The Role of IMI in Indonesian Sim Racing Ecosystem Development

For the past few months, the world is taken aback by the coronavirus pandemic. One by one, non-essential activities faced temporary halt, including sports. Numerous soccer leagues have to be stopped, as well as the NBA and races. Amidst this condition, esports showed promising sign as a beacon of hope, for sports fans or tournament organizers alike. Different from most sports competitions that have to be held offline, esports matches can be held fully online, enabling people to keep competing without leaving their homes and risking exposure to coronavirus.

A lot of races also had their format changed into a virtual race, from Formula 1, NASCAR, to Formula E. The interesting part is, these virtual races did not pique the interest of only the professional racers, but also gamers and influencers. Even athletes from other sports are interested to join in, such as Manchester City striker, Sergio Aguero. Upon its broadcast in television, these virtual races also garnered hundreds of thousands of viewers. This made sim racing regained its hype, not just internationally, but also in Indonesia.

So, how is the potential of sim racing in Indonesia?

The Beginning of IMI Getting into Sim Racing

In Indonesia, sim racing or virtual races are under the jurisdiction of IMI (Ikatan Motor Indonesia/Indonesian Motorsports League). It is true that IMI is the association that handles all kinds of automotive competitions in Indonesia. IMI started to show its interest to join in the sim racing or digital motorsport in the year 2018, when FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) also regained its interest and started paying attention to sim racing.

Indra Feryanto, Head of Digital Motorsport Comission, IMI explained, “in 2018, FIA has started getting stronger on sim racing. Coincidentally, some of our organizing committee members at that time were into sim racing.” That year, IMI proposed an idea of forming a special commission on sim racing. The idea was agreed on by most members, marking the birth of Komisi Digital Motorsport (Digital Motorsport Commission) of IMI. “In Indonesia, sim racing started growing in 2017. In 2018-2019, the growth has been very rapid. We want to catch the momentum, regulate it, so that we can put it in a more focused direction,” said Indra on our telephone interview.

Indra Feryanto (kanan) bersama Anes Budiman, Channel Manager untuk AMD Indonesia Anes Budiman. | Sumber: AMD

Since its formation, the digital motorsport commission has done a few activities, such as an expo and even a national championship. In March 2019, IMI held a Racing Simulator Festival with various racing sim ecosystem players, from Techno Solution, the official distributor of Thrustmaster, race organizer GT-Sim.ID, Alien Needs, Harris Muhammad Engineering, and Indonesian Sim Racing Community. Aside from announcing the existence of a national championship, the festival was also aimed to introduce virtual racing to the public, as well as the gamer and IT communities. The introduction included explanations on the game, competition, and the supporting tools needed for sim racing.

In 2019, IMI also held a national championship, named the Indonesia Digital Motorsport Championship (IDMC). Indra said, the number of participants in the IDMC was “not bad”. The most important thing, he said, they managed to discover a person worthy of the title “national champion”. Ended in December 2019, IDMC was won by Andika Rama Maulana, who represented GT-Sim.ID team.

The plan for this year, IMI will hold another IDMC. “We also try to see this pandemic as a blessing, because a lot of people have to stay home, sim racing can be a time-killing activity,” said Indra. The fact is, he said, national racers have the initiative to make a virtual race activity, Ramadhan Balap Indonesia.

What is the Goal of IMI Entering the Field of Sim Racing?

When asked about the goals of IMI participating in developing the ecosystem of sim racing, Indra said, “racers are not separable from the simulators. They need to practice, to find ways of cutting their time, and making their drives safer,” he said. Using simulators has been proved to be the easiest and most economical way to practice racing. Indra’s opinion is similar to what Rama has to say. In Hybrid Talk – video available below – Rama said that sim racing can be the way-opener for people who want to be a racer.

“As we know, the world of motorsports, regardless of the sport, be it car, motorbike, or bicycle, is very budget-heavy. Not even buying a car, buying the gasoline for it is already a huge price to pay,” said Rama. “Not to mention the tires, the brakes, etc. With sim racing, which has been legitimized by having its own commission, now we can have a whole new race category. This can also be a solution for people who want to be in the world of professional racing with limited budget.”

Indra continued, one of the agenda for IMI Digital Motorsport Division is to provide education. “In the future, we can help the development of individuals or athletes with talents, so that their growth can be directed to the right goals,” added Indra. “To become a racer, it takes a lot of money. That’s why we start with a simulator.” The problem is, to be a racer, you need to practice, and it means you have to have access to race cars and circuits. “That’s a luxury not everyone can have. Simulator can be a practice facility, without having to go the distance (to a circuit). Regarding the investment, the cost is relatively low. And in terms of skill, it can be developed until you are ready to be a real racer,” Indra explained.
Another goal for IMI to grow the digital motorsport ecosystem is to further develop the sport. The hope is so that the other motorsports can be as popular. True, a lot of non-endemic companies are entering the esports ecosystem -as investors or sponsors- to get closer with the younger generation. This is nothing new, considering a lot of viewers and players themselves are millennials or even gen Z.

This far, one of the goals that IMI has managed to realize is holding the national championship. They managed to achieve it when holding last year’s IDMC. This year, IMI has the plan to hold it yet another time. Aside from the championship, IMI also plans to hold other activities in their national calendar.

The Potential of Sim Racing in Indonesia, and the Obstacles IMI Has to Face

According to Indra, from a business perspective, the potential of sim racing is highly promising. This can be seen from the fact that a lot of people interested in sim racing are not always coming from the island of Java. “Nowadays, sim racing is no longer focused in Java,” stated Indra. “Kalimantan and Sulawesi are also racing to get in digital motorsport.” Meanwhile, in terms of competitiveness, he added, Indonesian racers are starting to get the recognition in the global level. “There are some sim racers who have been racing overseas,” said Indra.

Pembalap tak pernah lepas dari simulasi. | Sumber: Automobilsport

The hype of sum racing in Indonesia is also quite high. While laughing, Indra added, “Last year, a lot of people regretted not participating. Until now, there are still a lot of people showing interest to buy simulators, but all are sold out. Distributors ran out of items. People have never really searched for these items, but suddenly everyone wants one.”

Meanwhile, about the software used, Indra said, IMI wants to use rFactor 2 as the standard. “For IMI use, the platform we choose is rFactor 2, that can fulfill our criteria,” he answered.

Of course, IMI’s effort in growing the ecosystem of sim racing in Indonesia will not be a smooth paved way. For Indra, the number one problem is the limited number of equipments. “There are not a lot of locally produced sim racing equipments,” he said. “The price varies, from the cheap ones to the expensive ones, and it is all up to your choice.” The other problem is that most people interested in digital motorsport are oly interested to become racers. It is of no surprise, considering how even in sim racing world, the racers always take the spotlight. Unfortunately, it means not a lot people are interested in the positions behind the screen, the judges who resolve dispute.

In the future, Indra said, IMI hopes that they will be capable of growing young talents to become racers. “If there are any potential drivers, with good achievements, we can offer them to become racers overseas,” he stated. To make this real, IMI is preparing to form the Digital Motorsport Academy. With the existence of this academy, it is hoped that people who aim to be racers can have a proper route to reach their goal and dream.

Conclusion

In the middle of pandemic, all sports activities have to stop. This makes it the right time for esports to win the hearts of mainstream community. Meanwhile in the racing world, virtual races can be an alternative to watch for the racing fans who are missing the euphoria due to the cancellation and halt of several racing competitions.

Fortunately, in Indonesia, sim racing has been taken care of by IMI, which is an ASN (Aparatur Sipil Negara / State Civil Apparatus). With IMI going into the developmet of sim racing ecosystem, it means that the government has entered the arena. The hope, of course, is so that IMI can make the ecosystem of sim racing to grow, opening ways for kids who dream to one day become a racer, to achieve their dreams.

Feat Image: Steam. Original article is in Indonesian, translated by @dwikaputra

Will RRQ’s MPL ID S5 Championship Title Do Any Good for MLBB Ecosystem? Mongstar and KB Responded

Amidst the pandemic situation, Mobile Legends Professional League Season 5 (MPL ID S5) has to hold their Playoffs online, without any offline event whatsoever. Even though I – like the other Indonesian esports Fans- have to feel the emptiness caused by the absence of festivity usually found in offline events, especially in an event with such magnitude of MPL Indonesia Final, it seems like the hype of MPL ID is still steadily high, or even getting higher.

According to Esports Charts, the “peak viewers” number of Grand Final MPL ID even reached 1 million viewers – a new record that has never been previously achieved. This is of course also thanks to the final match between two archnemesis in Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB) esports scene: RRQ vs EVOS Esports.

The interesting fact is how the result was the exact opposite from last season’s Grand Final, because in this one RRQ took the victory home as the champion of MPL ID S5. The same match happened on the final bout of MPL ID S4, but EVOS excelled over their rival, bringing home the most prestigious MLBB Championship Trophy in Indonesia.

