to Hold an Esports Tournament for Women?

Esports is now becoming increasingly popular. Not only that, but people are also starting to recognize esports as a sport. In fact, esports has been included in various prestigious sporting events, such as the Asian Games 2018 and SEA Games 2019. Rumour says that esports will also be included in the Olympics.

In traditional sports, most competitions are segregated by gender. One of the reasons is because physically, women and men are known to have different abilities. Knowing that when playing esports, the athletes “only” have to stare at the screen and move the mouse or touch the smartphone screen, you might think that there is no significant difference between men’s and women’s performance. However, is that really so?

Is Male and Female Performance Different?

When asked if there is a difference between the performance of female and male esports athletes, Shena Septiani, Digital Marketing Manager, Bigetron Esports said, “in my opinion, the difference in mechanics is influenced by hormones. Balanced estrogen and progesterone in women are key to how the brain and emotions work.”

Estrogen is a sex hormone in women that is quite dominant. Indeed, men also have estrogen. It’s just that the level of estrogen in women is higher than men. The function of these hormones in women and men is also different. Same with the progesterone, women and men do have this hormone but in different levels and functions. In women, progesterone affects the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and embryogenesis.

“These two hormones make it difficult for women to focus at certain times,” says Shena. “However, it could be solved with regular exercise and discipline. The proof is, at Bigetron, there is BTR Alice who is a member of Bigetron Red Aliens, PUBG Mobile division. ”

Bigetron Red Aliens. | Sumber: Facebook PUBG Mobile Indonesia — Bigetron Red Aliens. | via: Facebook PUBG Mobile Indonesia

Unfortunately, not all esports teams mix male and female players. This is due to several things, according to Kresna, Project Manager for Women Star League. One of them is because women might feel more comfortable playing with other women. Likewise, male players feel the same.

“Apart from that, there is also an assumption that the female players are not good at playing games,” said Kresna. “Yes, it’s a burden, it’s troublesome, and so on. That’s what makes men tend to create teams with male players too. “However, according to Kresna, this assumption is not correct. She believes that the existence of a women’s only esports tournament can help to erase this stigma.

Meanwhile, according to Herry Wijaya, Head of Operations Mineski Global Indonesia, nowadays, most female esports players are more interested in becoming influencers than being professional players. “If I can draw short conclusions without research, I see that female players don’t usually become pro players in the end. Even after winning esports tournaments for women, they usually become influencers,” he said. “I don’t see the ambition to shift the position of a well-known player in a big esports organization, like Rekt from EVOS for example.”

How Important Are Women Only Esports Tournaments?

According to Rezaly Surya Afhany, Esports Manager at Telkomsel and Head of Digital Games Product Management, women’s esports tournaments are essential to be held, both by publishers and by third parties. “My personal opinion is that the ecosystem in the game industry will grow organically and be much healthier if you pay attention to the needs of these lady gamers,” Rezaly said when contacted via text message. “One of them is through organizing a special women’s tournament.” He feels that currently, the number of esports tournaments for female gamers is lesser than for men, starting from grassroots to national level competitions.

The Prime Snaky jadi pemenang PINC Ladies 2020. | Sumber: Instagram — The Prime Snaky is the winner of PINC Ladies 2020. | Sumber: Instagram

“Several major publishers in Indonesia have been developing women tournaments for a long time, such as the Princess Cup, the Arena of Valor tournament from Garena or PINC Ladies, the PUBG Mobile tournament from Tencent. Although, the tournament is still presented as part of an entertaining match, “said Rezaly. “In my opinion, slowly but surely, the market is already visible, both from the participating teams or viewership. As long as the tournament exists, these female pro players will try to form a solid team to participate. So, the quality of the matches is no less fierce than men’s esports matches. ”

Regarding ability, Kresna has another view. “In terms of skills, I think female players are not the same as the Mobile Legends Pro League team. Maybe, if the Mobile Legends Developmental League is still 50-50. But, compared to other teams outside those leagues, the ladies in the esports organization, their skills should be at the same level or higher,” he said.

Martin Yanuar, Manager of Belletron, has the same opinion as Kresna. “In our opinion, the skills of male and female players will not be the same. Because female players tend to find it more difficult to train full-time,” he said. “Unless the ladies tournament gives a prize equivalent to a public tournament worth hundreds of millions.”

Indeed, in terms of total prizes, women’s esports tournaments usually offer much smaller rewards than general ones. For example, PINC winners get a prize of IDR 180 million, while PINC Ladies winners only get IDR 10 million.