Aside from the difference of result, avid viewers of MLBB scene must also realize the big differences in the formation of EVOS Esports between S4 and S5.

Youth vs Senior

Hadiah kemenangan EVOS esports — Credits: MPL Indonesia

In S4, EVOS was still fronted by 3 seasoned players, namely Eko “Oura” Julianto, Yurino “Donkey” Putra, and Gustian “REKT”. The three players have been very well known in MLBB scene in Indonesia since its first season. They were also joined by two new players: Muhammad “Wann” Ridwan and Ihsan “Luminaire” Besari Kusudana.

On the contrary, in MPL Indonesia Season 5, REKT was the only senior player left in EVOS’ roster. This season, EVOS even fielded a player who played their first match in MPL ID in the last match, Raihan “Bajan” Delvino Ardy and Fahmi “Rexxy” Adam Alamsyah. Wann and Luminaire can be categorized as “veterans” because their name was already in the radar since Season 3, even though they just came under the spotlight on Season 4. But of course, they were still far less experienced than Oura and Donkey, or compared to the opposing side’s Lemon and LJ.

On the other side of the match, RRQ fielded their experienced players all the way to the end of the season. This season, RRQ became the victor thanks to the star-studded roster full of senior and seasoned players.

Muhammad “Lemon” Ikhsan and Joshua “LJ” Darmansyah have been well known as great players from their first season. They also officially joined the list of players with two MPL ID championship trophies. LJ was a part of TEAMnxl, the champion of Season 1, while Lemon also succeeded in bringing the trophy for RRQ in Season 2.

If we talk about players with more than one MPL championship, technically there are two more names: Afrindo “G” Valentino and Diky “TUTURU”. Unfortunately, Afrindo -who was part of the Season 1 Champion TEAMnxl- was never fielded even once in Season 4, despite being listed in EVOS’ roster. TUTURU, who was the Season 2 Champion with RRQ also has to stay in the bench during this season’s Playoffs.

Sumber: id-mpl.com — Credits: MPL Indonesia

Aside from LJ, TUTURU, and Lemon, Calvin “VYN” from RRQ is also an experienced player, who has been around since Season 2 of MPL ID – at that time with BOOM Jr. While the other player Rivaldi “R7” Fatah, despite a relatively short resume, has also collected “war experience” since Season 4. Previously, R7 was a well known player in Dota 2 scene in Indonesia.

M Zulkarnain “Wizzking” Zulkifli, who has to be benched by RRQ at the end of the season, also racked a whole bunch of valuable experience since his participation on Season 2 – previously known as Dugong from Saints Indo. This leaves Yesaya Omega “Xin” Armando Wowiling as the most junior member, having only surfaced on Season 3 of MPL ID with Star8.

Also, kudos to Mochammad “KB” Ryan Batistuta, who called himself “emelpedia” for providing me the information of the first appearances of the aforementioned players. Many, many thanks. I pray for you, so that you find your soulmate quickly. Hahahaha.

That’s why, the final match between EVOS and RRQ this time can be seen as the battle of “the youth” vs “the seniors”.

A lot of opinions said that RRQ’s final victory is largely thanks to the draft strategy in the fifth game, but I personally think there was a more fundamental reason: the experience of the players was the deciding factor between the two competitors.

Aside from considering how the ability to hatch strategy and draft are also parallel to experience, new players are also prone to tiny mistakes that they might not even realize, such as face-checking bush, not opening the area around objectives, or enjoying roaming alone a little bit too much, as what I observed the 2 new players from EVOS, Bajan and Rexxy, often did in the final match. Also, the final of MPL ID usually takes the format of Bo5, so a drafting mistake in one game is too shallow to be seen as the main reason of a loss from 5 games, in my two cents. Do remember that in Season 4 Evos defeated RRQ in a more convincing score: 3-1.

The formation of EVOS team this time can be seen as “scary”, seen by how they glided through to the final, defeating their opponents and proving themselves to be a worthy challenger. But RRQ is not a team that can be easily defeated, especially if we see the difference in experience, as I said before.

Clara “Mongstar” also agrees with me on this. “Winning experience played an important role (about RRQ clutching the championship of MPL ID S5). Said experience was what built the mentality and the teamwork. Their experience also proved useful for RRQ players to face and adapt any situation and condition that might arise in a game.”

Mongstar also added, “aside from individual skills which are above average, RRQ also showed that they are not hesitant to use strategies outside of Mobile Legends. Especially there is R7 with a tremendous amount of experience in Dota 2. RRQ demonstrated how they are the boldest team by daring to try something new in this season, paving their way to the championship.”

What is the Impact of RRQ’s title in MPL Indonesia Season 5 to the Ecosystem?

Sumber: Dokumentasi Hybrid - Akbar Priono — MPL ID S4. Photo by: Hybrid – Akbar Priono

Will RRQ’s victory in MPL ID S5 show a more positive impact to Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB) esport ecosystem? Why do I ask such question?

Because, if we see, some of the star players from previous seasons have disappeared from MLBB esports scene. Hansen “Spade” Meyerson, who was put in the same list as TUTURU and REKT as the greatest Marksman, is nowhere to be seen. Edward “Eiduart” Tjahyadikarta who was said to be one of the best team leader, is also gone from MPL – even though he made his own esports team, Siren Esports. Thong “Fabiens” Valentin Andara who was also a senior player with a great reputation in the first seasons of MPL ID has also been absent for the last seasons.

Also, we see how LJ is the only MPL ID S1 champion who is still under the shining spotlight in this season. Supriadi “Watt” Dwi Putra is still a good competitor of the season, even though he was previously demoted to MDL (which we can say as the second-tier championship) in the beginning of the season. Fadhil “Rave” Abdurrahman and Agung “Billy” Tribowo are both still in RRQ but for the second-tier team, RRQ Sena, in MDL. Afrindo Valentino who was the team leader of the Season 1 champion TEAMnxl, as I previously said, did not even play once in MPL ID Season 4, though listed in the roster of EVOS.

With the huge number of senior star players disappearing from the highest level of MLBB competition, despite only reaching their peak in the past 1-2 year, is the career journey to become MLBB Esports professional player is not suitable for a long run? If the new players can easily replace a more seasoned and experienced player, does it not indicate how a career is short-lived and not for the long run?

Mobile Legends Profesional League — Spade on MPL ID Season 1. Sumber: MLBB via Facebook

One of the easiest and most relevant examples with today’s condition is the career as a YouTuber. There is no guarantee for experienced players to not be overshadowed in terms of popularity by a player with less experience. But, Youtube is putting popularity as the heaviest component – which sometimes does not reflect the capacity and quality. A career as a pro player should not rely on popularity only, seeing how capacity and quality needs a lot experience and playing time.

That’s the reason why such argument lingered in my head. Fortunately, EVOS with their 3 senior star players emerged victorious in Season 4. The same can be seen from RRQ, who in this Season 5 also honed their players with more experience to clinch the championship. At least, we can say how experience and playing time in competitive stages are still a plus point for the players – as long as they can manage and capitalize it well, such as by keeping updated with the gameplay development or honing their skills.

“It (the argument of the impact of RRQ’s championship) makes sense,” said KB when I asked for his opinion. “Moreover, I feel the same. I’m no longer a caster, I’m an analyst now. Hahaha…” Add KB. “But I personally think that if RRQ lost, it will raise the question why were they unable to capitalize on their experiences, making them lose to newer players who are hungrier for victory.”

In one hand, even though the senior players should have more experience that they can give them the upper hand, the new players have something up their sleeves as well (aside from the individual skill, of course). Newer players might have fresher points of view and bigger ambitions. Imagine this, if Lemon and LJ didn’t win this time, they will keep their stature as a formidable opponent to their competitors and as an idol to their fans. But the new players who haven’t hold the MPL trophy even once, like Bajan, Rexxy, or the roster of Bigetron (who were great in Regular Season S5) should have a stronger drive to be the champion for the first time.

But, newer players can also be quickly satisfied. At least that’s what KB said when I asked him about the decline on Bigetron’s performance from Regular Season to Playoff.

“In the other hand, if the newer players won the championship, it can also be a good ‘push’ to the spirit of other new players to join a higher, more serious competitive stage. Right now, with this condition, it can be a mental test for the young players. They who possess good mentality, can be more driven to defeat their seniors.” KB said, concluding our Whatsapp discussion.

Then what about Mongstar? She also proposed a similar opinion to KB. She thinks that whoever won will bring a good impact to the ecosystem of MLBB esports. “Senior players winning, like RRQ did, means that experience is an important factor as long as you can capitalize on it. If newer players won, that can provide bigger motivation to other new players, because it shows how they share the same opportunity,” said Mongstar who has been around the esports ecosystem since the revival era of Dota 2 esports in Indonesia the past few years.

MPL Indonesia Season 5 — Mongstar on MPL ID S4. Credits: MPL Indonesia

To close her statement, Mongstar also added that a competition that brings less than positive impact to the ecosystem is a competition that has a “ruling dynasty”. “As long as the title of the champion changes owner often like this MPL, I thnk it’s still positive.”

Closure

The ecosystem of MLBB sports is still very dynamic. Even though RRQ is the champion of this season, their roster formation is very different from the one in their first champion season in MPL ID S2.

That being said, it is going to be interesting to see the transfer market of the next MPL ID, and the battle in competitive stage. The last two seasons, the winning teams of Mobile Legends Professional League (MPL) are the teams with at least 3 formidable senior players. Is this going to be the case with the next MPL ID S6? Or will the wave of new players crash upon the championship and render them champions? Let’s wait and see.

—

Header Source: Doc. MPL Indonesia. Original article is in Indonesian, translated by @dwikaputra

The Gloomy Days of Vainglory Esport: The Pioneer that’s Left Behind

In 2014, mobile gaming wasn’t really popular like today because of many factors, one of them was technology, and even mobile gamers were discriminated by other common gamers, not being considered as gamers as most of the games were casual without a depth of a story or magnificent graphics.

Yet it didn’t stop there, there was this terrific game developer working together from different backgrounds as a team established Super Evil Megacorp (SEMC). They created a game that no one could think of that time; a mobile game with stunning graphics like games on console or PC, a real-time play MOBA game named Vainglory.

On its released date, Vainglory attracted thousands of people in a blink. That could be imagined, as the old-time mobile games only gave us some slicing fruits and endless running experience when suddenly a competitive game launched on mobile.

Vainglory: The First MOBA on Mobile

To be honest, Vainglory was not really the first MOBA on mobile, since there was another game like Heroes of Order and Chaos developed by Gameloft. One thing I agree with SEMC, however, is that Vainglory is the first MOBA mobile game featuring a unique gameplay, intuitive controls, and deep mechanics enough to make competitive MOBA players filled with curiosity; or it can be said as the first most perfect MOBA in its day.

Vainglory was released in 2014, and its first appearance was on iPhone 6 Apple product presentation. The presentation without a doubt left smartphone users open-mouthed, as it was the first mobile game having 60 FPS, graphics with details, particle effects, and complex animation.

This game became the center of attention in no time at all, even one of the famous YouTubers played it as well. PewDiePie once played Vainglory and uploaded the video of his playing the game on August 1, 2015. Quoted from one of reputable technology media, VentureBeat, Vainglory successfully reached out 1.5 million monthly active players per July 1, 2015.

This success moved SEMC’s heart to take further steps, trying to follow League of Legends and Dota 2 success by developing Vainglory esports.

The First Mobile Esports in the World and Indonesia

After gaining success from its first released in 2014, Vainglory started to explore the esports world a year after; in Mei 2015 to be exact. They started collaborating with various esports world’s ecosystem at once, ESL and OGN Korea were the two of them.

Quoted from Fortune, Vainglory successfully drew as many as one million audiences through a local league competition in South Korea named Korean eSports League OGN Vainglory Invitational in July 2015.

More after that, an esports event named Vainglory Premiere League in September 2015 offered a total reward of US$80,000 and participated by 12 teams from four regions (North America, China, Korea, and Europe). It perpetuated Vainglory as the first and biggest mobile game esports of its time.

Vainglory itself began to be a hit in Indonesia in 2017, and it’s been known since Indonesia Games Championship 2017 and Vainglory 8 Summer Championship Jakarta. In the same year, Indonesia was just celebrated their Elite8 esport team that was managed to qualify for the international level of Vainglory 8 Spring Championship Manila. More to that, the biggest community gathering, Halcyon Gathering 2.0, was held in Indonesia in 2017 as well.

MOBA Mobile of East Asia and 5v5 Appearance

Still in 2017, Vainglory esports was on its most glorious day in Indonesia. Unfortunately, SEMC was somehow distracted from this China’s MOBA Mobile which successfully stole many of Indonesian gamers’ hearts. It was 2017 when Mobile Legends gained gamers’ and Indonesia esports industry’s attention.

The potential of Mobile Legends esports was first seen in the qualification and main event of Mobile Legends SEA Cup (MSC 2017), and it had made the venue full and packed; Gandaria City for the qualification and Mall Taman Anggrek for the Grand Final. Other than Mobile Legends, Garena Indonesia was also preparing something.

Garena wanted to release a global version of MOBA which had been a favorite of many people in China, Kings of Glory. It was finally released in Indonesia with a name of Mobile Arena and then changed its name to Arena of Valor in August 2017. Those games attracted the attention of many gamers because of its lower graphics on Indonesian’s smartphone, simpler gameplay, and easy to be learned by various range of groups.

Vainglory Worlds 2017, SEMC finally released Vainglory 5v5 which triggered controversy among communities. Some of them considered that 3v3 depended too much on individual skill making the game quite dull, while some others considered that 5v5 omitted main characteristic of Vainglory. Vainglory had to be faced with a dilemma because of that different opinions.

The Gloomy days of Vainglory esports in 2018

In 2018, MOBA Mobile and mobile esports were rising, but what about Vainglory? It’s funny how Vainglory esports was apparently dead both globally and in Indonesia.

Globally, Vainglory esports began to break down when many organizations withdrew. Teams like Gankstars, Cloud9, and TeamSoloMid even shut their Vainglory division. FlashX also spoke about this to respond to communities’ hysteria by saying that Super Evil Megacorp cut Vainglory esports’ budget, and it was the reason behind the problems.

How about Indonesia? Thanks to the third party’s support, fortunately, competitive arena of Indonesia’s Vainglory was still steady. Kaskus Battleground Season 1 filled in the Vainglory esports calendar in early 2018. In the mid-year and the end of the year, there was the Vainglory Premiere League Indonesia which was an esports league of Vainglory held online by AGe Network team, and the year was closed by Elite8 team’s endeavor at Asia level in WESG 2018 competition.

Herrboy (left) with 2 VG shoutcasters. Source: revivaltv.id

Herry ‘Herrboy’ Sudharma, as one of the shout casters and Vainglory esports actors in Indonesia, spoke up regarding the problems. He said that one of the biggest problems was the higher level of difficulty of Vainglory than other MOBA mobile, and the game required a higher smartphone specification as well. It made mobile gamers unwilling to play Vainglory which gave a domino effect to Vainglory esports.

Daniel ‘Deipno’ Lam, one of the Vainglory senior casters, also added that Vainglory was nearly dead in 2018 because SEMC seemed like taking a wrong step. Since 2017, the potential of Vainglory player base in Indonesia was clearly seen through Halcyon Gathering 2.0 which was attended by thousands of people. However, instead of putting the marketing focus in the SEA market, in Indonesia particularly, SEMC insisted to concentrate their Vainglory marketing in the United States and Europe.

In terms of players, Heinrich ‘OfficialHein’ Ramli, as an Indonesian Vainglory star player and one of the most commendable in developing Vainglory esports in Indonesia, said that it’s true that SEMC had a big role in the gloomy days of Vainglory esports. Hein, as an athlete of Vainglory and the owner of Elite8 team, said that SEMC didn’t really communicate well with the team and community, which then made Vainglory esports in Indonesia disregarded.

Vainglory Cross-platform and its Esports Future Prediction

The glory day of Vainglory was there because SEMC pushed the smartphone capability to the maximum, creating a console or PC class game that could be played in your hand. In the end of 2018, SEMC tried to recite the innovation by creating a campaign of Vainglory X, the first MOBA cross-platform that would be able to bring players from mobile, PC, or console together in a match.

On VentureBeat, CEO of SEMC Kristian Segerstrale said that multi-platform games were the future of gaming. However, it indeed brought big questions and doubts because Vainglory’s appearance on PC meant that they’d be brought to the more difficult business competition: challenging the two giants of MOBA PC, Dota 2 and League of Legends.

Herrboy once again spoke about a cross-platform prediction and the return of Vainglory’s glory in 2019 both in player base and esports. He thought that it depended on SEMC’s decision, whether they would like to raise Vainglory esports once again or not. Given that Fortnite has used this cross-platform system successfully, they successfully created a huge player base even without international esports event.

Do SEMC capable to repeat the victory in Vainglory Worlds 2017 that breaks the record of Twitch spectators. Source: redbull.com

All in all, what SEMC would like to achieve was for Vainglory to be played by many people again. Regarding this matter, I, to be honest, am pessimistic. Why? Because first, Vainglory’s very presence on PC would make SEMC have to face the notable MOBA games themselves and the competition would be more difficult.

Second, I quite agree with the community’s opinion and what Deipno said that all this time, SEMC seemed not really showing determination in selling Vainglory, especially in Asian and SEA market. If they insisted to use cross-platform system without running an active marketing activity, then the number of Vainglory players wouldn’t have much changes.