As part of an esports organization, Shena expressed her hope that in the future, esports tournament organizers will give prizes that are as big as general tournaments. “Although actually, this problem does not only occur in esports, but also in the world of sports,” he said. “Hopefully, in the future, esports tournaments can be more equal to gain more female players.”

Pembagian hadiah turnamen PINC. | Sumber: situs resmi — PINC prizepool | via: official site

Pembagian hadiah turnamen PINC Ladies. | Sumber: situs resmi — PINC Ladies prizepool | via: official site

Regarding the imbalance of tournament prizes between male and female competitions, for Rezaly, as long as the organizers and participants do not mind the total prizes given, then this should not be a problem. “The size of the prize is usually used to attract teams to participate in a tournament,” he said. “If all parties, namely organizers and participants agree to participate, then the size of the women’s tournament prize is no longer relevant as the only thing that must be pursued.”

Meanwhile, Rezaly was asked whether the small total prize pool for women’s esports tournaments is due to the low audience interest. He replied, “it could be that the lack of interest from the participants or the number of views made the organizers. Also, sponsors could be thinking hard before holding women’s tournaments because of low ROI (Return of Investment).”

The attraction of Women’s Esports Tournaments

Games and esports are domains that are synonymous with men. So, no wonder that most esports viewers are male. According to a study conducted by Interpret in 2019, 70% of esports viewers are male, while the remaining 30% are female. The good news is that the number of female esports fans continues to increase from year to year.

Jumlah penonton esports perempuan terus naik. | Sumber: Interpret — Source: Interpret

However, Herry said, the fact that most of the esports audience is male actually makes women’s esports tournaments popular. “Because most esports audience is male, viewership should be higher for female competition because there is an attraction from the opposite sex,” said Herry. Rezaly also said something similar. The male audience also likes to watch women’s tournaments, especially if there are players who are their idols.

Meanwhile, Kresna said, women-only tournaments were still able to attract audiences. “But, it is not as much as MPL or MDL, which has been running for a long time,” he said. “Probably because women’s tournaments tend to be newer, and not everyone knows.”

Herry said Mineski did have plans to create a special women’s tournament in the future. It’s just that the project may not be realized soon. The reason is, the current esports tournament schedule is already tight. If a new tournament appears, it is possible, this will actually destroy the balance that has been achieved in the current esports ecosystem in Indonesia.

“There are many things to think about if we want to create a new IP,” said Herry. “There are already many competitions. Messing up with the existing schedule is not good. Thus, we prefer to focus on existing tournaments by improving the quality of those tournaments.”

Why do the organizers hold a women’s esports tournament?

The Women Star League was held with two purposes Kresna explained. The first is to build an esports ecosystem for female players so that they can compete and have a career in the competitive gaming world like men. “So that the ladies won’t be underestimated and be able to show that they have the same skills as men,” he said.

“Second, by holding a women’s esports tournament, we want this to be a place where women can express their interests or talents in the world of esports and pursue their dreams,” said Kresna. “We want more female players in the tournament so that the women’s esports ecosystem in Indonesia becomes even more acknowledged.”

Just like Kresna, Rezaly said, the aim of organizers such as Dunia Games (which is under Telkomsel) to hold a women’s esports tournament is to develop the women’s esports ecosystem. This will ultimately make the esports industry even more valuable.

Tim ladies DG Esports. | Sumber: LINE — Ladies team of DG Esports. | Source: Dunia Games

“We believe that the women-only tournament will bring out many accomplished female gamers so that there will be more engagement, viewership, more contents, and more new job vacancies,” said Rezaly. “We want the women’s esports ecosystem to be developed, just like many other sports events, both at the national and global levels. There are actually special competitions for women in traditional sports events.”

However, Rome was not built overnight, just like the women’s esports ecosystem. To develop the women’s esports ecosystem to be equal to the esports scene for men is not easy these days. Herry estimates that the time needed to establish the women’s esports ecosystem will probably take around three years. With conditions, women’s esports tournaments are held regularly. Ideally, there should be two tournaments every year.

“In 2017, there were only two Mobile Legends teams that had a good performance, namely Saint Indo and Elite8 Esports,” he said. “However, now, MPL has eight teams with the same level of performance.” He believes that something similar can also happen to the women’s esports ecosystem.

Conclusion

Esports has developed drastically all around the world. Unfortunately, women are still a minority in the industry. Compared to the number of male players, female players are really minuscule. Not only that, women’s esports tournaments also usually offer smaller prizes. Fortunately, various parties are still interested in holding women’s esports tournaments.