What about esports? Seeing SEMC focusing more on the development of cross-platform, I’m not really sure that Vainglory esports would happen in 2019. Because even if the campaign of Vainglory cross-platform successfully increased a number of players, there wouldn’t be any hope to once again witness the thrill of action of the first-class Vainglory players if SEMC didn’t want to hold an esports.

–
Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian.

A Peek at the Sacrifices of Esports Athletes in Pursuing Careers

Competitive video gaming has been experiencing an explosive growth, from just a competition in a game center to a multimillion-dollar industry. The players, who now already deserve to be titled as an athlete, have reputation and popularity like celebrity. Esports has brought changes for video games, from a mere entertainment into a promising livelihood.

That’s how the surface of esports world looks like. What we don’t aware of is that behind all the promising stuff, there’s a price to pay. When you enter the world of professional athletes, you have to devote all of your energy, even sometimes have to sacrifice many other aspects of life.

A news station, CBS, recently released a brief documentary telling a story of esports athletes’ endeavor titled Esports: The Price of the Grind. They interviewed people from various esports elements, including Doublelift (Yiliang Peng), a League of Legends’ athlete from Team Liquid; SPACE (Indy Halpern), a player from Overwatch Lost Angeles Valiant; and Thresh (Dennis Fong), as the first professional gamer recorded in the Guinness World Record.

The Risks of Being an Esports Athlete

These esports actors agreed that a career in the esports world came with risks. There are various things that might be the reason why this profession is rough and burdensome, even able to destroy a person’s career at any time. Those include the following:

Health problems

If you play MMORPG, you surely know with the term of “grinding”. It is a method of doing an activity on repeat in a long period of time to level up our character. Many esports athletes believe that to be a better player, they have to do the grinding method in real life. A professional gamer can spend their time up to 12 hours a day only to play, practice, and improve their skill.

Such life pattern will injure players sooner or later, especially their hands. SPACE, for example, said, “If I play too long, I’ll feel hurt (around my wrist) when the night comes.” So as another body parts like spine or shoulder. Professional gamers are prone to muscle injury, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other medical conditions. And SPACE is just 18 years old.

Stress and burnout

Playing games is fun, but when it comes to a professional world, it’ll no longer become an entertainment but a profession. There’ll be demands that should be met, and a player needs to spend more time in one game to proficiency. It may cause boredom and burnout that will cause loss motivation of playing.

“When I was in junior and senior high school, I played without pressure because I didn’t play to compete. But when I entered esports, the pressure was way too different as I played and competed with professionals,” said SPACE. This stress issue becomes a big problem, especially when approaching a big match. Esports athletes have many fans, and the desire to not disappoint them is an additional burden that might make the athletes thinking and be anxious about it all night, especially if they’re playing for a team representing a city or country.

SPACE (Indy Halpern) said to often had wrist pain | Source: Altletics

Society’s negative stigma

Esports is indeed popular today to the point that it’s mainstream. In the United States, there are already so many schools which provide an esports education program, so as in Indonesia for some. However, the newcomers are often not treated well, they’re considered to be a waste of time or only a group of nerds unable to socialize.

When in fact, a life of a professional gamer requires them to be able to work well in a team, sometimes even being a leader among their teammates. Esports education program doesn’t only teach the students on how to play, but also how to communicate and formulate a strategy.

Romance can come later

Esports team is usually living under the same roof, either it’s a dormitory or temporary boot camp. Moreover, they also spend most of their time inside the room. It’s difficult for the athletes with such lifestyle to make an acquaintance with other people and having a relationship, and those who are already in a relationship might face the burden when one of them entered the esports world.

“When you live with the other 6-7 guys, and all of them are practicing seriously, it’s against all odds that you’d leave on the weekend to date. I guess there’s some kind of social pressure, even if no one says anything or there isn’t any written rules,” said Thresh.

A game might be dead at any time

Esports senior journalist Richard Lewis stated that esports was different with common sports. “(The greatest power) is held in developer’s hand. They’re the one who creates games, and the games are their intellectual property. There is no player association, no union… No one is looking after you,” he said.

Football players don’t have to be afraid whether next year the sport would extinct, so as other sports. They have institutions like NFL, FIFA, or NBA, while esports doesn’t have such thing. Imagine if Valve suddenly decided to close Dota 2 server, what would happen to the athletes? Let alone closing the server, the players would already lose their livelihood by just suspending Dota Pro Circuit. It makes sense why esports athlete career is short.

Thresh is known as pro gamer in Quake series | Source: Thresh

Supports needed by esports athletes

Esports athletes have sacrificed many things, but it comes with a decent income and fame. “I always said that yes, sometimes it (esports) sucks, given all the existing problems. But in the end, all we’ve sacrificed are worth it, and for many people, my life is such a dream come true,” said Doublelift.

That being said, we still have to face all the emerging problems. There are several things that can be done by other people around the athletes to support their fight, which will have a positive impact in the overall esports ecosystem as well.

Parents’ support

Esports is a career, profession, dream, just like any other common dreams, and a kid will never achieve it if there’s no bless from their parents. There have been many esports legends proving that parents’ support is important. Sumail from Evil Geniuses team, for example, has a full support from his parents who were even willing to bring all of the family from Pakistan to America to witness and support their child playing and competing in Dota. The same goes for other athletes, JessNoLimit who always says that he would like to make his parents proud, for example.

One of the parents is Kara Dang Vu, a mother of a young man named Conner Dang Vu who is now trying his best to be a professional player of Overwatch. She realizes that the era has changed and parents have to understand and accept those changes. “Maybe it’s time for us, as a different and older generation, to see the world from their eyes,” she said.

Conner Dang Vu with Kara Dang Vu, esports family | Source: CBS

Doctor and psychologist in a team

Athletes’ health is so important, that’s why an esports team better has a doctor or medical crew in charge of monitoring their members’ condition, both physically and mentally.

Esports team like Los Angeles Valiant has a personal psychologist to help athletes overcome stress. The methods can vary, there’s even a physical activity for some. Sports have long been believed to be able to relieve negative emotion, as the body will produce an antidepressant hormone during the activity. By doing such treatment, it’s expected that the athletes could practice more comfortably and don’t have to experience a burnout.

Education or scholarship

Now we’re in an “esports first generation”, this ecosystem showed up with a promise of large amounts of money, and has continued to evolve to be a sustainable industry. We need regeneration in order for esports to be sustainable like other conventional sports, not only regeneration of the athletes but also the other roles. Esports is a profession, and you can’t get a profession without skills.

That’s why the emergence of esports education in senior high school and college is a great step. We’re still trying our best to stand now, but in the next generation of esports, they’ll run the industry with knowledge and experience accumulated from the previous generations. I’m also sure that esports will continue to exist for a long time, but no one can guess what it’d be like later in the future.

Health is the biggest asset athlete should have | Source: CBS

P.S. A lesson from Daigo Umehara

There’s one thing that makes me thinking after watching Esports: The Price of the Grind. If we narrow it down, the main problem of esports now is most likely sustainability which all parties are trying to achieve. Starting from the tournament organizer who would like to see a more sustainable competition, the players who would like to be able to play in a long time, and the developers who would like their games continue to be alive and played by many people.

However, to achieve that sustainable level, “grinding” is not the right answer. Because when we force ourselves to do something continuously, the added value of the activity would be in a diminishing result. We can learn a bit about sustainability from one of the most veteran esports athletes in the world, Daigo Umehara.

In his book, The Will to Keep Winning, Daigo said that too much practicing and playing might cause self-inflicted pain and that’s not good. Esports athletes shouldn’t push their way to the top for a moment of glory, as it’ll make them falling to the wayside, both physically and mentally.

Daigo himself has a training routine for about three to six hours a day, as he puts more value on training with quality other than quantity. It’s better to spend a little time and learn new things rather than spending a dozen hours without any improvement.

Esports actors may learn things from this principle, that the key to build a sustainable ecosystem is by creating a sustainable routine. It isn’t only applied to the athletes, but also to the tournament organizer, as they have to arrange a sustainable competition schedule that gives space for esports team to rest and explore new things. Meanwhile, game developers need to be able to balance the pace of content update speed with meta stability lest the players are at a loss with the too fast-changing meta caused by the developers that might be too eager to release new content for the sake of monetizing.

The issue of sustainability in the esports world can be another long discussion by itself, and I guess esports actors had been thinking about it as well. Hopefully, this article and a documenter by CBS can be a reminder, or a trigger for new ideas that will promote esports ecosystem, in Indonesia particularly.

Source: CBS

–
Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Learning about Differences, Fighting Spirit, and Limitations from A Disabled Gamer

His face was beaming while waving his hand beneath his chin when my video call was connected with Angga. With his mother that was devoted to stay beside him in a small modest room, Angga did not limp even though he was on a wheelchair.

The conversation between us three was different with the most video call. Angga typed the answers via WhatsApp for the questions I asked through video call because he is also a mute. Angga’s mother, Nurhikmah, sometimes translate Angga’s sighs so it was easier to understand.

The Story of Angga Tribuana Putra

Angga with his mother. Source: Angga Zerotoshine

Angga Tribuana Putra is his complete name. He could not speak nor could his legs move. “The doctor said that I have acute polio. So, my spinal nerve is pinched and my voice cord does not work. If I don’t drool, my head grows big,” said Angga. Angga’s mother added that only the fingers on his right hands that could move.

The gamer that likes Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) and Clash Royale explains that he likes to play game because he could get spirit, aside from happiness. For him, game is not just a hobby. He sees game as a medium to achieve something. For Angga, esports is one of the things that could make him face the world with a smile. The thing is, in esports he could develop his talent, use his brain, and exercise his hands.

Angga likes PES because in his opinion that game is the most realistic one. He admitted that he was undergoing a license for PSSI training. Because of that thing he always plays PES because he believes that the strategy in PES can be applied as well in football. “I knew football from PES. I play not to win but to fathom the tactics,” said Angga who wants to be a football coach.

For those of his disabled friends Angga asked them to fight against the emotional conflict and stopped asking about the justice of God. For him, people with disability are phenomenal humans that must be able to show the world that they have outstanding class and abilities.

I also managed to talk with the mother through WhatsApp to find out more about Angga’s daily life. On daily basis, Angga always got help from his mother because of his limitations. However, his mother is still grateful because she thinks that Angga possesses a lot of abilities.

His mother says that Angga can use PS3 or PC without any help. To this day, Angga does not go to school. His mother said that there are two reasons for that, one is that they don’t have enough money and that Angga does not want to go to school. “He said, I don’t have to go to school, Mom. I can do it myself,” said his mother copying Angga.

His mother never expected that Angga can learn to read or use computer by himself. She also said that a lot of people who mocked Angga and degrade him. Even according to his mother, she is the only one who supports him from the family’s side.

His mother hopes that Angga can always be passionate and fight for his dreams and ambition even though he always been underestimated and considered as hallucinating. “I’m relieved. Insya Allah Angga can make me proud. Angga doesn’t want to see mum being sad all the time,” said Nurhikmah copying Angga once more.

That was a piece of story about Angga and his mother, Nurhikmah, about each of their own struggles. Of course it’s a bit inconsiderate to condense one life story in one writings, even a thousand pages. But, I personally believe there are two important things that we can learn from the struggles of Angga and his mother.

Gamer Community Should Be an Inclusive Community

From Angga’s story, game is one activity that can make him passionate to go through life. Game could give him challenges without seeing the limitation of physical aspects. Esports can give him a sense of achievement that maybe unable to present in another area.

Actually, other areas that are more traditional such as art (music, painting, et cetera) can also give challenges and new goals without seeing physical limitations. However game and esports now can become a new life goal for everyone, without exceptions.

Unfortunately the social network that is very dominant in our daily life as a modern society often sharpen the differences, including in the gamer community.

The fact is, the debate between which MOBA is better, which games that is more valid to be included in sports events such as SEA Games or ASIAN Games, which gaming platform that is more ideal, and any other kinds of debate that do not give positive impact for the development of Indonesian game or esports industry; at least if the debate is limited to the foolishness that often happen in the cyberspace now.

I’ve been included in the gaming industry for 10 years and I got new friends, fellow gamers from different social, culture, economic background. For me, this is how a gamer community should be: a community that does not discriminate about religion, political views, economic class, cultural background, sex, even physical limitations.

Agreed or not, for me true gamers are those who are open to every kind of differences. Why? Because the fact is, game is a culmination between the meeting point of art and technology that is considered to be too distinct for traditional people.

A True Gamer Does Not Easily Complain and Never Stops Fighting

The reality is, there are a lot of people who think that they are the most miserable ones in this world. Often, us humans tend to see limitations and unfortunate aspects of each of our own lives easier.

I personally believed that a true gamer is supposed to be like Angga. With all his limitations, he never stopped fighting. He does not want to give up and blame the fate. Aside from Angga, I think we can learn about the diligence and perseverance from his mother because she always tries to provide the best for Angga.

Apart from the fact if Angga can reach his dreams or not later, I think we can think about that some other time. The more important thing here, for me, is how we don’t use our limitations to stop fighting. The fact is, true gamers should be the ones who are attracted to find new or hard challenges.

No matter if it’s single player or multi player, we enjoy the process of playing games because there are challenges and goals that we want to finish—except if you are playing Pou or My Little Pony on Android or iOS (which means that you enter the wrong website).

Finally, there is nothing wrong if we reflect from Angga and his mother. There is a big chance that we are luckier than Angga because our limitations are mostly about social and economic order (it’s also not that as bad as what you imagine if you still have access to internet). So, be grateful and keep fighting…

–
Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian.

The Story of RRQ’s CEO about the Challenges on Managing Cross-Country Team

The circle got smaller, 13 people left of four teams. Even though there were only three people left, RRQ.Athena tried their best to control the area in the circle. Shots could be heard from every side. The circle closed in, lots of casualties until it was only LHDouyu team left. This team tried to move forwards but it was too late; the circle was already controlled by RRQ.Athena. They only needed to shoot at the LHDouyu that moved in to the circle carelessly.

That was just a piece of story of a heroic adventure of the third round’s Chicken Dinner on the first day of the PUBG Mobile team RRQ.Athena. Even though they have the RRQ name, they are not from Indonesia.

RRQ or Rex Regum Qeon is a famous esports organization based in Jakarta, Indonesia. This organization or club first made famous by playing the esports Dota 2. Their achievement is really good on Dota 2 but they didn’t miss the chance on recruiting time for the other games.

When esports start to gain its name in Indonesia, RRQ immediately recruited some of the best names on the other games. Some examples are Oxygen (O2) from Mobile Legends, Endeavour from Point Blank, creating an Arena of Valor team, pulling Eggsy the best player on FIFA 19, until creating a PUBG Mobile game.

Bearing the title King of Kings, RRQ is not satisfied by conquering only Indonesia. Entering 2018, RRQ was trying to do expansion, taking the best international talent to bear their flag. One of them is the RRQ.Athena team, a PUB Mobile team from Thailand that managed to win the world title through the PUBG Mobile Star Challenge 2018 competition.

All of us esports fans might get curious. An esports organization based in Indonesia, managing a team in another country? How could they do that? What is the challenge?

This is a common thing to do by other esports organization. A big name such as Fnatic for example. They are based in Berlin, Germany but they manage esports teams in various countries in the world. Fnatic Dota is based in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Fnatic Rainbow Six is based in Australia, and Fnatic CS:GO is based in Sweden.

However for Indonesian esports organization, this is a new thing. Even though maybe they are not the first in Indonesia, the step RRQ took can be seen as a brave and proved to give something; bringing the Indonesia esports brand to the world.

Therefore, on meet & greet with RRQ.Athena team which was attended by Hybrid on 10 January at Warunk Upnormal Grogol, we asked about the various parts of RRQ management also the challenges of managing esports team outside of Indonesia. Responding to the said questions, Andrian Pauline (AP) as the CEO of RRQ team answered them.

Considering the marvelous achievement of RRQ.Athena, Hybrid was quite curious about the part of RRQ management on managing the said team. Responding that matter, AP admitted that this victory is fully on the Athena team itself.

“If we’re not mistaken it was only 6 months since we merged with this Athena team, so I admit that RRQ did not take much part here. We haven’t given them gaming house, and it was only in past recent months that we’ve given the device. So for this victory it was all on Athena’s team. Additional support from us during PMSC 2018 was moral support with the presence of the RRQ management at Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that time.” AP told us.

Managing the team containing players overseas, of course it gives particular challenge; about language differences or culture, for instance. Related to this challenge, we also asked this to AP. He also answered that managing players from Thailand gave new knowledge and experience to RRQ.

“Yeah, so what we were shocked about was when talking about contract and overtime clause. They (Athena players from Thailand) are quite strict about this and determined to receive overtime payment if they practice longer than the hours required by the management. It was then we found out that they practice hard: it was required by the management to practice for 10 hours, they often practice for 12 hours or more,” answered AP.

Who would think that the Thailand’s discipline and work ethic are very hard and they have strong will. No wonder that RRQ Athena could win PMSC 2018.

“The RRQ management was shocked, the sports culture of these Thailand players is amazing: they practice hard, disciplined, also very professional. Therefore knowing this matter, we want to try to bring the said culture to the other RRQ divisions,” closed AP.

RRQ is the world champion of the international PUBG Mobile competition titled PUBG Mobile Star Challenge 2018 (PMSC 2018) at Dubai, United Arab Emirates back then on 2018. The team that consists of Thailand players was acquired by Rex Regum Qeon, an esport organization based in Indonesia after showing their achievements and their playing potential.

–
Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian.