The existence of a women’s esports tournament can be an arena for female gamers to show their abilities. Also, if the tournament is held regularly, it is possible that the women’s esports ecosystem development will be balanced like the men’s esports scene.

Feat Image via: Red Arrow Studio. The original article is in Indonesian, translated by @dwikaputra

When Sim Racing Attracts Community of Indonesian Luxury Car Owners

If you look abroad, collaborations of the esports and gaming ecosystem with automotive brands may have become commonplace. Esports observers may remember the partnership of Audi with Astralis, Mercedes-Benz with SK Gaming and ESL, Tesla with Peacekeeper Elite (PUBG Mobile China), or Rolls Royce with QQ Speed Mobile (Speed Drifter China).

However, we also had that in Indonesia, albeit fewer. We saw Honda Motor in the ESL Jagoan Series or Renault in the First Warriors tournament. Apart from esports in general, sim racing is the most interesting to collaborate with automotive brands. One of them happened at the end of last week, namely the collaboration between GT-Sim.ID and Prestige Image Motorcars.

Prestige Image Motorcars itself is actually not an automotive brand, but a dealer of imported luxury cars from Europe managed by Rudi Salim, a well-known young entrepreneur. The connection between this business and sim racing is quite close. Therefore on Saturday, September 5 2020, GT-Sim.ID was invited to hold a Sim-Racing competition and celebrate the launch of the latest Prestige Image Motorcars showroom.

“Last week, GT-Sim.ID collaborated with Prestige Image Motorcars to hold a racing simulator event celebrating the launch of Prestige’s newest dealer in Pluit. This could be said as the biggest simulator event we have ever held. There are 15 simulators with around 90 participants consisting of invited guests which are members of luxury car owner communities: BMW ///M Series Owner Community Indonesia, Ferrari Owner Community Indonesia, Porsche Owner Community Indonesia, Lamborghini Owner, and so on.” Said Andika Rama Maulana as Co-Founder of the sim racing team and provider of racing simulation tools, GT-Sim.ID.

“I was shocked by the enthusiasm of the participants yesterday. You can guess how much this community ‘toy’ costs. Even so, they still really like racing using simulators because of the excitement and immersion presented was similar to the original. Interestingly, the members of the luxury car community prefer practical simulator sets to more sophisticated ones at the same price as their cars. The reason is that they just sit and race without having to think about other arrangements.” Rama Maulana continued his story.

“Hopefully, in the future, there will be more events like this. So that the racing sim can be introduced to more people, and even more circles.” closed Rama expressed his hopes for the local sim racing scene.

Indeed, during this pandemic era, esports racing grew quite rapidly, considering that many real races were changed to virtual ones. Let’s hope luxury car owners could become one of the biggest supporters of local sim racing in the future, or perhaps esports as a whole? Who knows.

The original article is in Indonesian, translated by Yabes Elia

Between Achievements and Esports Team Content, Which One is More Important?

Having a top esports team might be one of the big dreams of esports fans. Self-actualizing as the best gamers, lots of money, and admired by many people, are some of many reasons why having an esports team is a dream come true. However, building and developing an esports organization is not easy.

It takes a lot of funding and capital to achieve that glory. For example, if you aspire to have a team that wins Dota 2 The International, you need financing in the range of hundreds of millions of rupiah for a High-End PC, internet, player salaries, gaming house, and various other operational costs.

However, apart from pursuing achievements, contents may be considered a relatively cheap alternative to raise funding and capital. I discussed an inspirational story when I wrote the profile of FaZe Clan, an esports team that started their career as a fun clan with a YouTube channel that contained cool trick shot content.

On the other hand, there are also success stories of other esports teams that started their development with achievements. This kind of success story comes from Team Liquid, which from the start was created as a competitive gaming clan and has reaped success from its dominance in various esports scenes in the world.

Achievement vs content, winning or gaining exposure, what is the simple formula for building and developing a successful esports organization? Here’s my take on this topic.

Costs for Managing A Champion Team

Collecting achievements is probably the most common formula for esports organizations to be successful. For example, T1 received a lot of sponsorship during 2020 due to their accomplishments, such as Nike, Logitech G, to Samsung monitors. Indeed, it seems a bit grandiose if we want to be like T1 who won the world champion three times in a row in one of the most popular esports scenes in the world, League of Legends.

So that we don’t get too far, let’s try to peek from local teams. For this example, I use the AOV division of EVOS Esports, whose achievements are similar to T1, only at the national level… Hehe.