A Long Pass from Liga1PES Working on PES Esports in Indonesia

After we talked about fighting game’s world in Indonesia with Advance Guard several times ago, in this opportunity, we’d like to talk about another esports that can be said as minority as well, Pro Evolution Soccer.

I have invited Liga1PES Founder Valentinus Sanusi to have a talk over a coffee with us. Liga1PES is the biggest PES community in Indonesia becoming a place for gamers of KONAMI football games to gather.

PES Esports State in Indonesia

To begin, I asked about the state of PES esports’ ecosystem in Indonesia. “It’s almost every week that the community at PS (PlayStation) rental place set up a competition of PES or as it’s once known as Winning Eleven,” answered Valentinus.

“From what they’re doing, we as Liga1PES representative see that they don’t have any proper place and management to get a proper competition done. That’s why since 2016, we’ve tried to develop a structured national competition system together with the PS rental place and the community,” he added.

Since a long time ago, PES series have always been compared to EA’s FIFA. We can say that both of them now are quite marginalized as the increasing popularity of mobile platform as a preferred platform and MOBA as a preferred genre (followed closely by Battle Royale).

How is the comparison of esports state between FIFA and PES in Indonesia? Before the FIFA fans argue, we’re going to get an answer from Indonesia’s FIFA representative next time.

Valentinus said many things about this. Liga1PES competition has entered its fourth year, and through this competition, they are not only looking for the best PES player at national level but also trying to distribute and provide chances for national players to compete at a higher level like SEA (Southeast Asia) or international competition.

Originally, Liga1PES would like to bring the best Indonesia players to compete at SEA events against other best players from neighboring countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and Myanmar.

“In terms of esports, I dare to claim that PES is far way better than FIFA as we already have a routine national scale competition system, interconnected with regional competition, and now we’re working on international competition with European and American community.”

PES Esports Challenges in Indonesia

An interesting thing about Indonesia’s PES is that one could say of it as the best-selling game in its glory day, the era of PS1 and PS2, and most likely PES is the most played game at every rental place in Indonesia. I am sure that most gamers, both PC and consoles, have played, at least once, PES or WE on those days.

However, as technology develops, PES fame began to fade and was replaced by MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) that is now still being the most popular esports. PC and consoles are also crushed by Android platform.

How does Valentinus respond to that?

“I think that this doesn’t only happen to PES. Esports itself is a new, fast-growing industry dominated by PC and mobile platform.”

He also added that there were a lot of factors affected PES popularity, and one thing that couldn’t be denied was that mobile market was indeed bigger than consoles.

“Most of Indonesians own at least a phone and can access games easily without TV, and it is the one reason that makes MOBA grow faster. It’s easily accessible.”

Valentinus also said, “It’s not that people are not interested in PES, the game is just lacking of exposure.” The console market itself is more segmented than PC or mobile.

“For instance, RPG fans around the world is bigger in number than MOBA fans but this comparison is not fair and even, just like comparing MOBA with PES.”

Valentinus also believes that PES actually has bigger market potential than other genres, as PES is a football genre and football is the world’s most favorite sport.

That’s why he argued that it would be way easier to invite commoners to watch football game esports than any other genre and it has also been proved as PES esports is growing so fast in Europe and Asia. Some big football clubs even has begun to recruit PES players to represent their club.

“PES esports in Thailand even has been supported by their government and KONAMI will conduct an esports league for Thailand’s football clubs. With this growth, I think the mixed exposure between football and its esports will be a great combination in years to come.”

Various Parties’ Support for PES Community

While it’s lacking of exposure in Indonesia, PES community has gotten many supports from various parties.

Liga1PES having vision to make PES gamers as people’s and gamer community’s role model by providing a place for the community to play PES positively and win achievements both nationally and internationally, according to Valentinus, has gained support from True Digital Plus Indonesia, Telkom Group, and other local partners.

They also have close relation with KONAMI and received official licenses (endorsement and validation) from KONAMI for their tournaments. The PES League Asia 2v2 earlier this year (2018) is one of the examples, as Liga1PES and KONAMI conducted qualification in 7 cities and online as well. They successfully brought Indonesia players to compete in Bangkok, Thailand. At that time, Indonesia became Runner-Up as they’re losing to Japan in final.

Liga1PES was also involved in Asian Games 2018 by conducting PES Party before that huge event started, and it was supported by KONAMI. Liga1PES also became the organizer in a qualification for Indonesia representative in Asian Games 2018.

Valentinus said that they could give direct feedback to KONAMI, both in terms of games and community, esports, or their marketing matters. Mutually, KONAMI is also able to access PES Indonesia community growth via Liga1PES.

“Of course with this relationship we really hope that there would be a concrete action that could be manifested in the community. But it always requires a long, restless process for every policy or program related to KONAMI,” he closed the talk.

—

That was our brief talk with Valentinus related to PES Indonesia community and Liga1PES.

*Valentinus Sanusi. Dokumentasi: Valentinus*

On one side, what he said about football being easily accepted by many people might be right, yet on the other side, football games are not only PES, EA’s FIFA has always been their biggest rival.

Next time I’ll invite FIFA community representative to hear their opinion about the same matters. The real work is not only for the community to get done, KONAMI and EA also need to work more for football game esports growth, including in Indonesia.

I personally would like to see both of them growing big and popular, even the MOBA itself. That’s why, I brought the name of FIFA purposely to provoke KONAMI to invest more in Indonesia before EA does – and vice versa. Hahaha…

Thank you for Valentinus to have spent his time and share his story to us. We hope PES and Liga1PES community would be way stronger in times to come!

Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian.

RRQ: History, Ambition, and Principles of ‘The King’

If you’re a local fans of esports, it won’t be acceptable if you haven’t heard of Rex Regum Qeon (RRQ) as it is one of the biggest and the best esports organizations in Indonesia.

What interesting is even though they started their journey from Dota 2, their newest divisions (Point Blank, Mobile Legends, and PUBG Mobile) are more popular and have accomplished a lot better.

It can be said that their Mobile Legends division, RRQ.O2, currently has a formation of star players in every role. This team becomes the best team in the world of Mobile Legends Indonesia thanks to their victory in MPL Indonesia Season 2. They are also the number one team in Southeast Asia, excluding the team from Philippines.

*RRQ.O2 as MPL ID S2 champion. Source: MLBB*

In Point Blank (PB), RRQ.Endeavour has a great number of achievements both at national and international level. This team was the world champion of PB in 2017. They were also the runner-up of the PB International Championship (PBIC) in 2018. At national level, RRQ.Endeavour always scares their enemies thanks to the two of their players who are the top class PB players, Nextjack and Talent.

Recently, RRQ also became the world champion of PUBG Mobile Star Challenge tournament which was held in Dubai, although it’s the RRQ Thailand-based team. RRQ.Athena is the concrete form of their effort to expand their existence in Southeast Asia.

Now we will talk about this esports team, which is the group family member of MidPlaza Holding, from their history, ambition, and principles. Therefore, we’re inviting CEO of RRQ Andrian Paulien (AP) to tell us the story of ‘The King’.

A Brief History of RRQ

*Partnership launching of RRQ and ASUS ROG. Courtesy: ASUS Indonesia*

As we mentioned before, RRQ is a part of MidPlaza Holding as they were established by a game publisher of MidPlaza named Qeon Interactive.

Qeon Interactive is a game publisher established in 2011. In 2013, CEO of Qeon Interactive Riki Kawano Suliawan invited Andiran Pauline (AP) to build an esports team on their own and Dota 2 was their first choice of game. While RRQ is one of the biggest team today, they were just being managed professionally since 2017.

AP said that from 2013 to 2017, Riki was the one who took responsibility of all RRQ needs. Fortunately in 2017, MidPlaza group agreed to partner with RRQ. That’s when AP was appointed to manage RRQ. When RRQ already became a professional club, they started to get many sponsor offerings since the first quarter of 2018.

Between Glory and Popularity

A debate that might often happen between RRQ’s management is the dilemma between achievement and exposure. RRQ itself, in my opinion, has successfully balanced both of them – at least compared to other big esports organizations in Indonesia.

But what is the real main mission of RRQ?

AP said that RRQ’s priority was becoming a champion. “Our orientation is becoming a champion. Focus on practicing, as it’s the manifestation of an athlete. Popularity is additional,” said AP.

He also argued that RRQ might be able to recruit various talents with high exposure, but until today, RRQ wasn’t looking for famous people as it’s not their goal. He really wants to build and maintain a winning team. Although it’s admittedly difficult to achieve because of many new great teams appearing.

That said, AP added that it didn’t mean that RRQ wasn’t trying to gain exposure through content. “We’re also creating content.”

Pursuing glory may sound cliché, if not idealist, but the fact that professional gamers’ productive age is short makes it a really common goal for professionals. Now professional gamers are usually retiring in the age of 30.

Isn’t popularity able to increase their chances to survive when they don’t have any more stage on esports? How would AP respond to that?

*RRQ Endeavour as PBIC 2017 champion. Source: Revival TV*

He admitted that it’s back to each individual whether they would like to look for a stage as long as they had a chance or not, but RRQ itself offered a benefit that’s quite valuable.

The interesting part is that MidPlaza Holding group has 20 companies ready to hire retired players or people behind the stage of RRQ. “As long as they’re not asking to be a president hahaha…” said AP joking.

On the other side, AP said that RRQ always supported players to finish their study (academically) as he believed that education was really useful for their own future. It’s not always about skill, an education makes a person having a good attitude. For RRQ, education is priority.

RRQ’s welfare is the most important thing

In February 2018, there has been an uproar in the world of Dota 2 in Indonesia because of two of Dota 2 high class level players were joining RRQ. Those players are Rusman “Rusman” Hadi and Rivaldi “R7” Fatah. Rusman is a player that has been known as one of the best carry player of Indonesia, along with Muhammad “InYourDream” Rizky and Randy “Fervian” Sapoetra.

Their presence was indeed proved effective on bringing RRQ qualified to compete in GESC: Indonesia Minor. That time, this team was known as the best Dota 2 team in Indonesia because of those players. However, their good fortune didn’t last, as Kenny “Xepher” Deo, one of the best Dota 2 players in Indonesia, had to leave RRQ to join TNC Tigers (Malaysia).

Their formation began to fall apart without the shout-callers a.k.a the in-game leaders of Xepher’s class. Until today, RRQ’s Dota 2 division seems like drowning (compared to other divisions with dazzling aforementioned achievements) as they haven’t found any ‘star’ formation like before.

At that time, RRQ was actually able to keep Xepher on their team but they decided to let him go for his own better future. What is AP opinion about this?

Ega "Eggsy" Rahmaditya, FIFA of RRQ. Source: RRQ — Ega “Eggsy” Rahmaditya, FIFA of RRQ. Source: RRQ

He said that RRQ always gave a chance for their players to be better. “If he would be better on that team, why not? We’ll keep on supporting him.” After all, he said that RRQ’s welfare was the most important thing. If a player isn’t happy anymore on a certain team, their performance won’t be any good as well.

He told us that RRQ’s kinship was so strong, so they wouldn’t let any of their players being uncomfortable around the team. RRQ has never been afraid to lose a player because a player comes and goes.

RRQ’s Future Plans

Now RRQ has 8 divisions such as Dota 2, Mobile Legends, Point Blank, PUBG Mobile, PUBG, FIFA, AoV, and CS:GO. Who is the person in charge of adding new divisions of RRQ and how does the consideration work?

AP said that he and management team were the ones in charge of deciding a new division of RRQ and the consideration took place in term of needs and market trends. “We’re looking for a hit game, as we need to think about the sponsors’ needs as well. After all, the decision cannot be set apart from any business aspect.”

RRQ just held a tournament for players at the maximum age of 18 called RRQ Under 18 Tournament – RRQ Next Generation, does that mean that RRQ will also be an event organizer in the future? AP answered that RRQ hadn’t been planning to become one. Now their focus is to secure and extend the team’s achievement as it’s their core as an esports organization.

RRQ.Athena as PUBG M Star Challenge champion in Dubai. Source: PUBG Mobile

—

That was our talk with CEO of RRQ. For me or maybe other esports observers, following RRQ’s growth from time to time is a pleasure in itself.

What will it be of RRQ in the future? Will they still be on their tracks and fulfill their ambition to pursue and secure their achievement as ‘The King’? Or will they develop and extend to be the biggest team of Indonesia esports, given a conglomerate group backing them up?

–

Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian.

Toxic Behavior in Online Gaming, Is it Necessary?

Toxic behavior has become a persistence issue in online gaming industry, especially online gaming competitive. If you often play games, such as Dota 2, Mobile Legends, or Overwatch, you must have seen people with this habit. Emotional, blaming others, using bad words, and selfish are only some of the toxic characteristics.

What actually causes toxic behavior to arise? Is it inevitable? What’s the impact? is it always positive or negative? Through this article, I’ll invite you to reflect. Not to patronize or judge, but to create a game ecosystem that can be enjoyed by everyone. Let’s go!

Toxic is a choice

There’s no standard definition of toxic behavior, generally we define it as a behavior that intentionally disturb other people’s convenience. The type of toxic behavior in each game can be vary, but generally, it’s a social interaction that includes cyber-bullying, disturbing other players, acting nosy, cheating, and many more.

As the slogan from one of the popular private tv shows, toxic behavior occurs not only because of the intention but also an opportunity. Based on the research conducted by the Haewoon Kwak (Qatar Computing Research Institute), there are some things that make online game is a place for toxic behavior, such as:

Competitive Element. The nature of competitive online games makes us put the victory over everything and feels like the game is not fun if we didn’t win.
Anonymous. Because we use nickname, and most likely won’t meet directly with the other players, we kind of feel free to say anything or act like there’s no consequence in online gaming.
Counterfactual thinking. A psychological phenomenon where unwanted things happened, we tend to imagine the alternate event. For example, “If only our marksman had attacked the Lord, we must’ve been win by now!” Counterfactual thinking can have positive impact (evaluation material), it can also trigger us to blame others.
Negative social culture. When we grow up in an individualist society, where there’s no empathy, or having fun watching other people suffer, it’s a matter of time to get those bad things arise in us. Online gaming offers the opportunity.

*Blizzard always watch out for toxic players in Overwatch | Source: Blizzard*

We can say the toxic behavior will not happen if all the team members play fair. In fact, no matter how good the team plays, there’ll be winner and loser in competitive games. Dota 2 statistics for example, shows the average players in the world has a win ratio around 50%. It means, losing five of ten matches is normal. If you have win rate up to 60% or 70%, you are worthy to be a professional esport player.

The question is, how do we react to the defeat? Accepting well that your opponent is better, or angry about it, like certain supporters making riot when their favorite team lose? We might not be able to control the result, but at least ourselves.

Toxic is fun, but…

“Trash talk is part of the game, bro,” said one of the players I met on a Dota 2 match in Southeast Asia. There are some people who enjoy toxic behavior, regardless of the game results. This type of person might be happy to see other people suffer, at least in cyberspace.

*Better focus on battling than cursing | Source: Microsoft*

I can’t stop or control what makes people happy, and I think it makes sense if someone gets a pleasure from being toxic. Maybe they’re being exposed to a superiority complex phenomenon – bring other people down and being arrogant to cover the flaws in cyberspace. One thing they didn’t aware is the pleasure obtained from sacrificing greater pleasure: victory.

Let’s ask ourselves. When our team play bad, do we act like toxic to make them play better? When our team losing, do we say bad words to make them win? I think we all know the answer. No. Then why do we act like toxic?

One thing that might be an explanation to this behavior is, we act like toxic to create some happiness even if we’re losing. Losing is not good, and toxic behavior can help us reduce the bad feeling. Anyhow, this is a mental for losers.

A champion will not go down by hard times — *A champion will not go down at hard times | Source: PGL esports*

There’s a popular jargon in MOBA world, “Comeback is real.” No matter how bad the game is, if we keep fighting, there’ll always possibility to reverse the situation. The same thing mentioned by a popular Street Fighter athlete, Daigo Umehara, in its book titled The Will to Keep Winning. Even though the opponent is way stronger, as long as the screen doesn’t say K.O, there’s always a chance for victory.

In my opinion, winning the hard way until a comeback like this is the most satisfying victory. Not only satisfied of the win, but also the way to escape from unfortunate situation. Winning against strong enemies is more valuable than winning against those weaker players.

Competitive is fine, just stay sportive and positive

Think of playing the competitive game as a marshmallow test. Toxic behavior might help us feel great or happy for a moment, but in the long run, it’ll accumulate and bring harm to ourselves. For example, I often heard people complain about their favorite MOBA game is dull, as one of the reasons is the toxic players.

MOBA, but...? (fill the blank) — *MOBA, but…? (fill the blank) | Source: Nintendo*

Spending time for cursing or insulting people in cyberspace can spread into real life. Moreover, the words used by toxic players in Mobile Legends are kind of harsh. Not only telling people stupid, but they often bring up parents or SARA. We didn’t know, whether they’re teenagers, folks, or elementary children, everyone is similar under the shield of anonymity.

There are some things we can do to reduce toxic behavior in competitive gaming. E.g:

Frequently play fighting games. Although competitive, fighting game is different with team-based game, such as MOBA or some first-person shooter. In fighting game, the only person responsible of the game is ourselves. It’ll train our mental to accept defeat and introspection, rather than blaming external factors.
Following influencers with positive behavior. In the current informatics era, parents role in educating children is getting smaller. Influencers like Youtuber or streamer have a big influence in building someone’s character. In order to gain the positive habit, it’s best to avoid toxic YouTubers, and often watch the humble and cool ones.
Play with friends. One of the reason why toxic behavior arise is because we play anonimously. Play with people we knew will eliminate the anonymity, so we can be motivated to help each other. On average, online games have a kind of guild or lobby feature, we have to use this better.
Turn off chat. Sometimes we act like toxic as a form of revenge. There’s nothing wrong with turning off chat feature to avoid it. Without chat feature, it might help us to focus on the game to win.