EVOS AOS recorded a champion record three times in a row at the national level tournament through the AOV Star League Season 1, 2, and 3.

This victory has become the source of significant pocket income for the management of EVOS Esports. EVOS AOV received IDR 500 million from ASL Season 1 as well as IDR 355 million from ASL Season 3. If you only count ASL prizes, then EVOS AOV has collected IDR 1.3 billion. We have also written about EVOS total revenue from winning awards during 2019.

Huge amount?

It is, but let’s see how much it costs to run the ream. To find out about this, I interviewed my best friend, Hilmy Khairy who is also known as Hiruma, Deputy of Esports at EVOS Esports. Before taking up his current position, he was the manager of the EVOS AOV team.

I asked him about how much the EVOS AOV team needs operational costs? He answered, “Wow, that is a secret. However, every month there are approximately a total of tens of millions of rupiah spent on the team operations”.

Furthermore, Hilmy then explained what costs were incurred by EVOS management to manage the AOV division. “Definitely the salaries of players and staff, costs for gaming houses, internet, house maintenance, water and electricity, as well as daily expenses and catering fees.”

That’s still not all, there are always unexpected costs, which usually arise when the team is undergoing face-to-face matches. “For offline matches, there are usually additional costs, such as transportation fees for coming to and from the event, there are also snacks for a mood booster when competing. Hotels and accommodation for matches outside the city or abroad are usually from the event organizer” Hilmy added.

From the explanation above, let’s approximate the operational costs for a team like EVOS AOV. First of all, the players’ salaries. Hilmy did not provide the exact number, but he said that the EVOS AOV team’s salaries varied from more than the UMR to two times the UMR.

Jakarta’s UMR is currently IDR 4.276.349,906, and we round it up to IDR 4.3 million. To make it easier, let’s say that all EVOS AOV players’ salaries are two times the UMR which means IDR 8.6 million, multiplied by five people. Just counting the pay alone, we have touched the estimated number of IDR 43 million each month.

We haven’t calculated the costs of renting the gaming house, internet, electricity and water, laundry, catering, and other monthly operations. Let’s say that if you add up everything, the rough number could be in the range of IDR 80 million each month. With this figure every month, the operational costs of a champion team like EVOS AOV are IDR 960 million per year.

Dokumentasi Hybrid - Akbar Priono — When EVOS AOV won their 3rd time ASL Indonesia. Documentation: Hybrid – Akbar Priono

This number is quite surprising, especially since the income of the EVOS AOV from the AOV Star League tournament is only IDR 1.3 billion and was obtained for three seasons, which lasted one and a half years. ASL Season 1 and 2 were held in 2018, which means that EVOS AOV received IDR 1 billion for one year of the tournament.

The team management doesn’t take all the prizes, they only take a portion of the rewards they get. Hilmy said that esports organizations have a prize cut system that varies from 20% to 40%. With the assumption that EVOS uses the largest cut, this means that the management only gets IDR 400 million. If you solely rely on tournament prizes, inevitably, management cannot cover the team’s annual operating costs.

In reality, the income for an esports organization as big as EVOS Esports is not limited to one team, nor does it come from just one source. The estimation described above might be a very crude picture, that the team’s operation costs are high, and the tournament prizes only can’t cover it.

Peeking to The Source of The Esports Team’s Income

Before we move on to the next topic, let’s first discuss what the esports team’s business fields are. The assumption that esports organizations only rely on tournament prizes as the only source of income is and overs implication. Maybe only amateur or semi-pro teams that do that.

Esports organizations as big as EVOS Esports, Rex Regum Qeon, BOOM Esports, or Bigetron Esports, usually have more than one source of income. In fact, tournament prizes may not be seen as a source of income, but merely a bonus for the hard work of the management and players.

In a blog article written by an investment adviser from the United States, Roundhill Investment, it is stated that there are at least 6 other sources of income from an esports organization. In “How Esports Teams Make Money” article, it is said that the origins of income for esports organizations include sponsorship, advertising, merchandise, league revenue sharing, and ticket sales.

Sponsorship is perhaps the largest income source. If you’re a loyal reader of Hybrid.co.id, you may be aware of this. Sponsorship news is frequently circulating on our portal. From the local scene, we know that EVOS was sponsored by Lazada on April 15, 2020. From the international stage, there’s more sponsorship news for esports teams.

Quoting from Newzoo, sponsorship turns out to be the most significant source of income for esports, both for the organizations and the tournament organizers. According to the data, sponsorship contributed US $ 636.9 million (around IDR 9.3 trillion) until February 2020. This amount is the most enormous, compared to other sources of income.

After sponsorship, we have merchandise sales. This is also a significant source of income, especially if the esports team is in the top class is equipped with a variety of clothing designs that reflects the personality of the fans.

In the international market, FaZe Clan is an esports organization that is actively running the merchandise business. They even bravely declared their ambition to become the Supreme of esports. In Indonesia, EVOS is one of the esports organizations that has earned quite a lot from the merchandise business. According to the latest report, EVOS reportedly received IDR 150 million just from selling merchandise alone during M1 and MPL ID Season 4.

Furthermore, league competition proceeds and ticket sales may be a source of illicit income on the local scene. So far, no esports match in the country has managed to make a big profit from ticket sales. So, we still can’t discuss ticket sales as a source of income for the esports teams.

When it comes to profit sharing, MPL Indonesia applies a franchise league system in the fourth season, which also uses a profit-sharing system between competing teams.

The number is unknown, but the Chief Editor of Hybrid Esports, Yabes Elia, had a chance to talk with Chandra Wijaya, Managing Director of ONIC Esports, discussing the result of the MPL ID Season 4 slot investment. If you are curious about the impact of the MPL ID S4 league franchise on the business aspects of an esports team, you can watch the interview video below.

From all the various sources of income for the esports teams, how does content play a role in the development of the team? Let’s discuss in the next section.

Content as a Source of Income For The Esports Team

Before we discuss more, let’s equate our perception of what is meant by content. In this section, we will limit the discussion of content to Instagram content, YouTube creative content, and live streaming content.

From the source of income for the esports team that we discussed earlier, the income that can be obtained by content can be categorized in the advertising and sponsorship revenue. Why is that? Because sponsorship can include content collaboration in it and content can also get particular income in the form of advertising or brand advertising in the way of the esports’s team content.

If we take a look at the International scene, FaZe Clan is perhaps the ideal example of how an esports organization uses content as their source of income. If we refer to the social media analytics site, Social blade, we can see that Faze Clan’s YouTube channel is one of the biggest in the gaming category. It is noted that the Faze Clan YouTube channel has been subscribed to by 7 million people and can obtain up to US$ 1.5 million (around IDR 22 million).

However, the estimated earnings came from Google AdSense only. Even though it looks very high, the amount is insignificant for an esports organization which, according to Forbes, has a valuation value of US $ 240 million (around IDR 3.5 trillion).

Although it is estimated that Google AdSense revenue is not that large, the entertaining content that many people enjoy from FaZe Clan opens up other business opportunities like sponsorship and advertising. For example, the collaboration between FaZe Clan and Manchester City.

In the Co-Branding collaboration, it is said that the use of the Manchester City jersey with the FaZe Clan brand elements is one of the things that are done in this collaboration. But besides that, there is a content collaboration between the two. With millions of views of every content hosted by FaZe Clan, it’s no wonder sponsors are scrambling to get the opportunity to collaborate with esports team that started their journey from Call of Duty.

The gaming and esports industry are one of the hottest industries lately. No wonder that various brands, both endemic and non-endemic, want to have the attention from the esports audiences; which according to Newzoo has reached 495 million people in the world.

Apart from YouTube content, another area that is also promising in terms of content for esports team is live streaming. Twitch, as the most prominent platform with total watch time reaching 3 billion hours in Q1, is the best platform for esports organizations to get their fans.

In the international esports scene, it’s no wonder we see an esports organization that have a streamer who streams using the organization’s name. The SoloMid team, for example, has Ali Kabbani (Myth) as a content creator and streamer to represent the esports team. FaZe Clan used to have Turner Tenney (tfue) as their mainstay streamer and content creator, although they were eventually parted due to an exploitative contract scandal.

From the case example above, we see how content is also a promising source of income for esports organizations. Then what about esports organization in Indonesia? When it comes to live-streaming, the one difference is that Twitch’s position is irrelevant for the Indonesian gaming market.

Quoting the Esports Markets Trend report compiled by DSResearch in September 2019, 84,6% of the 1.445 total respondents still chose YouTube as their favourite platform for watching gaming content.

To see the role of content for Indonesian esports organizations scene, I took the example of Rex Regum Qeon, which has a YouTube channel with 1.49 million subscribers, one of the largest in Indonesia. Looking at the data from Social Blade, Rex Regum Qeon can obtain up to US$ 17.4 thousand (around IDR 258 million) per month with a total of US$ 208.5 thousand (around IDR 3 billion) per year from Google AdSense.

What makes it interesting, this number actually competes with the total winning prizes obtained by RRQ throughout 2019 which reached at least IDR 5.7 billion. Moreover, as we discussed at the beginning of this article, esports teams usually don’t take all tournament prizes, but at most only 40% share.

So, assuming that RRQ deducts 40% of the tournament prizes that players get, RRQ management will only receive IDR 2.2 billion, IDR 800 million less than the Google AdSense YouTube Channel revenue that they got.

Then how about spending on creating content? The salary for a streamer can be more expensive or cheaper than the wage required for an esports team. Suppose that the salaries for the AOV team for EVOS is in the range of IDR 43 million a month or the minimum salary for the MPL ID team is IDR 45 million a month (IDR 7.5 million x 6), the same number could be used to pay a content creation team. The initial capital for this equipment may reach IDR 50-100 million for video content. Fortunately, the money for this equipment is not something that has to be spent every month – except every month they slammed the camera.

Although esports team expenses could be varied, one thing that cannot be denied is that building a champion team may be more complicated than building a good content team.

Sumber: PUBG Mobile Esports — Source: PUBG Mobile Esports

Why? There are two reasons. First, the content industry is much more mature and older than the esports industry. Professionals who are good at video recording or editing can be found in entertainment industries outside of esports—likewise, the equipment. For example, you can find every component to assemble a low-class desktop PC to the high class in Indonesia. Whereas in esports, the players who are in the top category are still minimal. Same with the coach, for example. You can’t hire a soccer coach to train the Dota 2 team and expect it to adapt quickly – unlike videographers or video editors from the entertainment industry outside of esports.

The second reason why building a champion team is more difficult is because there is only one way; that is, to have a remarkable ability to be a champion. This ability is unlikely to be obtained instantly. The team cohesiveness when competing is also the same.

As for content popularity? There are many ways to find popularity. Female streamers can take advantage of body and face exploration. In fact, it’s easy to get a pretty face or a great body – if you’re lucky in the genetic draw. Some streamers prefer to take advantage of deviant behaviour and harsh words to provoke popularity. Popularity is often not directly proportional to capability. Even a little kid eating meatballs can be popular without needing thousands of hours of training like an esports team. Conversely, you can’t win a competition just by showing cleavage – unless maybe the tournament is about it…

The Conclusion

Through the discussions above, we can at least get a rough idea of what esports organizations can get for the achievements they are pursuing and the creative content they produce.

So, achievement or content? It seems that the two of those things are like two lovers who are inseparable and complementary in the process of developing an esports organization.

After all, even a team that is focusing on content like FaZe Clan also has the ambition to become a champion, to the point that they are willing to spend US$ 700,000 in 2016 to buy the CS: GO roster. Team Liquid, which aggressively pursuing achievements, also keeps creating content so that they can still exist in cyberspace.

Even RRQ, which focusing on becoming champions, continues to take advantage of the popularity of their victories as content to continue to make money to help RRQ success.

Building and developing a champion team takes a long time – at least not as short as finding attractive girls or funny and controversial streamers.

The original article is in Indonesian, translated by @dwikaputra

PeSO Receives Approval as the National Esports Organization of the Philippines

Previously, the Philippine Esports Organization (PeSO) applied for accreditation as the National Sports Association. The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) recently granted the approval to PeSO. That way, PeSO officially becomes a national organization that will be responsible for regulating and developing esports in the Philippines.

“We are honored to be at the forefront of developing the fast-growing esports industry in the Philippines,” said Brian Lim, President of PeSO, according to ESPN. “With the support of POC and Smart, we will be able to strengthen our position not only in the local scene but, more importantly, in the global arena.”

Supported by a telecommunications company Smart Communications, PeSO consists of several well-known esports organizations and companies in the Philippines. Some of the PeSO members include Bren Esports, Gariath Concepts, Mineski Philippines, The Nationals, PlayBook Esports, Tier One Entertainment, TV5, and TNC Holdings.

“As the country’s only fully integrated telco and digital services provider, we are excited to enable this organization and provide the best technology to elevate the local esports industry,” said Jane J. Basas, Senior Vice President and Head of Consumer Wireless Business, Smart Communications.

Indeed, so far, Smart Communications has been active in the Philippine esports ecosystem. They once held a national Mobile Legends tournament. Not only that, in July 2020, they also showed off a gaming centre that already uses the 5G network. At that time, they held an exhibition match using cloud gaming between smartphone users and PC players.

Smart teamed up with PeSO and the Esports National Association of the Philippines (ESNAP) to support the Philippine basketball esports team competing in the Pacific Pro-Am NBA 2K20 Tournament shortly after the team’s success in the FIBA Esports Open. Apart from that, Smart also supported the Philippine esports team who competed in the 2019 SEA Games. They even gave prizes to the players who won medals.

“We are glad to have the opportunity to unite gaming fans and rally support for our esports athletes,” said Basas. “We are honored to be part of this huge campaign that will shape the esports industry in the Philippines, and will help our athletes showcase their talents to the whole world.”

Feat image: via Facebook. The original article is in Indonesian, translated by Yabes Elia

PSIS Semarang and Persita Tangerang will be Competing in IFeL 2020

Setia Widianto will represent PSIS Semarang in the 2020 Indonesian Football e-League (IFeL). Previously, he was part of the Indonesian esports team in the 2018 Asian Games. Aged 24 years old, Setia has been a professional player for 5 years. With PSIS Semarang, he’s preparing to compete in the IFeL which will start on 12 September 2020.

Before this, Setia has also played at The Port FC, which competes in the Thai esports league. He revealed that most of the participants representing the football club at IFeL had also been part of the Thai soccer esports team. Yet, of all his potential competitors, he feels his most formidable rival is Rizky Faidan, who plays for PSS Sleman, according to an Antara News report.

Persita Tangerang juga akan ikut serta dalam IFeL 2020. | Sumber: Kompas — Persita Tangerang | via: Kompas

Apart from PSIS Semarang and PSS Sleman, Persita Tangerang will also participate in IFeL 2020. They announced this on Friday, 28 August 2020. In the soccer esports league, Persita Tangerang will be represented by Elul Wibowo, who has played for Prachuap FC and won fourth place in the Toyota E-League Thailand 2020.

For Elul, the emergence of soccer clubs interested in getting into esports is good news. He hopes that the Indonesian esports ecosystem, especially PES, will develop as in other Asian countries. “I want PES esports in Indonesia to grow,” said Elul. “Because in my opinion, in other Asian countries, PES has become a profession for PES players.”

“This is a good first step for Persita, especially in developing the esports division in the future,” said Persita’s Commercial Director, Evelyn Cathy, as quoted by Antara News. She said that joining IFeL 2020 was only the beginning of Persita’s decision to enter esports. In the future, they plan to create their esports team. Apart from soccer games like PES, they are also interested in having a team in other esports games.

“This is just the beginning. Later, we will recruit to build a special esports team. And of course, this offer is open to all residents of Tangerang Raya in particular and anyone who wants to show their talents as a pro player to represent Persita, “said Cathy.

Feat Image: via Instagram. The original article is in Indonesian. Translated by Yabes Elia

Positive and Negative Effects from the Petition to Bring Social Media Under Broadcasting Law

A while ago, a piece of news made Indonesian netizens mad. RCTI and iNews TV called for a judicial review to Constitutional Court, to bring social media under broadcasting law.

Upfront, I will tell you that I absolutely against this petition. However, I genuinely believe that to be critical, we have to be able to see every phenomenon from opposing perspectives.

That’s why I want to write the positive and negative effects if the petition is granted.

Before going further, there are two things that I need to clarify. First, Hybrid is indeed an esports and gaming media. However, since the impacts of this petition could affect so many people, we may discuss this beyond esports and gaming industry.

Secondly, this article mostly consists of my opinion, based on my experience working in the media industry since 2008 — when I was starting my career in a printed magazine.

Positive effects with social media brought under broadcasting law

As I mentioned previously, even if I firmly against it, it doesn’t mean I can see positive things from it. I think it needs to explain since I know so many people suffer from cognitive bias.

The first positive effect that I can see is from taxation from content creators in social media. I know taxation couldn’t be seen as positive from the anarchists… However, bigger taxes from a specific industry means more significant leverage it has against national policy. Of course, another good thing is in the form of higher income for this country.

If the petition is granted, anyone has to become a broadcasting institution with permission if they want to live stream or put content in social media. This is said by The Communications and Information Ministry’s informatics director general, Ahmad M. Ramli. Cited from The Jakarta Post, he said, “If the petition is granted an added definition […] it will cause legal uncertainty for broadcasting and the public,” Ahmad said during a hearing at the Constitutional Court last Wednesday. “Expanding the definition of ‘broadcast’ to include activities such as Instagram TV, Instagram Live, Facebook Live, YouTube Live and the distribution of audio-visual content on social media platforms […] means requiring [the companies] to register as broadcasting firms, which, in turn, requires the formation of entirely new broadcasting bodies that are not accommodated by the Broadcasting Law.”

By changing all streamers and content creators into legal institutions, it should be easier to monitor taxation from them.

Currently, I’m pretty sure there are many content creators from Indonesia on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and the others that don’t pay taxes even though they get revenue from doing it. If they are forced to become a legal institution, they could have an obligation to submit a tax report to have the broadcasting permission.

Another positive effect is about credibility and accountability. ‘Traditional’ media such as printed media, radio, or TV station could be said better in terms of accountability — generally — compared to the others posting contents in social media. Meanwhile, anonymity is one of the most significant factors that can be abused in the internet world; to escape from consequences. An example of this comes from the gaming community when anonymity creates toxicity among players.

However, this argument is flawed since, lately, the chaos in the virtual world caused by public figures — not from anonymous social media account with no name behind it. For example, the conspiration theory and bringing questionable sources to be interviewed came from public figures.

When talking about credibility and accountability, rules could be made to make sure more useful contents creation — rather than sensational or wasting time. Sadly, again, this is debatable.

Let me ask you this. Every content from TV stations is monitored by a government institution. However, is every content from them useful? Is there a bad quality or political contents on TV currently? This is me asking, not accusing…

Honestly, after 2 days and nights searching for positive impacts, I could only found the taxation argument that’s truly positive. However, there are more elegant ways to increase taxes from content creators.

If you find another argument that supports this petition, we can discuss it.

Negative effects with social media brought under broadcasting law

I still remember when I was working for a printed media. At that time, media become one of the few that could control information.

As a writer, I know exactly how precious information is. Business owners also know that information is expensive. That’s why the marketing budget is usually enormous for those who want awareness in a short time.

Nowadays, every person could share information (whether positive or negative, true or false) using any platform they want. Some people call this phenomenon with the democratization of information. This also means that people could choose which kind of information becomes trending and viral.

Indeed, democracy has big flaws — at least according to Socrates. A popularity contest isn’t always good compared to curator-based contents. For example, nowadays, personal drama becomes more popular than useful contents in the esports community — because of the fact that people prefer banal things. This is why the internet filled more with negativity.

However, I do know that many content creators have good intention, spreading positive and useful contents. So, nowadays, it’s up to us as consumers to choose whether we want to consume junk or meaningful contents. I prefer to spend my time to watch videos from Wisecrack, The Royal Institution, Economics Explained, Kurzgesagt, and the others.

If we look back to the previous era, when the information flow is controlled by a few people, the consumers are not the deciders on what kind of content that could be consumed.

Once again, I don’t deny that there are so many malicious and useless contents in the virtual world and social media. However, right now, I could choose to spend my time wisely or making a fool of myself. The choice is in your hand — not in the hand of some few people who have different purposes and agendas (though it could be positive or negative too).

The second negative effect is on the complication with the permit application. Let’s say every content creators from Indonesia must have a broadcasting license, how about the content creators from all over the world? Do they have to apply for a permit too?

On 2019, there are more than 31 million channels on YouTube. I don’t know how many of them come from Indonesia. What will happen if millions of them don’t have a broadcasting license?

Those numbers are just counting from YouTube. We haven’t touch Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, NimoTV, or the others. Besides the complications, the time to handle all of that application is absurd. Furthermore, we have seen more government institutions taking focus on morality rather than practicality. Maybe they don’t have any spare time to manage the applications for broadcasting licenses.

Another adverse effect is from the new industries that will be delayed with this new law, such as the esports industry. It’s undebatable that broadcasting is an integral part of the esports industry. If the petition is granted, there will be many organizations having difficulty to broadcast their esports events. Even though some companies may be able to get that, the process will take time. Should every event be put on hold because of that?

I’m pretty sure the law will delay other industries, other than esports and game. Indonesia is already left behind compared to the other countries, in terms of creative industries. Is it worth to delay it further just to make a few people happy?

Last words…

Finally, I know that it’s not possible to list every single possible positive and negative effect. Although, I think most arguments could be covered with the concept of the democratization of information.

On the other side, I, who have been working in the media industry from 2008, know precisely that this democratization of information make traditional media lose influence and revenue. Traditional media isn’t only competing with Google and Facebook in getting advertising budgets, but also with content creators in social media.

However, I do know that accepting reality and adapting is easier and more profitable, rather than being unable to move on from the past…

Feat Image: via Medium. The original article is in Indonesian, translated by Yabes Elia