Currently, the esports industry is getting popular in Indonesia. However, it won’t happen without support from non-professional gamers community as loyal fans. We need to continue growing positive culture so that our favorite game can be more popular and attract new players.

Eliminating old habit is not easy, but I’m sure we can do it. How about you? Have you been playing sportive today?

–
Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Indonesia’s Fighting Game Esports: Excluded yet Refused to Die

We can say that 2018 is a year of esports awakening in our homeland, and esports itself actually has a lot of game genres from MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena), FPS (First Person Shooter), Battle Royale, Sports, Fighting, CCG/TCG (Collectible Card Game / Trading Card Game), Racing, and many more.

In the unfortunate fact, this awakening is spreading uneven between all genres. MOBA is the most played games thanks to Mobile Legends and Dota 2. Fighting game is one of esports genres that one could say is still marginalized.

We’ll discuss about other genres some other time, as for this time I’ve invited Co-Founder Advance Guard Bramanto Arman, a figure of fighting games, to share his story.

*Bram Arman (left). Source: Advance Guard*

For those who are unaware of the esports world, Advance Guard is an icon of fighting game esports in Indonesia. When many are doing MOBA, Bram with the Advance Guard are raising this genre keenly since this icon was established in 2012.

According to Bram, Advance Guard is a place for fighting game community to gather. Tekken community, for example, which is mostly from IndoTekken, and Street Fighter which is mostly from IndoSF.

Thanks to their hard work and persistence, several tournaments conducted by Advance Guard have successfully claimed an official certificate from CAPCOM (for Street Fighter series) and Bandai Namco (for Tekken series) as a qualification tournament at international level.

Indonesia representations who would like to compete in CAPCOM Pro Tour and Tekken World Tour have to participate in the tournament conducted by Advance Guard first.

Of course, those achievements cannot be taken lightly anymore, in fact, there’s no any other higher authority than them in the world of Indonesia’s fighting game esports.

Let’s take a look at our talks.

Esports fighting game popularity in Indonesia

As I said before, esports fighting game in Indonesia is lack of an exposure, and Bram knew it.

“The exposure is lower than any other popular games with a huge number of player base in Indonesia,” said Bram. He added that this happened because of the game’s factor.

Bram explained that esports games enthused among Indonesian players are the addictive freemium games so that players might forget oneself and shop at the in-app purchase.

“Eventually, they saw many Indonesian players playing those games and created a big event from that. The games are Mobile Legends, AoV and PUBG Mobile.”

Meanwhile, for PUBG (PC), Bram sees a place that possibly can accommodate the gamers, like various types of iCafe. Therefore, many gamers can try the game without having to buy it; they only need to pay the bill at the iCafe. It has also happened to Dota 2.

Esports fighting game popularity outside the country

If esports figthing gamepopularity in Indonesia is low, how about in the other countries?

Bram said that people in another country were also showing low interest in fighting game esports, compared to any other popular games and one of the biggest esports fighting game events in the world, EVO, also began from the same story.

They initially conducted an event for the community full of passion. As the development of esports, however, now EVO is on the same level as most esports events having their match in a stadium with festive production, and get a lot of sponsors.

Thanks to EVO’s struggles, many big EOs that didn’t even go near fighting games before began to take interest in it.

Bram then added that fighting game esports should actually be popular as people would be easier to enjoy the games even if they’re newcomers, and I personally agree. As if we compare it to a MOBA match, we wouldn’t really enjoy watching the match if we didn’t even play and understand the game itself, while fighting game is an easily watchable game even for newcomers.

Outside the country, fighting game esports are way bigger than here, despite its lack of popularity. Bram told us about his experience visiting REV Major, the biggest fighting game tournament in Philippines, and he saw great enthusiasm not only from players but also from audiences willing to come even if the tickets were quite pricy.

Even fighting game esports has gotten some supports from several celebrities like the wrestlers Kenny Omega and Saviour Woods, as well as the American rapper Lupe Fiasco.

Advance Guard’s struggle on keeping Indonesia’s fighting game esports alive

The question is with the lack of popularity, why Bram and Advance Guard are willing to stay and fight for this esports? Why they just don’t shift to another popular game like most Event Organizers (EOs)?

“Because our approach is different,” Bram answered straightforwardly.

“It’s a fact that other EOs are mostly commercial, so they’re looking for mature markets, while I come from and for the community. So, I’m fighting for the community to keep them alive. It’s indeed hard and difficult as we’re lacking support compared to other popular game.

Most people think that watering barren land is useless; it’s better to harvest fruit that’s there,” he said figuratively. Bram chose to keep on watering the barren land until a leaf is finally growing, and so he does because of his love to fighting games.

The result shows now how Advance Guard has its own identity and stand as the icon of fighting game esports. They started from a small scale of a community and now become the international benchmark.

That said, from the business side, Bram admitted that Advance Guard’s journey was far from other EOs who were prefer working on popular games to get more profit.

According to him, big EOs from other countries usually collaborate with those used to the field concerned and it happens in Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand.

“That is the ideal way of working on an esports. Meanwhile here, sometimes we don’t really get along and fight over some sweets instead… Hahaha,” said Bram joking.

The things esports fighting game in Indonesia needs

What are the things that Indonesia’s fighting game esports needs?

First of all, in terms of exposure, there are still so many games and esports media that don’t cover fighting game esports events. “It tends to be covered only by some media that have their interest in fighting games. Most media would write about fighting game esports if it is a huge event. As I know, IGX (Indonesia Game Xperience) is one with the most writings about it.”

*IEC Kratingdaeng 2018. Source: Advance Guard*

According to Bram, the readers of fighting game news are still segmented compared to the popular games. Whereas, on the other hand, many things can be brought up from fighting games, like national and international professional players.

Moreover, the players of fighting games from Indonesia are actually able to compete at the level of Southeast Asia. Bram told us that several times ago, Indonesia representation was taking home the trophy of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle and BlazBlue Central Fiction competition in Philippines.

That said, to be able to successfully get achievement in Asia or even the world, Indonesia players still need a lot more practice. This achievement is yet worth a praise considering fighting game esports lacking of exposure and support.

Then how about the support for local esports organizations? Can it help develop fighting game esports? Given fighting game division of some esports organizations has not yet been much established.

“In my personal opinion, it might happen to be a boost of help; as long as there’s potential and passion from the players. Sponsors can give them a chance to compete abroad for some experience,” explained Bram.

He added, “Unavoidably, they need to compete abroad to raise their own standard.”

Recently, a fighting game player was invited to join Alter Ego and we might see the result from their teamwork later.

I then asked, what would happen if the players of fighting games also get monthly salary just as Dota 2 or Mobile Legends players? Would it help them achieve more?

Bram stated that now fighting game players had gotten their salary but just from a stream and it’s not much. “It’s a business after all. So I think we need to find a win-win solution for all.”

This condition is more suitable for those who’re still studying / a fresh graduate and have their passion in fighting games, and it won’t be as much suitable for those adult, as the career path might not be worth the pain.

The biggest problem of having a career in esports is parents’ concern and permission, as the prizes are not as high as MOBA games yet to make sure that their children would not live in despair in the future.

It is true that in the end it goes back to respective players to decide. If they are successful and can be on their own financially, they may be able to convince their parents to have a career in the esports world.

*AMD Esports Fight! Championship 2018. Source: AMD*

More to that, sponsors’ support for fighting game esports is indeed very valuable as well; a fighting game competition which was held by AMD (AMD eSports FIGHT! Championship 2018) is for an example.

“If all game tournaments can have similar prize pool as MOBA game tournaments, both business matter and a gap between esports stakeholders and players can be maintained. The point is that esports ecosystem needs to be in a stable condition first.”

The last thing Bram said was that fighting games need to be introduced properly for the sake of its esports’ upturn.

“I realize that Indonesia is far from that, compared to other Southeast Asia countries, like Malaysia, Thailand, or Philippines, they always have a spot for fighting games in an esports event.

For that matter as well, I would like to thank AMD who lets me and believes in me to manage their event.

Hopefully, fighting game esports’ ecosystem will gradually develop its various aspects. After all, fighting game esports is one of esports that people can enjoy because of its entertainment factor that is the most intriguing one, and has many outstanding local players,” said Bram.

—

That was our brief talk with Bram about fighting game esports’ ins and outs. Hopefully, the barren land managed wholeheartedly by Bram and Advance Guard as well as the community can turn into a wonderful garden where everyone can feel comfortable.

Don’t forget to like Facebook Fanpage Advance Guard for the newest information of fighting game esports.

–

Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian.