Naming Rights Agreements in Esports

In recent years, more and more non-endemic brands have decided to support esports players and esports organizations. One of the perks the esports sponsors usually receive is the installation of the company logo or name on the pro jersey. 

Unfortunately, broadcasting esports matches is vastly different from traditional sports competitions. When you watch sports broadcasts, you can clearly observe the athletes and their jerseys. However, most esports matches usually only show in-game events, which of course does not include the player. Players are rarely highlighted, and so their jerseys are also not often displayed. To work around this problem, most companies looking to sponsor an esports team opt to use naming sponsorships. As a result, the company’s name will be integrated and clearly displayed in the team name.

The History of Naming Rights Contracts in Esports

By 2020, the esports industry’s revenue is estimated to be nearly $1 billion USD. Sponsorships and media rights contribute to almost 75% of this total revenue. Furthermore, for most esports organizations, sponsors often contribute to almost all of their income and finances. According to Gaming Street, on average, about 90% of an esports organization’s total revenue comes from sponsorships.

Of course, all these sponsoring companies have their own set of goals they want to achieve from the collaboration. Based on the study called Sponsorship in Esports, most companies that sponsor esports organizations usually seek long-term goals such as building a reputation among esports fans. Short-term goals like increasing sales are usually not the primary motive behind these esports sponsors.

Indeed, being an esports sponsor will boost their popularity among the millennials and Gen Z, which are the large majority of the demographic of esports followers. According to another study titled Sponsoring Esports to Improve Brand Image, one-third of esports fans will usually prefer and perceive sponsoring brands more positively over non-sponsoring ones. Considering that today’s esports audience approximately reaches 474 million, sponsorship companies can effectively attract 158 million potential customers into their business.

The growth of esports viewership. | Source: Newzoo

Generally speaking, there are four types of sponsorship: media sponsors, promotional sponsors, in-kind sponsors, and financial sponsors. Media sponsors deal with secure advertising for an event through television, newspapers, or digital channels (such as websites and blogs). Promotional sponsors are similar to media sponsors. However, promotional sponsors usually involve only a single person with a large network of followers rather than a whole media outlet.

In-kind sponsors are usually businesses which can provide goods or services. Beverage brands, for instance, can become an in-kind sponsor by providing drinks to the viewers, tournaments officials, players, etc. The last and perhaps the most common form of sponsorship is financial sponsorship. As the name implies, financial sponsors will provide direct financial support or funds for the tournament, event, or organization they sponsor.

As mentioned previously, one of the perks that esports teams can offer to their sponsors is displaying the sponsor’s logo or name on the players’ jerseys. But, of course, we already knew the limitations of this approach. Therefore, some companies prefer to become name sponsors (or sometimes called title sponsors) and combine their brand name with the esports team name. After all, the name of the esports team will always be mentioned and displayed in the esports competition broadcast. So, by becoming the naming sponsor of the esports team, companies can exponentially increase their exposure towards consumers — especially esports audiences. So far, there are several esports organizations that have signed naming rights contracts with brands, both endemic and non-endemic.

Kia Motor is the name sponsor of DAMWON Gaming. | Source: Esports Insider

An example of an esports organization with a name sponsor is DAMWON Gaming, a South Korean organization that won the League of Legends World Championship in 2020. In December 2020, DAMWON announced its naming rights deal with Kia Motor starting in 2021, changing its team name to DWG MCH. DAMWON also introduced a new logo and jersey for their League of Legends team. Hyugho Kwon, Head of Korea Business Division in Kia Motors, explained that they wanted to “revitalize” the global esports ecosystem through the partnership with DAMWON. Kia Motors also wishes to promote and expose the brand to esports fans around the world.

Another esports organization that recently signed a naming rights contract is JD Gaming. The organization is part of the esports division of Jing Dong, an e-commerce company from China. The company that sponsored JD Gaming is Intel. The naming rights agreement, which lasts for two years, effectively changes JD Gaming’s brand name to JDG Intel Esports Club. Unfortunately, we have no information about the cost of purchasing JD Gaming’s name contract. 

Team SoloMid (TSM) has also just signed a naming rights contract in early June 2021 with a cryptocurrency exchange company from Hong Kong called Future Exchange (FTX). The partnership between TSM and FTX is reported to last for 10 years and is valued at US$210 million. TSM now undergoes with the brand name of TSM FTX. Again, FTX conducted this partnership in the hopes of marketing the brand to the American public.

Aerowolf’s partnership with Genflix. | Source: Twitter

In Indonesia, there is also an esports team that has signed a naming rights contract. The esports organization is Aerowolf. In May 2019, Aerowolf announced that Genflix, a local video streaming platform, had officially become their naming sponsor and changed its brand name from Aerowolf Roxy to Genflix Aerowolf. Just like FTX and most other name sponsors, Genflix’s goal behind collaborating with Aerowolf is to increase its brand awareness, especially towards the younger esports audience.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Naming Rights Agreements

Every company wants to have a popular and good brand reputation. In the midst of intense competition, having a positive brand image can be a massive game-changer in terms of generating revenue. And, of course, sponsorship is an easy and effective method to boost a brand’s reputation. Thus, many companies today who look into marketing their brand towards the younger demography will more often than not turn into sponsorships in esports.

According to Winnan, sponsoring events and teams are currently the best option in esports sponsorships. However, out of all of the aforementioned types of sponsorships, which one should you pick if you are looking to be an esports sponsor?

Naming or title sponsorships does look like the best option. After all, we already discussed why naming rights contracts are considered a far more superior form of sponsorship in esports. Other than the increased exposure in tournament broadcasts, naming sponsorships usually have a higher chance of capturing the loyalty of the fans. In a book entitled The eSports Market and eSports Sponsoring, author Julian Heinz Anton Stroh states that most esports fans are aware that companies that sponsor their favorite teams have goals of their own self-interest, such as increasing sales. However, fans also know that the esports industry needs sponsors to survive, which is why they often appreciate and care deeply about the support that sponsors provide.

Esports fans have high enthusiasm. | Source: ESTNN

Various studies also show that fans still gladly welcome non-endemic brands (companies that are not related to esports or gaming) to support the competitive gaming scene. Although most esports followers do slightly prefer sponsorships from endemic brands, the study by Stroh shows that 70% of esports fans still hope that more and more non-endemic brands will enter the esports scene.

Being an esports sponsor does improve the brand image in the eyes of esports fans. However, several other factors also affect the company’s reputation in a sponsorship deal, such as the activation method used by sponsors, the target audience, and the products offered by the company.

It is undeniable that the esports community is incredibly enthusiastic. If a sponsor can successfully “win the hearts” of esports fans, its brand will be vastly promoted on social media. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm of esports fans can also act as a double-edged sword. A slight fault or mistake in a sponsor’s message towards fans can spread bad reputation like wildfire. This fact also applies to naming rights contracts.

Naming rights contracts a form of partnership with the highest associativity since brand names are effectively combined together. Therefore, if either party is exposed to a scandal, the other will also be extensively affected. For example, if an esports team is caught in a cheating accusation, both the esports organization and the name sponsor will suffer from reputation damage.

The primary goal of name sponsor brands is often to get fans to associate their brand with the team. However, naming rights contracts sometimes don’t last long. And if the team name frequently changes, fans will eventually feel indifferent towards name sponsors. Another possibility that might occur is that fans will only remember the old name sponsor over new ones.

According to a Chron report, this exact scenario has occurred at Candlestick Park, the stadium of the San Francisco 49ers and San Francisco Giants. The stadium was initially named Candlestick Park in 1960. In 1995-2002, the stadium’s name was changed to 3Com Park. The name of the stadium changed again in 2004-2008 to Monster Park. However, today, most fans still associate the stadium name as Candlestick Park despite the two name modifications that took place. A simple solution to this problem that name sponsors can employ is to extend the name contract duration, similar to the partnership between TSM and FTX. 

Team SoloMid has just signed a naming rights agreement with FTX. | Source: Dot Esports

Naming rights partnerships are similar to company takeovers in the business world. Both of them have the potential to be profitable or yield extreme losses for both parties. A company acquisition or takeover is considered successful when the acquired company can contribute revenue greater than the initial purchase value. Take Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram in 2012 as an example. Although Facebook initially bought Instagram for $1 billion USD, Instagram today has more than 1 billion users and contributes over $20 billion to Facebook’s revenue each year.

However, startups or small companies do not always want to accept takeover offers. Sometimes, these companies may believe that they can independently grow into a business with a larger value than the acquisition price. An example of a company that resisted large corporate takeovers is Discord. Microsoft had offered $12 billion USD to acquire Discord. However, according to a Bloomberg report, Discord refused and instead look into the opportunity to go public in the future.

All these plus and minuses in company takeovers are also present in naming rights contracts. The deal between TSM and FTX, for instance, lasts for 10 years and is worth $210 million USD. Therefore, we can assume that the TSM brand is currently valued at $210 million USD. However, TSM might become more popular in the future, and their brand value might increase, favoring FTX. However, there is also a possibility that the performance and popularity of the TSM organization might decline over the next 10 years, which will cause FTX huge losses since their contract value decreases.

Naming Rights Contracts in Conventional Sports

Naming rights agreements are also a common occurrence in the conventional sports world. For example, several basketball teams in Indonesia have sold their naming rights to sponsors. One of these Indonesian basketball teams with a name sponsor is Satria Muda. 

Since its establishment in 1993, Satria Muda has signed naming rights contracts with several brands. In 1997, Coca-Cola Company’s AdeS brand became the first name sponsor of this Jakarta-based basketball team. As a result, the team name was changed to AdeS Satria Muda. A year later, in 1998, the team name changed again to Mahaka Satria Muda after signing a deal with PT Abdi Bangsa Tbk owned by Erick Tohir. In 2004, BRI through BritAma became the next name sponsor of the Satria Muda team, altering the team name to Satria Muda BritAma. The Satria Muda headquarters was also named The BritAma Arena as a result of the agreement. However, in 2015, Satria Muda signed their last and current name sponsor with Pertamina. Along with this change, the basketball team’s name was changed to Satria Muda Pertamina.

Another national basketball team that also has a name sponsor is Amartha Hangtuah. When it was initially founded in 2003, the basketball team undergoes by the name Hangtuah and only modified it to Hangtuah Sumsel Indonesia Muda five years later. This name was used until 2019 when Amartha decided to become the name sponsor of HangTuah. After the partnership, the basketball team became known as Amartha Hangtuah.

Amartha is currently HangTuah’s name sponsor. | Source: Kompas

Of course, not all sports teams are willing to sell the exclusive naming rights of their team. European football clubs, for instance, rarely sell the club’s naming rights and instead opt to sell the naming rights of their stadiums. For example, the Emirates airline bought the naming rights to Arsenal’s stadium in 2004. It is estimated that this 15-year contract between the two parties is worth £100 million. The deal also includes the installation of Emirates’ logo in the Arsenal player jerseys since the 2006-2007 season. Last year, Barcelona also just sold the naming rights of their stadium, Camp Nou, and donated the funds they receive to COVID-19 related charities. 

The main reason why most top-tier football clubs almost never give up their naming rights is that their club name is already “too well-known” to people around the world. Their club names, in some sense, are considered to be formally established. In contrast to the relatively new esports teams, most European football clubs are more than 100 years old. Four famous clubs in the UK were founded before 1900: Arsenal in 1886, Liverpool in 1892, Manchester City in 1880, and Manchester United in 1878. Therefore, it is very unlikely that these clubs will surrender the longevity of their brand name to sponsors. And if they were to open up a naming sponsorship deal, the price that they would set would be incredibly expensive. Most sponsors can perhaps already get a reasonable amount of exposure in regular sponsorship agreements with football clubs and thus would never opt to become title sponsors even if there is an opportunity to do so.

Naming rights contracts are not limited to sports teams or esports organizations. Some companies are also willing to become naming sponsors of sports events or esports competitions. Toyota, for instance, became the naming sponsor of Thailand’s national football league called Toyota League Cup. In the realm of esports, Intel is undoubtedly one of the most well-known tournament name sponsors. Intel Extreme Masters and Intel Grand Slam are two examples of Intel-sponsored esports tournaments. In Indonesia, JD.id has also conducted a name sponsorship agreement with Yamisok’s esports league called the High School League. Like all other name sponsors, JD.id’s goal behind this partnership is to increase brand awareness among high school esports players and viewers

Conclusion

The world of business is full of intense competition as hundreds of brands try their best to win the market and rise to the top. One of the most effective methods for a company to beat its competitors is building a good brand reputation and image, which is why many of them opt to become sponsors of popular sports or esports teams.

Placing a logo or company name on a player’s jersey is one of the most basic forms of sponsorship in conventional sports or esports. However, companies can further increase their exposure by conducting a naming sponsorship deal with the organization. By becoming a name sponsor, fans will immediately associate the brand name with their favorite team. But, of course, name sponsorship agreements can have potential repercussions for both parties as well. If one of the sides is affected by an issue, the other might also be severely affected. Like all business decisions, there are always pros and cons that must be carefully considered. Nevertheless, when it comes to esports sponsorships, the current hot trend and deals are happening in naming rights agreements.

Featured image: Freepik. Translated by: Ananto Joyoadikusumo

Comparing the Olympics With Esports Tournaments: Which One Is More Profitable?

In recent years, the popularity of esports has skyrocketed. Even so, there is still a negative stigma attached to the competitive gaming industry. The participation of esports in major sporting events — such as the SEA Games or the Asian Games — can undoubtedly help remove this stigma. Furthermore, the emergence of esports in traditional sports competitions, such as the National Sports Week (PON) or the President’s Cup, can also increase public awareness of esports.

The Olympics is widely regarded as the most prestigious sporting event in the entire world. Previously, Hybrid.co.id had discussed if esports deserves a spot in the Olympics. This time, however, I will compare the process of organizing the Olympics with world-class esports events such as The International and League of Legends Worlds. Through our analysis, we can try to observe if there are any similarities that suggest that esports and the Olympics can be juxtaposed.

Preparation of the Olympics

Even though the Olympics only takes place for 16 days, preparing for the event can take years of effort. The preparation process begins by selecting a hosting country. For instance, the application to host the 2020 Olympics (which will be held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) started in May 2011. At that time, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) informed each country’s National Olympic Committees (NOCs) that they could apply to host the 2020 Olympics

In June 2011, the Governor of Tokyo applied as the 2020 Olympic host. Besides Tokyo, several other cities also volunteered, such as Istanbul, Madrid, Baku, Doha, and Rome. However, Tokyo finally took the spot and signed the host contract in September 2013.

As you can see, preparing for the Olympics can take a very long time since the host selection can take 7-12 years before the event starts. In the 2022 Winter Olympics, Beijing was selected as the host in July 2015. Paris, the 2024 Olympics host, got the spot in September 2017. The Olympic Committee intentionally gave this much time due to the tremendous effort required to host the Olympic event successfully.

As a host, the city must not only build an athlete village to accommodate Olympic participants but also build or repair a stadium to run the sporting events. Moreover, the government must also improve the city’s infrastructure, ensuring a warm welcome to the audience, tourists and Olympic personnels that will visit the city.

This year, Tokyo prepared more than 41 thousand hotel rooms for the media, IOC executives, NOC representatives, and representatives of the International Sports Federations (ISF). They also need to take into account the hotels that will accommodate the tourists. Prior to the pandemic, the Tokyo government planned to set up cruise ships in Tokyo ports as temporary hotels. However, the plan was ultimately canceled due to the lack of spectators who watched this year’s Olympics in person.

As for the athletes, Tokyo needs to build an Olympic village, or often called an athletes village. Building this accommodation can be extremely challenging due to the due to the hefty list of conditions that must be met. For example, the location of the village must be close to the stadium or the location of the competition venue. The farthest distance from an athlete’s accommodation to the stadium is set at approximately 50 kilometers and is reachable in 1 hour by car. If there just so happens to be multiple competition venues that are far apart from each other, well the host city must also prepare multiple athlete villages. During the 2014 Winter Olympics, Russia created two separate athlete villages. The primary athlete village was located in Sochi. The second athlete village was in Roza Khutor, built for ski and snowboarding athletes.

Preparation of Esports Events

Now that we have already a basic understanding of the intricacies behind preparing for the Olympics, let’s see what tournament organizers (TO) have to deal with when formulating an esports competition. To be able to fully grasp the process of organizing esports competitions, Hybrid.co.id contacted Herry Wijaya, Head of Operations, Mineski Indonesia, and Irliansyah Wijanarko, Chief Growth Officer, RevivalTV. These two individuals have years of profound experience in organizing esports events.

Besides Herry and Irli, Hybrid.co.id also contacted ESL, one of the most popular tournament organizing brands in esports. ESL frequently held large-scale international esports tournaments around the world. Nick Vanzetti, SVP and Managing Director of ESL Asia Pacific Japan, specifically represented ESL in the interview.

Herry said that to hold a national-level esports competition usually requires 3-6 months of preparation. International tournaments often take double the effort and time, around 6-12 months. According to Irli, preparing large-scale esports events such as The International or LOL Worlds would take around 8-12 months.

“On average, the preparation time is around 8-12 months. The planning and conceptualization phase consumes 3-4 months of work, detailing usually takes 2-3 months long, while promotions will start 2-3 months before the event runs,” said Irli via text message. “Of course, execution and post-event tasks come next.” He added, “World-class esports events often focus on capturing the best moments of the competition and providing an unforgettable experience for the audience. So what’s the job of the tournament organizer? Create as many of these moments as possible.”

“What are these so-called ‘moments’? For the casual audience, they might be interested in creative stage acts/design and entertaining content. On the other hand, the more hardcore fans might seek a suspenseful finals match with a popular or iconic caster. For those with EO experience, they might want to see a smoothly running and coordinated event,” said Irli.

When it comes to holding esports events, Irli explained that four stakeholders or groups must be considered. These are the players/talents, audiences, sponsors, and developers or IP owners. The crew that runs behind the curtains must also be taken into account. Depending on the scale of the competition, additional stakeholders, such as the government or competing companies, might also be involved.

“Tournament organizers must carefully analyze each of these potential stakeholders and how they might find the event memorable (in a positive sense). Different stakeholders, of course, have different needs and priorities. For the crew, they might want good food and hotel accommodation. Talents might require an organized script to simplify things on stage. The audience will undoubtedly want a high-quality production with proper visuals and sound mixing. Sponsors need to make sure that their KPI targets are met. So on and so forth.”

According to Herry, here are the most important elements to prepare and plan when organizing a tournament: 

  1. Venues and mandatories
  2. Hard production and soft production
  3. Property
  4. Production equipment
  5. Hospitality
  6. Talents
  7. Internet and communication
  8. Other miscellaneous items, such as stationaries or hard disks

Mandatories are essentially everything that will be required when using a venue,” said Herry. “For example, if we want to use Tennis Indoor Stadium in Senayan, we have to assemble a fire department and prepare an ambulance, according to their standard procedures. Furthermore, we also have to prepare a crowd permit.” He also added that there are two types of production equipment. Hard production involves stages, booths, gates, and everything physical or tangible. On the other hand, Soft production deals with tools required to create digital content, such as digital assets. Hospitality encompasses hotels, food, and transportation arrangements.

LAN Events. | Source: ESL Gaming

Esports competitions are frequently sponsored by endemic brands, such as smartphone companies for mobile esports competitions or hardware manufacturers for PC esports tournaments. Sponsors can opt to give away their products to resell, while sometimes they can also lend them. It all depends on the signed contract.

“Sponsors often supply their products or services instead of finances to support the event. We call them In-kind sponsors. Sometimes, the sponsors can allow us to resell the items they provide,” said Herry. “Other times, it is only a matter of a lease, and we would have to return the sponsor’s product after the event has concluded. It is incredibly important to understand the product’s presence to make sure that we do not get into any illegal circumstances.”

In line with Herry and Irli, Nick revealed that ESL takes about a year to organize a world-class esports event. He also added that workloads significantly increase when the D day of the event gets closer.

“There is a lot of preparation to be made to hold an international event,” said Vanzetti. “First, we have to find a venue that fits our criteria and needs regarding the size of the event.” He revealed that capacity, internet availability, location, and reachability are some of the factors that ESL considers when selecting a venue.

“We will also ensure that players, talents, ESL employees, and all parties that will be attending and running the tournament are set up with the appropriate accommodations and travel needs such as visas, flight tickets, hotels, and so on,” said Vanzetti. He emphasized that ESL highly prioritizes ensuring that all parties involved in organizing esports competitions have a satisfying experience, starting from when they depart, running the event, and until they return to their respective homes.

LOL Worlds 2020 will be held in Shanghai. | Source: LOL Esports

How does a tournament organizer determine the city that will host the international esports competition? According to Herry, TOs usually adjust to the client’s goals and expectations. If the client’s goal is to reach out to their fans, then Mineski will select a city with a highly enthusiastic community in the game. On the flipside, Mineski will recommend a new city that has little to no fanbase if the client wishes to expand their gaming market to new consumers.

Vanzetti also mentioned that the size of the market or community surrounding the city is one of ESL’s primary benchmarks when determining a host location. However, another factor that ESL often takes into consideration is the local government’s interest in esports.

“The hosting city can frequently provide support to the tournament or event through various methods. For instance, they can help us get visas for the players and staff. They can also assist the marketing department or aid the venue rental or accommodation costs,” said Vanzetti. “Through the bidding system, TOs will be able to select cities that offer strategic advantages and benefits so that they can successfully organize a world-class esports event.”

However, according to Irli, the only publisher that currently uses a bidding system in choosing a city to hold an esports competition is Valve. He explained that Valve gave event organizers the opportunity to submit proposals for holding a Major tournament. It is the organizers themselves who will propose the city to be the tournament host.

“From my experience, the factors that need to be considered when organizing national and international scale events are the facilities in the city, the number of players in and around the city, accessibility to the city, such as airports, hotels, distance to the venue,” said Iril. “Product support from sponsors in the city, political conditions, and enthusiasm from local communities are also quite important.”

Tournament organizers must also be able to manage manpower or human resources (HR). According to Herry, 40 to 60 personnel are usually required to hold an online competition. This figure can expand to 80-120 people if the tournament is held offline. Moreover, to hold an international offline competition, Herry estimates that only a minimum of 150-170 people will suffice. However, not all the organizer crew is composed of Mineski’s personnel. More often than not, some are part of the “familia”, freelancers who continue to work for Mineski.

On ESL, the manpower size is even larger, usually involving more than 200 staff and contract workers according to Vanzetti. “In addition to hiring ESL staff, we often collaborate with local suppliers and companies to help us organize events,” he said. In Irli’s estimation, an organizing team holding world-class esports events like The International or LOL Worlds can approximately accumulate 200-300 staff in all positions. The number of required staff is usually correlated with the venue size and location as well.

“The bigger the event and venue, the larger the staff size needed to run the whole show, up to 500-600 people,” he said. “Fortunately, the costs of labor can often be reduced through volunteers or freelancers who are paid hourly or per day.” He used the Djakarta Warehouse Project (DWP), arguably Indonesia’s largest music, as a comparison. He said that DWP’s organizing crew can consist of a total of 1000 personnel. However, the core team usually consists of only 50-100 people. The rest of the crew is filled with volunteers and freelancers who look to support the event.

Olympic Viewership Trends and Esports Competitions

Viewership can be a barometer of the success of a particular event. Unfortunately, when it comes to comparing the successes of the Olympics and esports tournaments, viewership can be a tricky metric to handle. The reason is simple: these two events are broadcasted in different media. 

Unlike TV, there is no such thing as ratings in streaming broadcasts. Instead, the average or peak number of viewers and watch hours are more relevant statistics when it comes to streaming. Therefore, in order to compare the Olympic viewership with TI and LOL Worlds, we need to consider the viewership statistics in each of the events and observe any general trends (upwards or downwards) that might be present.

In the United States, the Olympics are usually broadcast by NBC (National Broadcasting Company). According to data from Nielsen, 16.9 million people watch the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony. If we compare this figure with the viewer numbers in previous years, 2021 holds the unwanted record of the smallest number of viewers. Furthermore, Tokyo Olympics viewership numbers were half of Rio de Janeiro’s Olympics spectator numbers in 2016. NBC, unfortunately, might regret their $7.65 billion USD Olympics broadcast rights contract extension that lasts until 2032 after facing this downward trend.

Here’s the Tokyo Olympics viewership numbers compared to the five-day Rio Olympics:

Tuesday, 27 July 2021, viewership dropped by 58%

Wednesday, July 28, 2021, viewership dropped by 53%

Thursday, July 29, 2021, viewership dropped by 43%

Saturday, July 31, 2021, viewership dropped by 57%

Sunday, August 1, 2021, viewership dropped by 51%

As you can see from the data above, the drop in viewers in the Tokyo Olympics is catastrophic. According to an AP News report, the peak viewership of the Tokyo Olympics broadcasted on NBC occurred on Thursday, July 29, 2021, which was 16.2 viewers. Even so, this figure is still 43% lower than that of the Rio Olympics 4 years ago.

NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell hypothesized several factors that caused the plunge in this year’s Olympic broadcast. One of the most obvious factor is the pandemic, which ultimately postponed the Olympics by a whole year. The pandemic also prohibited live spectators who want to watch the event in person. Another factor is the adjustment of broadcast hours. The time difference between Tokyo and Washington DC is a whopping 13 hours. To combat this problem, NBC and other media companies offer broadcasts from more platforms and more schedules. However, according to Reuters, this actually confuses the viewers and hinders them from finding the content they want to watch.

Now, let’s move on to the viewership of The International and LOL Worlds. 

I will use the most common metrics or measure of viewership, namely hours watched, the average number of viewers, and the peak number of viewers. For my source of data, I referred to Esports Charts. As a side note, The International 2020 had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the statistics for this year’s International will be intentionally left out as 0.

Watch hours, peak viewers, and average viewership numbers of TI and LOL Worlds. | Source: Esports Charts]

As you can see in the chart above, The International’s viewership continues to show an upward trend across all metrics in the past few years. The viewership number of LOL Worlds also seems to follow the same exact trend. During 2019 in particular, the average number of viewers even experienced rapid growth, almost 60% greater than the last year. However, in terms of peak viewers and hours watched, LOL Worlds’ figures occasionally stagnate or decline marginally.

You can also see the viewership for LOL Worlds 2020 and The International 2019 in the diagrams below.

Viewership statistics of LOL Worlds 2020. | Source: Esports Charts
Viewership statistics of The International 2019. | Source: Esports Charts

Of course, the Olympics’ viewership numbers are far more superior to any esports events in history. However, esports has one other advantage over the Olympics: a younger demographic of viewers. As of 2016, the average age of an Olympic spectator was 53 years old. On the other hand, the average age of an esports audience is 26 years old. If you want to understand what this data suggests, you can take a look at this article here.

Profitability

Besides viewership, another metric that can be used to measure the success of a particular event is its ability to yield financial gain, or profitability for short. So let’s take a deeper look at the detailed costs involved in running the Olympics and esports events as well as the advantages/disadvantages of the host city.

The financial resources prepared by different host cities to hold the Olympics vary. However, one thing is for sure, the funds allocated can reach billions or even tens of billions of dollars. For instance, the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang is estimated to cost $12.9 billion USD, and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver cost $6.4 billion USD. Similarly, to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, London allocated a budget of around $14.6 billion USD. To hold the 2008 Olympics, Beijing reportedly spent $42 billion USD.

Of course, these funds are not only spent on sports infrastructure, such as stadiums. As Investopedia noted, cities designated to host the Olympics will usually also work on developing other basic infrastructures by building new roads, or renovating airports, or building new hotels to accommodate the population surge during the Olympics.

During the 2016 Olympics, Rio reportedly built 15 thousand new hotel rooms to accommodate the potential tourists. Sochi spent $42.5 billion USD to build non-sporting infrastructure for the 2014 Olympics. Of the tens of billions of dollars Beijing spent on the 2008 Olympics, $22.5 billion USD was spent on renovating roads, airports, subways, and trains. They also spent $11.25 billion USD to clean up the city environment.

The improvement of infrastructure that the host government requires will, in turn, open up thousands of new job vacancies in the city. This is one of the advantages of taking up the opportunity in hosting the Olympics. Morever, the flock of sponsors, media, athletes, and spectators that visit the city will generate a lot of revenue for the local government.

Apart from tourists, the Olympics also have several other sources of income. One of them is the sale of licenses. Unfortunately, since the 2008 Olympics, Olympic license prices have continued to fall. You can see this in the graph below, obtained from Statista.

Olympic’s revenue from licensing. | Source: Statista

Marketing is another source of income for the Olympics. Unlike license prices, the Olympic income from marketing shows an upward trend for the past few years. Between 2013-2016, revenue from marketing did experience a minor decline from $8 billion USD in 2009-2012 to $7.8 billion USD in 2013-2016. But of course, this 3% drop is not very large by any standards.

 

Olympic’s revenue from marketing. | Source: Statista

Unfortunately, hosting the Olympics also poses its own problems. Despite the enormous costs incurred to organize the Olympics, host cities frequently find diminishing returns from the event. To hold the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver spent a colossal $7.6 billion USD but only managed to rack up a profit of $2.8 billion USD. 

Sometimes, the Olympics don’t even provide that many new job opportunities in the city. For example, Salt Lake City (the host of the 2002 Olympics) reportedly only found 7 thousand new job openings, 10 times smaller than its initial estimations. Even worse, most of the job availability is usually aimed at individuals with existing jobs. Therefore, the argument that the Olympics can potentially solve the problems of unemployment is simply inaccurate.

More often than not, a large proportion of business opportunities that result from hosting the Olympics also benefit international companies instead of local enterprises. However, the biggest issue of hosting the Olympics is the abandonment of the infrastructure built for the event. When the Olympics come to a close, athletes villages and sports stadiums essentially serve no more purpose and are often left out to rot.

Athletes village in Turin. | Source: Olympics

Now that we have a clear picture of the requisites and budget of organizing the Olympics, let’s compare the required costs of holding esports events ranging from the national level to world-class tournaments such as TI or LOL Words

In terms of expenses, Vanzetti estimated that organizing world-class esports events would need a budget in the range of millions of dollars. Likewise, Herry estimates that the national-level esports tournament will cost around $500 thousand USD to US$1 million USD, while international-level tournaments would usually double that figure. He also predicts that holding The International or LOL Worlds would require a budget of $5-10 million USD. Irli also had a similar opinion with Herry, expecting that organizing TI or LOL Worlds will most likely have a minimum cost of $5 million USD.

“In terms of budget details, 50% is allocated to production, 20% to hospitality and manpower, 20% to promotions, and 10% for other miscellaneous works,” said Irli. “That’s usually the rough proportions, but it mostly depends on the client’s goals and needs. Some clients may want to focus more on increasing the production value, which means that more resources will be designated to production. Valve, for example, is always interested in creating stories and movie content based on the competition. I personally like to put more effort into producing lavish opening ceremonies, using state-of-the-art broadcasting technology, and so on.”

The content that Valve produces to support The International is True Sight. True Sight is a documentary series that showcases behind-the-scenes footage, stories, and experience of the Dota 2 pro players during TI or Majors. Unlike Valve, Riot Games prefers to present a grand opening ceremony. At LOL Worlds 2017, Riot flew a virtual dragon at the Beijing National Stadium. In 2018, Riot’s virtual K-Pop group, KDA, performed in front of the LOL World’s stage using augmented reality technology. Riot upped the performance yet again in 2019 by using cutting-edge holographic technology, which made the KDA members look highly realistic.

So, are esports tournaments profitable?

In 2018, Derrick Asiedu, Head of Global Events in Riot Games, revealed that Riot spends more than US$100 million per year on its esports program but is still miles away from making a return in capital. Fortunately, Riot’s effort in expanding its esports has allowed League of Legends’ esports ecosystem to thrive and attract millions of audience. Even though Riot might not have made a profit from esports for the moment, it successfully kept LOL relevant for more than 10 years. Consequently, Riot still can generate income through in-game content or sales to balance out their financial losses in esports. 

When compared to traditional sports competitions like the Olympics, esports also have a different model of monetization. 40% of traditional sporting events’ income usually come from sponsorships, 40% from broadcasting, and 20% from ticket and merchandise sales. As for esports, 80% of revenue comes from sponsorships, 15% from broadcasting, and 5% from ticket and merchandise sales, according to Alban Dechelotte, Head of Business Development and Sponsorship, League of Legends European Championship (LEC).

“We could go on only one platform and be exclusive,” Dechelotte told GamesIndustry, “We may have more revenue but we lose viewership which is important because at the end of the day, it’s a marketing tool for the game. So sponsorship becomes the number one priority for us, because compared to traditional sport, it’s double the weight in terms of revenue.”

In line with Asideu, Irli also estimated that sponsorships contribute to 80% of esports events’ income, and the rest of the 20% comes from ticket sales, merchandise, and so on. “These proportions are perhaps why most esports events today are held by the game developer/publisher themselves,” he said. “Esports sadly hasn’t been able to create revenue streams from ticket sales alone. It still primarily functions as a marketing tool for publishers with the sole purpose to create exposure for the game. Events such as The International and LOL Worlds can push revenue contributions of merchandise and ticket sales to around 30%-40%, but the rest still lies on the sponsors.”

BOOM Esports when they won the ESL Indonesia Championship Season 2. | Source: Twitter

Moreover, holding international esports tournaments can highly benefit local companies in the host city. Vanzetti mentioned that ESL does have its own private equipment and personnel to maintain the integrity of its events. However, ESL also frequently works with local suppliers for stage procurement, such as sounds, lights, and LEDs.

“For some parts of the event, we usually get help from local companies, such as for the procurement of furniture, security barriers, and cameras,” said Vanzetti. “Local companies can have the opportunity to earn big profits through hosting world-class esports competitions in their city or country.”

Conclusion

Preparation for holding the Olympics is much more complicated and takes much longer than holding esports events, even for prestigious tournaments like The International or LOL Worlds. Furthermore, in terms of cost, organizing the Olympics requires a much larger budget, up to billions of dollars, compared to the million-dollar range of esports tournaments. Even so, the Olympics never fails to attract millions of television viewers around the globe. Unfortunately, the number of Olympic spectators has experienced a continuous decline for the past few years, perhaps due to the changes in modern viewing habits. More people today, especially the younger generation, simply prefer watching online streams instead of TV.

In terms of income, both the Olympics and esports events can sometimes prove to be unprofitable. However, esports has always been used primarily as a marketing tool, not as an additional income stream. Game developers’ source of revenue still stems from selling games or in-game items. As for its purpose, esports has been incredibly effective in maintaining the longevity of many franchises such as League of Legends, Dota, or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Rainbow Six has also benefited from its esports ecosystem, as seen by its growing number of players for the past few years.

Featured Image: Unsplash. Translated by: Ananto Joyoadikusumo.

7 Mods You Must Download in Stardew Valley

Since its initial release in 2016, Stardew Valley has amassed quite an enormous playerbase and, with it, also a loyal community of modders. According to Nexus Mods, there are over 6000 mods that have been created for Stardew Valley, a pretty huge number to say the least. Of all the available mods, we have compiled 7 that are most beloved by the community and are considered essential to download. Since we will only be including the “must-have” mods, I won’t be mentioning any texture or re-skin mods that are more specific to personal taste.

Without further ado, here are the recommended Stardew Valley mods.

1. Stardew Valley Expanded

Source: Nexus Mods

The Stardew Valley Expanded mod does exactly what it sounds like. The mod adds a ton of new stuff into the game and gives experienced players the feeling of a fresh start. You can explore Pelican Town in greater detail, finding tons of new features just like you would do when you first start playing Stardew Valley. In the current version of the mod (1.13), SVE introduces 26 new NPCs with personalized schedules, backgrounds, and events. There are also more than 200 additional character events that expand the original Stardew world lore. The mod also includes map redesigns and 33 new unlockable locations. These are just a few of the plethora of new features that SVE adds to the game. If you want to know more about the mod, I suggest checking out their fanmade wiki here. Despite the sheer complexity of the mod, FlashShifter does an awesome job in ensuring that the mod feels original as if it was a legitimate DLC of Stardew Valley. If you have already completed the vanilla game several times and felt bored of Stardew Valley, this mod might just be the one for you.

2. Tractor Mod

Source: Nexus Mods

One of the most popular and beloved mods in the community is perhaps the Tractor mod. The mod gives you a tractor garage that is purchasable from Robin the carpenter, which allows you to use a tractor to plant seeds, water your plants and harvest your precious crops. The tractor also has built-in tools to clear twigs, till soils, and even mow down monsters. It just makes life much easier and speeds everything up on the farm. Note that getting the tractor does require a bit of resources, some of which are quite rare. More specifically, you will need 150 000 gold, 20 Iron Bar, 5 Iridium Bar, and 5 Battery Packs. However, once you accumulate these items and get the invaluable tractor, I ensure you that your life on the farm will be much less painful.

3. Lookup Anything

Source: Gamepressure

Lookup Anything is perhaps one of the best utility mods that will greatly enhance your knowledge about Stardew Valley. You can basically hover any object in the game and simply press F1 to bring up the information about that particular object. If you hover a character, you can see their birthday, friendship status, and their favorite gifts. If you hover an item, you can see how much it sells for, who might want it, and its recipe. You can see a plant’s growth stage and seed availability by using the same technique. Likewise, you can also find out monster drops and their health if you are in the mood for hunting. Lookup anything is essentially one quick Google search of any entity in the game and will be incredibly useful for you who wants to learn more about the intricacies of Stardew Valley.

4. NPC Map locations

Source: Reddit

This handy mod will display all the NPCs on your map at any given time. Therefore, when you want to find a specific person to send gifts or do quests, you don’t have to wander around town endlessly and simply pull out your map to see where they are. Furthermore, you can also customize what characters are displayed, hiding the NPCs that you consider less important. Many players have wanted this feature to be implemented in the original game since keeping track of NPC locations and schedules can be rather tedious most of the time. For now, however, we will just have to stick with NPC Map Locations.

5. CJB show item sell price

Source: Nexus Mods

CJB show item sell price is perhaps the simplest mod in the whole list but is still incredibly useful to have in your arsenal. The mod does exactly what it sounds like: display prices of items singly and in a stack. Therefore, you can essentially see how much money you are making from your inventory without having to wait to ship the item, sleep, and wait for the end screen. You can also use the mod to filter which items are less worth and possibly to throw away. Again, just an overall essential mod to have that will speed things up and make life easier in Stardew Valley.

6. CJB item spawner

Source: Nexus Mods

The Item Spawner mod by CJB is the first cheat mod in this list. You can select any item in the game, spawn it with whatever amount you want with any quality. With all this power, you can be rich and build your creative endeavors without having to manually collect years’ worth of resources. Of course, using this mod will remove all the “grinding” nature that defines Stardew Valley, which is why I think that the Item Spawner mod will be better suited for players who have completed the game.

The mod draws parallels to the Creative Mode in Minecraft. Sure, Creative Mode will not give you the fascinating feeling of mining diamonds. But it will allow you to build a 10-story mansion to your liking with ease.

If you already worked your way up to the top and want to experiment with the different aspects of the Stardew Valley, the Item Spawner mod will provide much-needed help.

7. CJB cheats menu

Source: Rock Paper Shotgun

If you think that the Item Spawner mod is broken, you have been greatly mistaken. Unlike the previous cheat mod, CJB Cheats Menu allows you to basically modify the game to your liking. You can have infinite stamina, health, and speed. You can give yourself unlimited money, change the weather, teleport to any location, freeze time; you get the point. Of course, as I said before, cheat mods like this ruins the experience of Stardew Valley, and I would only recommend picking CJB Cheats Menu up if you are already an advanced player.

 

Featured Image: GameIndo

Gaming and the Brain

The brain is undoubtedly the most complicated and fascinating organ in the human body. It practically defines who we are, our beliefs, emotions, well-being, and the entirety of our lives. However, the mind is also incredibly susceptible to changes in the environment. What we eat, drink, watch, listen can alter the circuitry of the mind in one way or another.

The same thing goes with playing video games. Gaming, for better or worse, can affect how our brains operate. This relationship also works the other way around: the state of our brain can change our performance and behavior in-game. Unlike most traditional sports out there, gaming emphasizes the cognitive capabilities of humans, similar to board games like chess. Dota 2, CS:GO, VALORANT, all your beloved games is simply a mental battle between you and your opponents. It doesn’t matter if you are tall, short, thin, fat, ugly, or beautiful you can play games and grind your brains to become the best in the world.

Esports organizations today also begin to realize the importance of the relationship between the brain and gaming, consequently hiring a professional psychologist to support their esports rosters.

Astralis, arguably the best CS:GO team of all time, was perhaps one of the pioneers who collaborated with a sports psychologist. Before this project, Astralis was undoubtedly still a solid team and is considered one of the future prospects in Europe CS:GO. However, around 2015-2016, they hit a major roadblock. The Danish team simply couldn’t close out any tournament they participated in and have trouble getting through most semifinals. Even worse, most of their losses were usually a result of a choke, meaning that they lose games despite securing an early lead over the opponent.

Although the CS:GO community simply thought that this was a curse, Astralis knew that this was all about mindset. They soon hired Mia Stellberg, perhaps the best and the most famous esports psychologist today, and the rest was history. In 2018, the Astralis roster was practically undefeatable, winning almost every LAN they enter. OG also hired her in 2019, which ultimately led to the only two consecutive The International wins ever in Dota 2 History.

Mia Stellberg (most left) and the whole OG roster when they won TI9 | Source: miastellberg.com

From these examples, we can see that gaming and the brain are highly correlated and can influence each other in many profound ways. In this article, we will be taking a look at the effects of video games on the brain, basing our discussion on scientific works conducted by experts in the field. Aside from the effects on brain performance, I will also be including mental health issues of gaming in one of the sections, since it is highly correlated to our brain’s functionality. Furthermore, although I stand by the side of gaming, I will try to balance out all the pros and cons that come with this topic.

Depression and Anxiety

Source: Freepik

Before understanding how gaming affects depression or anxiety, we need to understand what each of them really is. Depression is very similar to being unhappy, although it is important to note that the two things are not the same. Most unhappy people are not content with their lives. Depressed individuals, however, may already be satisfied in life but still have a sense of deep underlying sadness. Anxiety is simply being overly worried about the potential challenges or problems we will face in the future. The key thing in depression and anxiety is how both of them deal with negative emotions. You’ll see why this is important later on.

Let’s get one simple fact out of the window: gaming does not cause depression nor anxiety. There is, indeed, a correlation between depression and gaming, as shown by the study entitled Daily Violent Video Game Playing and Depression in Preadolescent Youth. However, a correlative relationship does not imply causation, and many have falsely cited this article to berate gaming as a whole. In simpler terms, one thing does not necessarily cause another thing by being correlated to each other. If ice cream sales increase when crime rates increase, it does not mean that ice creams cause murders.

Likewise, people with depression or anxiety most likely turn to games to escape their life problems and consequently worsen their condition. Gaming can be extremely dangerous for people with depression or anxiety because it can shut down negative emotions. Having no negative emotions will trick your brain into giving a false sense of security regarding your life.

I personally have felt this effect a couple of times when playing games, and I’m sure that all of you gaming enthusiasts had as well. When we play, all our life problems, school, and work seem to disappear into thin air. Fortunately, for me, I was able to go back to the real world and realize all my upcoming deadlines. However, people who have a severe case of depression and anxiety will never want to re-experience the negative emotions, which in turn causes them to get stuck in gaming. When they do not stop playing, their life gets worse, they become more depressed or anxious, and the whole process becomes a negative feedback loop. So, does gaming cause depression? No, but it sure can spiral depression out of control.

However, a proper dose of gaming has been shown to be somewhat effective in combating depression and anxiety. Researchers from Michigan State University have used elements of gaming to “reduce anxiety by helping people focus in an increasingly distracting world”. Another study has also found links between video games and improvements in mental health. The researchers argued that gaming has the potential to introduce positive emotions, engagement, build meaningful relationships, and give a sense of fulfillment or purpose in life. Even so, I wouldn’t suggest using gaming to cure depression or anxiety. If you feel like you might have any of these two illnesses or conditions, please visit a licensed mental health professional and get their opinion.

Attention

The older generation often criticized youngsters nowadays for having a short attention span. They also usually blame social media, the internet, or gaming as the primary causes of this behavior, and they wouldn’t be completely wrong. Several studies have found that gaming, especially the ones related to violence, may have a negative effect on attention and the ability to concentrate for long periods of time. Experts in the field hypothesized that this is due to the high levels of dopamine bursts that gaming provides. Indeed, a lot of video games today are fast-paced, filled with new challenges and environments that highly stimulate the brain. As a result, when faced with much slower and “uninteresting” activities (such as lectures, doing homework, etc), gamers often feel unmotivated in executing them.

The fast-paced nature of video games can leave us unmotivated when doing less dynamic tasks | Source: Freepik

On the other hand, there are also studies that claim the opposing idea, similar to that of depression and anxiety. Researchers from the University of Arkansas found that one hour of gaming can increase focus and specifically boost attention selection. This claim is especially true for action-packed games that display a lot of information to the players.

Let’s take Dota 2 as an example. Dota 2 players have to pay attention to their hero, the creeps, enemy heroes, and map just to iterate a few. They will then use this information to make the necessary quick decisions and output their actions in the game. Of course, you can’t always look at creeps and the map at the same time. Similarly, it wouldn’t be wise to look at the map in a 5v5 teamfight situation.

The best Dota 2 players know when to glance at the map, when to focus on their hero positioning, and what to look out for at specific time frames. This act of selecting information is called attention selection, and it is a key skill to have in almost all fast-paced games like Dota 2. Furthermore, this skill can be utilized in our daily activities, allowing us to block out distractions and use our brainpower more efficiently.

Dota 2 players have to constantly scan their screen for key information | Source: Steam

Therefore, gamers might not be able to concentrate on long boring activities, but they may be able to pick out and selectively focus on the most crucial information when doing tasks.

Alexithymia

Unlike depression or anxiety, every single gamer is exceedingly susceptible to Alexithymia. The condition arises when someone becomes unable to identify or describe the emotions they experience. Alexithymia is usually caused by the frequent suppression of emotions, which is sometimes what our society highly promotes.

Expressing our emotions can often be viewed as a sign of weakness, unreliability, and unprofessionalism. Similar to the case of depression and anxiety, gaming can be used as an escape strategy and suppress these critical emotions. More scientifically, the amygdala (the part of our brain that controls feelings or emotions) rarely actuates when we play games and deteriorates in its function. Our emotions build up and eventually get vented out when we game, which is why some gamers frequently find themselves outbursting in toxicity over simple in-game mistakes. Although it may sound slightly paradoxical, the suppression of our emotions will ultimately manifest in anger, an emotion itself.

The location of the amygdala | Source: The Science of Psychotherapy

I myself have experienced this issue firsthand in the past. Playing games can be exceptionally frustrating at times, and I often find myself trying to hold back from toxicity. After playing, it can be troubling to feel apathy or empathy and have concerns about other people’s problems.

Fortunately, I finally stopped “tryhard-ing” in Dota or CS:GO ranked games and try to have fun, the sole reason why I play games in the first place. Playing with friends in a Discord call also helps with this endeavor and express my emotions more freely. I was remarkably lucky to get out of the rabbit hole of Alexithymia before the condition can fully manifest. If you think that you might have this condition, it’s never too late to change your behavior for the better.

Boosting Your Brain’s Performance

In traditional sports, training will enhance your body and make it stronger. As I mentioned in the introduction, gaming is a mental sport. So can playing games improve your brain’s performance just like going to the gym? Although most conventional adults might disagree, studies have indeed shown that gaming can, one way or another, make you “smarter”.

Going back on track, researchers in UC Irvine have found that 3D games can improve memory and spatial awareness. Indeed, MOBA, FPS, and most gaming genres out there require some sort of map layout memorization. All games, as a matter of fact, require us to remember combos, strategies, counters, etc. The part of our brain that gets exercised when conducting these memorizations is the Hippocampus. If you want to know more about the intricacies of this topic, you can definitely check out this article written by yours truly.

The hippocampus plays a major role in learning and memory | Source: Wikipedia

But of course, gaming is not all about memorization. A large part of what defines a video game is the challenge and problem-solving aspect it provides. According to a study by Charles Reynaldo, gaming was shown to be able to highly improve decision-making and problem-solving skills that could, in turn, be applied in daily life settings. Researches at OpenAI even found Dota 2 players to be rather incredible since they have to practically make around 30 decisions every second.

Despite the benefits that gaming provides to the brain, teachers and parents often use video games as the culprit behind students’ declining grades. As much as I hate to say this, they are not wrong. If you continuously train your brain, it only makes sense for you to have an easier time learning in school and improve your academic performance. However, like all things in life, too much is never good. It doesn’t matter if you get +200IQ from gaming; if you don’t study, you will still fail the exam. Always balance out your gaming time with your education or work.

Conclusion

Before closing out this article, I would like to point out the similarities between gaming and chess. Video games, whether you agree or not, are a modern, more updated version of chess. Although both of them may require different skill sets to master, they both enhance the brain’s ability to make decisions and solve problems. They also both have the capability to drive people insane and depressed. Look at where chess has brought Bobby Fischer. He used to be one of the most genius chess players in the world but later become deranged, radical, recluse, and unfitting to society due to his overlooked mental problems.

Video games, chess, and everything in life can affect our brain’s ciruitry in some way. Whether you are a gamer or not, it is imperative for us to understand how our brains change in response to the activities we conduct so that we can avoid threatening mental conditions before they can fully manifest.

Featured Image: Freepik

Applications of Gaming in Other Fields: Military, Health, and Education

The general perspective on gaming from society is quite polarizing. On the one hand, the US military sees the potential that gaming can bring and uses it as a tool to train their troops. On the other hand, the World Health Organization recognizes something called gaming disorder, despite the fact that gaming has been used to treat mental disorders. Many parents also often complained that games are the culprit behind their children’s laziness. However, games have been used as a learning tool in many modern education systems and classes.

Along with the skyrocketing popularity of games, more and more parties are interested in using gaming and its innovations in other fields, ranging from education, health, and the military.

MILITARY

Believe it or not, the US military has actually been sponsoring game developers for a very long time. For more than two decades, from the 1960s to the 1990s, the US military is highly active in funding technological developments in the gaming industry. In fact, the creation of Spacewar! — which is considered to be the first-ever game — was made possible thanks to funding from the Pentagon. Both parties are clearly benefiting from this relationship. From the game developer’s standpoint, they now have a larger financial resource to work with. As for the military, they will hopefully get a quality training simulation, as mentioned by The Atlantic.

Generally speaking, the military uses gaming for three main purposes: recruiting new soldiers, training existing troops, and dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experienced by veterans. America’s Army is an example of a game created to recruit young people into the military. This FPS game was created and released by the US Army in 2002 and can be played for free by anyone. In 2008, Richard Beckett — Chief of Advertising and Public Affairs in the US Army — said that America’s Army was used in various social activities, including LAN parties, which were part of US Army’s “Future Soldier Sustainment” program.

The US Navy utilizes Twitch in its recruitment process. | Source: Military

“Events like LAN parties are useful because we want the recruits to see the recruiters as regular folks, like themselves… and to help future soldiers to stay the course,” Beckett told Ars Technica. He explained that these social activities also act to keep the new military recruits to stay in the Boot Camp since they need to wait up to six months before being assigned. Social activities also create a sense of inclusion and welcome to the enlistees.

Along with the increasing popularity of game content broadcasts, the US military is also interested in exploring game streaming platforms. Currently, both the US Army and Navy have Twitch channels. The military’s goal in creating a channel on Twitch is not to treat it as some form of recruitment program. Instead, they want to use streaming as a means to increase exposure and engage with the audience, especially the younger demography. However, the existence of a Twitch channel from the US Army or Navy does spark several backlashes. For instance, many Twitch viewers seize this opportunity to ask about sensitive topics such as Eddie Gallagher or various accused war crimes committed by US soldiers.

Other than recruiting new soldiers, the US military also uses gaming to train their troops. Some games have been specifically made as a military training tool with specific functionalities. For example, the game DARWARS Ambush was created to teach infantry tactics, convoy operations, and the Rules of Engagement. According to a GamesIndustry report, by the end of 2008, more than three thousand copies of DARWARS Ambush had been distributed to the Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and Marines.

UrbanSim and Tactical Iraqi are two other examples of games that have been utilized for military training. Both of these games focus on teaching foreign language skills and fighting rebels. War simulators such as Virtual Battlespace 2 allow military commanders to simulate scenarios that may potentially occur on the battlefield, such as ambushes, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosions, and medical evacuation.

DARWARS Ambus, a video game that simulates military training. | Source: Stripes

Lastly, the military uses gaming to overcome psychological traumas experienced by veterans, such as PTSD. In the journal titled Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Combat-Related PTSD, the Institute of Medicine states that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with exposure therapy is the only type of remedy recommended for treating PTSD.

In exposure therapy, patients with PTSD will usually be asked to recall and re-exposing themselves to their traumatic experiences. Unfortunately, one of the symptoms of PTSD is the reluctance or inability to remember the traumatic event that caused the PTSD itself. This is where VR simulators come in. VR is perfect for exposure therapy since it can be utilized to recreate the source of the trauma. Thus, the existence of simulations such as Virtual Afghanistan has helped veterans overcome their trauma.

However, the US military’s decision to be active in the gaming industry also had its downsides. One of the most controversial military games that has been released is Full Spectrum Warrior. The game, launched in 2003, is available in two versions: a commercial version and a military-specific version, which can be accessed with a special code. Although the game won awards in the Best Original Game and Best Simulation Game categories at E3 2003, the US military eventually did not utilize it for training, deeming it to be too unrealistic. In addition, the cost incurred by the US Army to get and develop the game was also incredibly massive.

HEALTH

Of course, military veterans aren’t the only ones experiencing PTSD. Normal people like us also can also be affected by this mental disorder. Therefore, the existence of VR Exposure Therapy (VRET) not only benefits the military but also the healthcare industry as well. In addition to PTSD, VRET can also be used to treat other mental disorders, such as phobias or anxiety disorders. Similar to how the military uses VRET, patients with these disorders will be exposed to the source of their trauma or fear with the help of VR simulations. Since the virtual world can be carefully controlled (and is obviously not real), the patient’s therapy is ensured to be safe.

VR Exposure Therapy can be used to treat phobias. | Source: Digital Bodies

The use of games in the healthcare industry is not limited to the department of psychology. Games, especially VR, can also be used by health workers to hone their skills or learn new procedures, which should decrease the chance of human error when performing in real medical situations. According to a journal titled Gaming science innovations to integrate health systems science into medical education and practice, Health workers can use VR for many different purposes, such as learning to perform endoscopy or creating a simulation of an operating room.

Interestingly, mobile games can also help prospective doctors to learn new skills. The iPad game called PAtient Safety in Surgical Education (PASSED) can display various cases from the archive of sentinel (or unexpected) events and serious reportable events in the hospital. Medical students can use this game to gain knowledge or increase their awareness regarding patient safety.

Everyone knows that prevention is better than cure. Games, fortunately, can also improve the healthy lifestyle of many people in our society. For instance, Pokemon Go is one of the few games that incentivizes people to go out of their homes and walk. Nintendo’s WiiFit, which utilizes the Wii Balance Board, promotes exercise to its users. In addition to encouraging players to be more active in sports, these types of games can also be used to measure one’s physical abilities. As mentioned in the article called Innovation in Games: Better Health and Healthcare, health workers can, in turn, use this technology to see a patient’s physical progress, especially in patients affected by diseases that degrade motoric functions such as Parkinson’s.

Wii Fit encourages players to engage in physical activity. | Source: Ichi Pro

Games, of course, promote the element of a challenge, which is also perfect for curing or overcoming addictions. One example of a game created to help players quit smoking is My Stop Smoking Coach, released in 2008. The game can run on several platforms, including iPhone and Nintendo DS. Escape from Diab from Archimage Inc., released in 2006, is another example of a game that promotes a healthy lifestyle. This game focuses specifically on preventing obesity and type 2 diabetes.

EDUCATION

Games are often blamed as the culprit behind students’ reluctance to learn. Funnily enough, studies that investigate the use of gaming as a learning tool have been around since the 1980s. At that time, the researchers observed that various commercial games — especially games in the strategy, simulation, or RPG genres — had used learning theory to encourage players to study the elements of the game itself.

Of course, using gaming in education does not mean that all the topics in the curriculum must be “packaged” in games. According to a study titled Gaming in Education: Using Games as a Support Tool to Teach History, there are many benefits that games can bring to teaching and learning activities. Firstly, games can encourage or incentivize students to participate in the class and directly apply what they have learned. Secondly, games can also help students recall the topics or points taught in the class. Games can also improve computer and visual literacy. Furthermore, the competitive nature of games can also push students to think creatively when solving problems. Lastly, games can teach various important soft skills, ranging from critical thinking, interacting and collaborating with friends, and even sportsmanship.

Video games can improve students’ soft skills. | Source: Spiel Times

The journal titled Digital Games in Education: The Design of Games-Based Learning Environments discusses how games can motivate students and increase their focus. Indeed, games do, in some way, have some elements that teach players to fully focus on in-game tasks. These elements include clear goals, good feedback — both direct and indirect, and a fine balance between challenge difficulty and player’s skills. Apart from keeping students focused, all of these elements can also help students to be more interactive in class, which improves their educational achievements.

TECHNOLOGY

The controller is the primary input device for most consoles in existence. As the console changes, the controller inevitably also evolves. Despite the vast popularity of controllers, countless game companies continue to invent and experiment with new input mechanisms. In 2006, Nintendo launched the Wii Remote or Wiimote at the same time as the Nintendo Wii. One of the primary features of the device is scanning the movement of the user’s hand. Three years later, Nintendo launched the successor to the Wii Remote, the Wii MotionPlus, which can detect even more complex motions. Microsoft also launched the Kinect in 2010. Equipped with various motion sensors such as an RGB camera, infrared projector, and detector, Kinect can detect the motion of the user’s whole body.

Motion sensing technology has also been used in fields outside of gaming. In mobile applications, for instance, the gyroscope in a smartphone can be utilized to detect movements. One company that is interested in using motion-sensing technology is Limix. This Italian company invented and produces wearables called Talking Hands. This device can translate sign language in voice using a smartphone or Bluetooth speaker, as mentioned by HeadStuff. The existence of Talking Hands shows how motion-sensing technology can be used to help the disabled.

Games are also frequently the driving factors for today’s hardware development. Most games today and even in the future will require high-performance hardware. Due to the insatiable demands of gamers to increase the power of computing, hardware manufacturers inevitably have to fulfill these demands and create faster and more powerful technology. These high-performance hardware can also be utilized for other activities that require significant computing power, such as cryptocurrency mining.

GAMIFICATION

We have seen how the elements of gaming can be applied in four different industries. In reality, however, many in-game aspects are also applicable or translatable in non-gaming environments. Staple gaming elements like point systems, badges, the use of avatars, leaderboards, performance graphs, and teamwork. As a result, the term gamification emerged. If you are interested in seeing how gamification is put into practice in non-gaming fields, you can read more about it here.

The journal titled How gamification motivates: An experimental study of the effects of specific game design elements on psychological need satisfaction discusses how gamification can increase motivation based on self-determination theory.

According to self-determination theory, people are motivated to grow and change by three innate psychological needs: competence, autonomy, social connectedness or relatedness. Competence will be met when a person fully masters or feels proficient in a particular skill. The element of gaming that is suited for achieving competence is the awarding of points and badges. Leaderboards and performance graphs can also aid in this matter. In games, points serve as direct feedback or reward. If a player earns points after successfully performing an activity, the player will be motivated to continue doing the task in order to increase his or her points.

Many elements of gaming can be applied outside the scope of games. | Source: Deposit Photos

On the other hand, performance graphs can show a person’s progress or achievements after a certain period of time. For example, on the Duolingo app, each week, you’ll get a graphical report of how much time you’ve spent studying on the app over the last seven days. From that graph, you can clearly check if you are progressing at a rate that you want. Both badges and leaderboards can be used as an assessment of a person’s overall performance. Badges in games are usually given to players after they achieved a unique target or task. Leaderboards function to compare the performances between players. Ultimately, points, badges, leaderboards, and performance charts are useful visualizations of a person’s proficiency or mastery, which also create the drive for them to continue to improve.

The second psychological need that must be met in the self-determination theory is autonomy, which suggests that people need to be in control of their behavior and goals when conducting an activity. The need for autonomy consists of two aspects: freedom in decision-making and satisfaction with completing meaningful tasks. The use of avatars can be a way to fulfill the first aspect. Choosing an avatar — which represents the player and their personality — makes players feel that they have control over the decisions they make. The second aspect can be fulfilled with narration or stories. Stories are the essence of many games today. More often than not, tasks or missions in games mostly repeat the same formula. Go to A and complete a set of objectives, then go to B to complete a different set of objectives, and the process is repeated. After a few iterations of these, players can easily get bored. However, the presence of a story makes each mission unique and creates a different sense of accomplishment when a player successfully completes it.

The last component in self-determination theory is social connectedness, which is fulfilled when a person establishes some sense of belonging or attachment to a particular group. Games create a feeling of connectedness by frequently incorporating multiplayer elements. Players, therefore, have to work together with the group to achieve the goal. Single-player games can also achieve this by using NPCs as virtual entities. 

Conclusion

Today, there is still an assumption that games are nothing more than a mere child’s entertainment. Interestingly, however, the gaming industry is currently bigger than the film and music industry. Our society also often argues that games impose many negative impacts. Contrary to their beliefs, many gaming concepts and elements have been utilized in various non-gaming fields. Even though gaming generally serves as a medium of entertainment, they also have other aspects that make them incredibly beneficial to us. Fortunately for many people in the pandemic, games were also the only thing that kept them happy, sane, and connected with their friends or family. 

Featured image: Freepik. Translated by: Ananto Joyoadikusumo

Be Careful! These are Common Injuries in Gaming and Esports

Injuries are always devastating in any kind of sports, even in esports, and they can single-handedly end a pro’s career. In the CS:GO scene, for instance, Olofmeister and Shox have experienced injuries that pushed them out of the pro scene for several years. Some may say that it is even a miracle that both of them are able to play today and perform up to their standards even after going through rehabs and surgeries. Olofmeister kept his injury matters more private, so it was initially not really known what was wrong with him. Many speculated that it was a wrist or arm injury since these areas are more prone to harm in a CS:GO pro. However, in a later interview by Fragbite, he revealed that a nerve around his shoulder-breast area was “clogged”. As for Shox, he suffered from a wrist problem that can only be solved through proper surgery.

Unfortunately, other pro players like Fear from Dota 2 were forced to end their careers early as their injuries constantly take a toll on their health and performance. Fear was prevented to compete in The International 4 due to his (at that time) mysterious arm/elbow injury. Although he came back in 2015 to win it all in The International 5, he finally retired a year later from professional Dota 2 in the hopes of improving his health. 

With regards to the local superstars in Indonesia, we all know about the infamous injury experienced by the Mobile Legend pro, TuturuHis injury prevented him from being able to play for long durations and eventually sidelined him from the RRQ roster. Although Tuturu has not officially stated that he will be retiring from the pro scene, it is difficult to say what the future holds for him if he were to return. He even stated on his stream that he won’t be coming back to the pro scene due to the limitations of his ailment.

Tuturu’s pro career was sidelined to his injury | Source: Indosport

You might think that only pro players are prone to these injuries since they are the ones who play for 8+ hours a day. However, casual players might also experience these injuries if we are not careful, which is why it is imperative to have a basic understanding of the potential dangers of gaming and how to avoid them.

Before we delve deeper into this topic, we need to establish several warnings. Firstly, I am not in any way a qualified physician or doctor. If you want a more detailed explanation or are currently experiencing any injuries related to gaming, please visit a proper physician yourself. Secondly, I will try to explain everything in layman terms or use abstractions that will make the topic easier to grasp for the general readers. It might not be the most accurate representation of all the physiology that is under your body, but I don’t expect all of you who are reading now to be a professional physician that understands cryptic biology terms. For those of you who might not be satisfied with my explanations or want to read more about the topic, I highly suggest visiting this website for more information. With that out of the way, let’s move on.

The Basics of Gaming Injuries

There are three general types or categories of injuries that usually plague the esports and gaming world. The first type is called overuse injuries. As the name suggests, this type of ailment occurs when a muscle, tendon, or any part of your body is overused. The second type of ailment is called nerve impingement.

Olofmeister is speculated to be affected by this type of injury. When nerves are clogged, you will start to experience pain or limited movements as your brain cannot properly control the muscles connected to the impinged nerve. The last type of injury is called postural injury. These injuries occur mostly due to bad posture and usually affect the spine that runs through your back and neck.

Of course, there are other ailments that do not fit these three categories. Eye strain, for instance, is an injury that many of us can experience due to focusing on our screens for too long. Gamers also often experience migraines or headaches, which are ailments that do not fit any of the three categories we just mentioned. These ailments are usually fitted into the fourth category on their own, others.

Now that we have a basic understanding of the types of injuries that can occur, we can identify the common specific injuries that occur in gaming and esports.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

The Median Nerve clogged in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome | Source: esportshealthcare.com

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, or CTS for short, is probably the most infamous nerve impingement injury, and it affects the median nerve. The carpal in carpal tunnel syndrome refers to the bones in the base of your hand. The connective tissues or ligaments (these are the “rubber bands” and “glues” that keep your hand in place) then form the tunnel. The median nerve runs through the middle of the carpal tunnel, which allows you to control your hand muscles. You can get a better visualization from the image above.

It also helps us sense touch in certain parts of our hands. If this nerve is clogged in some way, you sort of getting the idea of what is going to happen to your hand. Your fingers might feel numb and weak, especially on your thumb. You might feel tingling sensations on your fingertips. Another sign of CTS is the decrease in mass muscle in the base of your thumb. In other words, your thumb sizes might not be proportional in both hands; one is much thinner than the other.

Unergonomic mouse grips are perhaps the primary cause of CTS or other similar nerve impingement ailments. If your grip makes you feel uncomfortable, change it immediately even if it might change your performance in-game. You can maybe even follow the grips the pro players frequently use like the palm gripclaw griptip grip, and even the other crazy ones like the scorpion grip. If you think that the grip from the image below is comfortable, then use it.

The awkward-looking mouse grip of current Valorant pro, Brax | Source: Reddit

Remember, as long as you feel that the grip is suitable and, more importantly, not causing pain, then use it. If you can’t find a good grip, consider changing your mouse since that might be the cause of your problem. I once bought a mouse to replace my old scrappy double-clicking mouse, but I immediately felt cramped after using it for 30 minutes. Instead of forcing myself to get used to the mouse, I went back to the old broken mouse and prevented the injury from a mile away. Only use a mouse that you are comfortable with. This tip might just save you from a ton of physical and financial pain (from hospital bills) in the future.

Too much stress placed on the hands can also cause CTS. When you play or practice for too long, the tissues or ligaments in the carpal tunnel might actually densify (or get thicken) to combat the stress. Sooner or later, this change can eventually cause an impingement of the median nerve. Thus, consider taking breaks, relax, and stretch your hands once in a while.

In reality, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is just one form of nerve impingement ailments. Cubital Tunnel Syndrome is a similar injury that affects more the pinky side of your hand. As I mentioned previously, Olofmeister is also rumored to have a nerve-impingement-related injury, but he is affected in the shoulder-chest region. From Olof, we can see that nerve clogs can occur all throughout your body and will, eventually, deter your health and gaming performance. However, all similar nerve impingement injuries can be prevented with similar strategies: ergonomics, frequent stretching, avoiding prolonged uncomfortable positions in your hand or body in general.

Gamer’s Thumb

The anatomy of the human hand | Source: keengamer.com

Gamer’s Thumb is an overuse ailment that is caused by repetitive and prolonged stress on the thumb. This is the ailment that Tuturu is speculated to experience. To reiterate, overuse ailments usually affect the muscle or, in this case, tendons. Tendons are what connect your muscle to your bones to allow it to move.

Take the example of lifting a barbel in the gym. If your bicep muscle contracts, it will “shrink” and the tendons will pull the bones in your arm, which allows you to lift the barbel. Tendons are usually lubricated or protected with tendon sheaths since they frequently experience a lot of force and friction. However, excessive usage of our muscles and tendons can eventually cause inflammation to the tendon sheaths, which is what occurs in Gamer’s Thumb.

You can already probably guess that this injury is more prone to happen to console and mobile gamers. Since console and mobile users mostly control their in-game actions using their thumbs, they have a higher chance of overusing and overwhelming their tendon sheaths.

Again, prolonged usage of the thumbs is the primary cause of Gamer’s Thumb. However, unergonomic hand positions can also contribute to this injury. It is important to keep your wrists straight and avoid bending them either to the pinky-side or thumb-side too much. Furthermore, poor blood flow also plays a factor in Gamer’s Thumb since it highly affects the lubrication of the tendon sheaths. Warmups and exercises are recommended to prevent overuse ailments like Gamer’s thumb since it increases blood flow and reduces frictions.

Finkelstein’s test | Source: doctorsgates.blogspot.com

One way you can exercise or test Gamer’s Thumb is the Finkelstein’s test. You simply grip your thumb between your other fingers, then bend your wrist to your pinky side like the image above. This movement puts pressure on the tendon sheaths and will allow you to sense pain in your wrists if there are any. In other cases, you can also use this motion for stretching.

Like CTS, it is important to note that Gamer’s Thumb is just one form of many overuse ailments that plague the gaming and esports community. For all of you PC gamers, mouse elbow or tennis elbow is a very dangerous overuse ailment that targets the entirety of your arms and hands. Fear is initially suspected to be affected by this injury, although he was later diagnosed with a different ailment.

Back & Neck Pain

Back pain and Neck Pain | Source: njnbi.com

Unlike the aforementioned injuries, back pains and neck pains can be caused by a wide variety of factors. But more often than not, joint fixations are the primary culprit behind these ailments.

In your back, you have your spine that stretches from your lower back to your neck. The spine is made up of joints which allows the spine to move and flex in different ways. Unfortunately, when we play games, we mostly sit still, and our spine is fixed in a static position. If we have a bad posture, these joints will experience a lot of pressure from our body weight and eventually get locked together. Slowly but surely, your spine discs (the glue-like liquid that is in-between your spine bones) will degenerate or rot away. The thing is, you will most likely not feel anything if a joint fixation occurs until it’s too late. Once the discs get thinner, you will start to feel the pain and experience limited movement due to a lack of lubrication from the discs.

The degeneration of spine discs, also often called Arthritis | Source: spineuniverse.com

Posture is the key when it comes to back or neck injuries. A good posture will distribute the weight of our body equally on our spine. Bad postures, on the other hand, adds unnecessary pressure that causes the shrinkage of the discs. In reality, there is no one-size-fits-all gaming posture. However, there are some tips you can take that might significantly improve your posture and decrease the likelihood of you getting back or neck pains.

Firstly, use a headrest if possible and always rest your head against it. Of course, you will also have to place your monitor at head level. If your monitor height can’t be adjusted manually, you can always use the “traditional” method and utilize your books to raise your monitor height. Next, always sit upright and stick your back against the chair. No matter how uncomfortable it may seem at first, do not slouch! Slouching induces immense pressure that shrinks your spinal discs. If you want to read more about how to improve your posture, which I highly recommend you to do so, you can visit the following link.

Perhaps the easiest way to prevent back and neck pain is just to not sit down. Our body and spine are simply not evolved enough to sit down and handle our body weight for most of the day. When you just finished a game, stand up and stretch while you queue for your next game. Walk around your room or house, do your chores, or conduct any physical activity that requires you to move.

Conclusion

Gaming may not be a physically demanding sport or activity. However, this does not mean that it is free from devastating injuries that can potentially be threatening to your health. Fortunately, as esports continues to develop, more and more individuals in the industry begin to realize these career-ending ailments that pro players can experience if left unchecked. Many established esports organizations today, such as Counter Logic Gaming, have hired professional physicians to take care of their players and maintain the longevity of their rosters.

As for the rest of us, the casual gamers, knowing a thing or two about the common ailments in the gaming community might also be helpful in the future. If you have experienced any physical pain or problems when you play, you use some tips that you have learned from this article. Start by changing your posture, your mouse, or your mouse grip depending on the problems you might have. Any injury, whether coming from a pro or a casual, is never fun.

Featured Image: Liquipedia

7 Infamous Myths Surrounding Gaming and Esports

There are definitely a lot of myths surrounding the gaming community and the activity as a whole, most of them being widely inaccurate and misleading. Unfortunately, many gamers often also fall victim to these assumptions, which is why I think it is important to air out and debunk all of these gaming or esports myths.

1. There Are Only a Few Female Gamers

One of the well-known myths surrounding the gaming community is that most females do not play video games. Indeed, the majority of the gamer population are males. The truth is, however, female gamers are not really that rare after all. According to data from Niko Partners, the number of female gamers in Asia in 2017 reached 346 million, comprising 32% of the total gamer population in the region. Two years later, in 2019, the population of female gamers rose to 500 million, which is now 38% of the gamer population in Asia. Another data from Statista shows that, in 2017, 46% of all gamers are women.

Even more surprisingly, Niko Partners have found that the growth of the female gamer population (14.8%) far exceeds the growth rate of gamers in general (7.8%). The approximate percentage of females in China’s gamer population is 45%. In Indonesia, this figure is marginally larger by 4%. However, the distribution of platforms where female gamers play is considerably skewed. Of the 500 million female gamers in Asia, 483 million (95%) mostly play on mobile, 201 million (40%) play on PC, and only 8.5 million (2%) play on consoles. 

As the number of female gamers increases, their contribution to the gaming industry’s income also rises. In 2019, female gamers contributed 35% to the total gaming industry revenue. This figure has increased to 39% in the next year. 

Proportion of gamers by age and gender. | Source: Statista

Recently, Sony also released a report which documents the details of its console sales. In the report, a significantly higher proportion of female gamers bought the Playstation 4 and 5 compared to the Playstation 1. During the PS1 era, only 18% of gamers who bought the console were females. However, during the PS4/5 era, this figure rose to an astounding 41%.

From the statistics above, we can clearly see that female gamers are not at all a rare species. Despite this fact, it can still be difficult to find and notice a female gamer in many of our games. According to recent research conducted by Reach3 Insights and Lenovo, 59% of female gamers hide their gender when playing online games. A report by GamesIndustry suggests that females do not show their gender to avoid the possibility of harassment. A respondent of the study even admitted that she goes so far as to only playing male characters in MMORPG games to maintain the anonymity of her gender. She explained that she does this to prevent receiving seductive, unwanted, and potentially sexually harassing messages. 

 

2. Gamers Are Anti-Social

Gamers are also often seen by the public as loners who spend most of their time playing games and not caring about the outside world. Contrary to most beliefs, however, the emergence of online games has encouraged gamers to socialize with each other. 

A 2016 study titled Motivations for Play in Online Games suggests three reasons why people play games. One of them is to establish relationships with other players. Given that humans are innately social creatures, it is not really surprising to see that we always try to connect with other people and be part of some like-minded group. Our natural attraction for socializing is the reason why online games — both cooperative and competitive games — are incredibly popular nowadays. In fact, in South Korea and China, playing games are considered a social activity. Before the unfortunate pandemic, Hybrid also held a gamers gathering event called Hybrid Dojo every two weeks. My friends and colleagues also frequently meet up to play PUBG Mobile together. Although some games can be enjoyed alone, most of us gamers do prefer playing games with other people.

In-game chat is one of the many forms of communication in gaming. | Source: Medium

Furthermore, a study in The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, released in 2014, found that a majority of online gamers deeply care about the dynamic relationships in gaming and not only focus on the sole gameplay aspect itself.

“Gamers aren’t the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes; they’re highly social people,” said Nick Taylor, lead author of the study The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, as quoted from CNET. “This won’t be a surprise to the gaming community, but it’s worth telling everyone else. Loners are the outliers in gaming, not the norm.”

3. You Can Get Addicted and Become Mentally Ill from Playing Games

Today’s society does have the tendency to over glorify and, to a certain extent, romanticize mental illness, especially after the release of the movie The Joker. People in the younger generation frequently self-diagnose themselves with depression, ADHD, or Bipolar Disorder despite not having any expertise in the field of psychology. Unfortunately, this trend also spills over to gaming. 

Countless people claim that they or someone they knew is affected by gaming addiction. Furthermore, the World Health Organization (WHO) also officially recognized gaming disorder as a form of mental illness back in 2019. 

WHO officially declared gaming disorder as a mental illness in 2019. | Source: TechCrunch

WHO also elaborated the characteristics or telltale signs of someone with a gaming disorder. The first characteristic is losing control over gaming habits. In other words, someone who has a gaming disorder will find it difficult to stop playing and limit his/her playing time. The second sign of people affected by the disorder is overly prioritizing gaming over obligatory life activities such as eating, studying, or working.

Someone with a “gaming disorder” will also continue to keep playing despite being cognizant of the harmful effects that the activity has had on their life. For instance, the person will not stop playing games even though their grades have significantly declined. If a person has the three characteristics above, which also persist for 12 months, then the person is officially declared affected by gaming disorder

 

4. Games and Esports Are the Exact Same Thing

Esports is a part of gaming, a really big part, in fact. However, both of them are not the same thing. Some games don’t even have an esports scene. By definition, esports are competitions or tournaments that are based on video games. According to Red Bull, esports exists when the best players of a particular game compete for a prize. Therefore, the primary element of esports is competitiveness. But, of course, not all games are meant to be competitive. Some games highlight the narrative or the story, while other games focus on cooperative features.

Another thing that distinguishes esports from gaming is the player’s goals. In esports, the pros obviously have the sole objective to win every single tournament and title. However, normal players like most of us play games for far more varying reasons. Some of us might play to experience interesting gameplay. There are also those who play for the lore or immersive worldbuilding. Others might also play for the sake of socializing with friends or like-minded individuals. However, one thing is for sure: gaming has the primary purpose of being a medium of entertainment, not competition.

 

5. All Professional Esports Players Have Massive Salaries

The salaries of star players who play in the Premier League are certainly different from the salaries of players that compete in English Football League Two. This same salary disparity also occurs in the esports world. Although there has been an overall increase in esports pros’ salaries, many players are still affected by unequal pay. For one, player’s salaries are usually determined by their skill and capabilities. Esports scenes of different games also offer a widely diverse range of player salaries. Obviously, more popular games with a much more successful esports scene will usually offer more prestigious payments towards pros.

The minimum salary of an Overwatch League (OWL) player is around $50,000 USD per year. On the other hand, the average annual salary of a North American League of Legends (LCS) league player can reach $300 thousand USD. In Indonesia, the salary of Mobile Legends Professional League (MPL) players is only around IDR 7 million. As you can see, the pro salary of different games are incredibly diverse.

The minimum salary for an OWL player is US$50,000. | Source: Upcomer

OWL, LCS, and MPL are esports leagues with support from publishers. These publishers, therefore, determine the salary terms (such as minimum wage) of the pro players. However, not all game publishers support the esports scene of their games and explicitly define the payment terms of players. In this kind of situation, player salaries are even more uncertain. Let’s take the Valorant as an example. According to internal Hybrid.co.id sources, the range of salaries of Valorant players is relatively large. Some players receive salaries above the Jakarta Regional Minimum Wage (UMR), some have salaries around the Jakarta UMR, while other, less fortunate, players are paid below the minimum wage. Pros of unpopular games can even have salaries as low as only hundreds of thousands of rupiah.

6. Pro Players Spend All of Their Time Playing

Esports pros are comparable to conventional sports athletes. Both of them have the sole objective to improve themselves and hone their skills to be able to win. Therefore, most of us expect the esports pros to spend hours and hours every day practicing and playing. The truth is, however, esports pros don’t only use their time for playing games. They also need to engage in other activities such as reviewing VODs, strategies, and even physical exercise.

Liyu “Cody” Sun, a League of Legends player, mentions that adequate sleep, a healthy mindset, and a balanced social life are important aspects to maintain as an esports athlete. According to him, solely focusing on practice or playing is not an effective method to improve as a player.

“I do think that the most, or the best players in our industry are the ones that are able to find the best schedule for themselves, and, you know, be as efficient as they can with their lifestyle — practicing as well as exercising and eating well and having a decent social life,” Sun said in an interview from Intel.

According to Spectatorph, professional esports players usually spend about an hour of physical exercise every day. They will spend another hour on VOD reviews and up to 9 hours of practice, either alone or with the team.

Furthermore, the CEO of RRQ, Andrian Pauline also mentioned that the daily routine of pro players is not only playing or practicing. They also have to frequently review the team’s playstyle and even try to get insights into their opponent’s strategy. AP mentions that the proportion of non-gaming activities depends on the situation and needs of the team. “Sometimes the team may require the players to practice for the whole day. In other times, players can spend 20% or 50% of their time doing other activities,” he said when contacted by Hybrid. These proportions and schedules are often determined by the team coach.

 

7. Esports Fans Are Only Comprised of Males

The majority of esports viewers are, obviously, gamers. Unlike conventional sports, games in esports can be quite difficult to understand. And, of course, most of us will only enjoy esports content if we understand the game that is being broadcasted. Therefore, along with the increasing number of female gamers, it is not surprising to see that the female demography of esports viewers also increases.

According to data from Statista, around 22% of the esports audience around the world are females. The percentage of female esports viewers also differs from country to country. In the US, only 17% of esports fans are females. This figure is much larger in the UK (with 25%), China (with 30%), and South Korea (with 32%).

The percentage of female esports viewers in different countries. | Source: Statista

Data from Interpret shows that the number of female esports viewers in the fourth quarter of 2018 was 30.4%, Two years ago, however, this figure was only around 23.9%. Tia Christianson, Vice President of Interpret for Europe mentioned that this 6.5% increase was a significant milestone. She thinks that this is a step towards the right direction of gender equality in the esports community.

Conclusion

Humans have the tendency to fear new trends and also pretend to always be knowledgeable in many circumstances. As a result, our society has developed countless false assumptions, narratives, and harmful stigmas toward gaming and esports. For instance, in 1988-1992, many are concerned that that table-top RPG (TTRPG) games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, were promoting satanism, pornography, and even murder. Therefore, it is imperative that we always fact-check the ideas that we receive to get an accurate representation of the truth. I hope that this article has cleared up several popular gaming myths and helped you to be a more mindful individual.

Featured Image: South Park. Translated by: Ananto Joyoadikusumo.

The Increasing Complexity and Impact of Mobile Gaming In the Last 10 Years

Back in 1997, popular mobile games (or the only mobile games that exist) such as Snake in the Nokia phones were relatively simple in design. However, as mobile technology continues to develop, game devs continue to create more complex and interesting games. In 2002, X-Forge 3D was released. With this game engine, many games with 3D graphics or elements were created. And since then, mobile games have continued to evolve, not only in terms of visuals but also in gameplay mechanics.

The Growing Impact of the Mobile Platform in the Gaming Industry

The contribution and effects of mobile gaming on the gaming industry continue to rise every year. In 2020, almost half of the total revenue of the gaming industry came from the mobile platform. This year, mobile games contributed $90.7 billion USD — or about 52% — of the total game industry revenue, which is expected to reach $175.8 billion USD. Furthermore, when compared to the console and PC game industry, the mobile game industry also has the fastest growth rate. In the 2018-2021 period, the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of the mobile game industry reached 13.1%, which is 5% greater than the average CAGR of the gaming industry.

The gaming industry in 2021. | Source: Newzoo

Mobile gaming is not only superior in terms of generating revenue but also in terms of player numbers. According to Newzoo, the estimated number of gamers in the world in 2021 is 3.22 billion. 94% of these gamers, surprisingly, play games on mobile. Furthermore, there are approximately only 1.4 billion PC gamers and 900 million console gamers in the entire world. Therefore, the population of the gaming community is extensively dominated by mobile gamers. 

If we observe how each region contributes to the growth of the overall gaming industry, Asia Pacific is still the region with the largest contribution. More specifically, the region contributed to 50% (or around $88.2 billion USD) of the total game industry revenue. However, China and the United States are the two countries with the biggest gaming industries as around 48% of the gaming industry income originates from these two countries. The gaming industry in China and the US is worth $45.6 billion USD and $39.1 billion USD, respectively.

Trends in Mobile Gaming

Due to the influx of people entering the world of mobile gaming, more and more developers are becoming interested in creating mobile games themselves. Even giant gaming companies that have solely focused on PC or consoles begin to dive into the mobile gaming scene. We can take Riot Games as an example. For 10 years, they put almost all of their focus on developing and perfecting League of Legends, their primary PC game franchise. Riot even had some disagreement with Tencent in the past since they didn’t want to launch League of Legends on mobile. Ironically, however, Riot decided to finally launch League of Legends: Wild Rift for mobile in 2020.

Blizzard Entertainment and Nintendo have also attempted to publish their own mobile game franchises. Electronic Arts have also acquired Glu Mobile, showing their interest in jumping into the mobile gaming genre. There are also some reports that EA will release a mobile version of Apex Legends next year. Besides Apex Legends, several popular game franchises, such as Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy, now also have their own mobile version. Currently, more and more popular PC and console games are also being released in mobile as game developers continue to find ingenious ways to accommodate the gaming experience into a smartphone.

Popular mobile game genres in the US, UK, China, India and Saudi Arabia. | Source: Newzoo

Mobile games are also highly popular in developing countries, including China and India, due to their relatively low entry barrier. Thus, developers who want to target the gaming market in these countries can do so by publishing a mobile game. However, it should be noted that mobile gamers in these developing countries usually prefer the more complex and competitive mobile games. In China, for instance, most gamers love the MOBA genre, followed by puzzle, shooter, and battle royale. Indian gamers, similarly, mostly play racing, puzzle, sports, and shooter games. In Saudi Arabia, the top popular gaming genres are puzzle, sports, racing, and adventure. 

In contrast, the favorite genres of mobile gamers in the US are puzzle, match, traditional card games, and arcade. Mobile gamers in the UK also seem to have a similar taste as that of the US. Perhaps the only popular competitive genre in the US is strategy, which is why games like Clash of Clans and Clash Royale from Supercell are quite trendy there. Furthermore, the 4X strategy games created by a handful of Chinese developers has also sold well in the US, making it into the list of the most popular mobile games in the country.

Mobile gamer personas in the US, UK, China, India, and Saudi Arabia. | Source: Newzoo

In its report, Newzoo categorizes mobile gamers into seven groups: Ultimate Gamer, All-Round Enthusiast, Subscriber, Conventional Player, Hardware Enthusiast, Popcorn Gamer, and Time Filler. The two most popular gamer personas are Time Fillers (24%) and Subscribers (23%). Time Fillers generally only play games in their spare time or at social events. Subscribers, on the other hand, love to play high-quality games, especially the free-to-play ones. They will also only purchase the necessary gaming hardware to be able to run the game.

Most mobile gamers in China fit into the Ultimate Gamer persona who spend most of their time and money on games. In Saudi Arabia, the US, and India, the Subscriber group are most prevalent, while UK mobile gamers generally fall into the Time Fillers group.

The Development of China’s Mobile Gaming Industry

Currently, China is the country with the largest number of core mobile gamers. The reason why this came to be was interestingly tied to the Chinese’s government decision to ban console games up to 2015. As a result, PCs became the primary gaming platform in the country. The popular PC games in China mostly come from the competitive genre such as FPS (Counter-Strike) or MMORPGs (World of Warcraft and Fantasy Westward).

It was only in 2010 that gamers in China were introduced to mobile games through the likes of Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja. Concurrently, local smartphone companies such as Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, and Huawei, began to shift their target market into lower and middle-class users. Slowly but surely, they began to dominate the smartphone market in China, and almost everyone in the country now has access to a smartphone. 

Seizing the growth of the smartphone market, several game developers begin creating games on the mobile platform. In 2012, Shenxiandao Mobile was launched. This release also inspired game developers to recreate mobile games that were based off popular browser games. One year later, Locojoy released I AM MT, a mobile game that successfully integrated PC game mechanics into mobile.

The increasing revenue share of complex mobile games in China. | Source: Newzoo

Game developers continue to optimize the mobile gaming mechanics to reach the standards of the PC gaming experience. Honor of Kings, released in 2015, was one of the games that had major breakthroughs in this regard. Fantasy Westward Journey and CrossFire Mobile are also prime examples of successful PC-adapted mobile games. These two games still holds the record of one of the best-selling games in China.

Trends in the PC gaming world are also often copied in mobile gaming. For instance, when the Battle Royale genre was becoming a craze in the PC gaming community, Tencent soon released PUBG Mobile, which was later re-released under the name Peacekeeper Elite.

The boom of mobile gaming in China has undoubtedly driven the emergence of mobile esports. The first-ever global mobile esports tournament was held in China back in 2019. Today, many Chinese game developers are experimenting and trending toward cross-platform games. Not so recently, miHoYo launched one of the hottest and most successful games in 2020 called Genshin Impact. And after the release of Revelation Mobile in January, it is safe to say that the trend of cross-platform games will continue for the near future. 

Featured Image: Freepik. Translated by: Ananto Joyoadikusumo

Accenture Report: 84% of Gamers Use Gaming as a Socializing Tool

Gamers are often seen by the public as antisocial, which may be true to a certain degree. However, today, games are not simply used as a means of personal entertainment but also as a medium of communication. Especially in midst of a lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, games have become the bridge that connects friends and people alike around the world.

The Growth of the Gaming Industry

According to Accenture, the gaming industry is estimated to be worth $200 billion. Today, approximately 2.7 billion people in the world play games. China, the United States, and Japan are the three countries with the largest gaming industries. China is estimated to have a population of 929 million gamers, and its gaming industry is valued over $51 billion USD. On the other hand, the US gaming industry is worth around $48 billion USD while housing over 219 million gamers.

In terms of population size, Japan will never come close to China or the United States. However, pound for pound, the game industry in Japan is incredibly massive. Despite its minuscule population, there are around 75 million gamers in Japan. Its gaming industry is also estimated to be worth over $24 billion USD. Apart from China, the US, and Japan, there are 17 other countries with gaming industries valued at over $1 billion USD. UK, Italy, Germany, Canada, South Korea, France, and Spain are some examples.

Gender proportions among gamers. | Source: Accenture

There is a strong belief within the gaming community that the gamer population is dominated by males. This assumption, however, is totally wrong. According to Accenture, 46% of the gamer population are female, 52% are male, and the remaining 2% fall into the non-binary category or people who do not want to mention their gender. Indeed, there are almost as many female gamers as there are male gamers. The rise in the number of females playing games is assumed to be the product of mobile gaming, which makes games far more accessible in general. 

In terms of experience at gaming, Accenture divides its four thousand respondents into two categories: gamers with more than five years of playing experience and gamers who have only played for the past one to four years. Interestingly, newer gamers have different characteristics from the more experienced gamers. In terms of age, new gamers are, of course, generally younger. The average age of less experienced gamers is 32 years old, while the average age of the more experienced gamers is 35 years old. The percentage of new and experienced gamers below the age of 25 is 30% and 25%, respectively. Most of the new gamers, 60% to be exact, are also women. On the other hand, females only populate around 39% of the experienced gamers group.

Industries That Have Benefitted from the Gaming Industry

The rapid growth of the gaming industry has also catalyzed the emergence of other related industries such as esports. Currently, these newborn industries are estimated to have a value of $100 billion USD. Here some examples of these industries and their respective net worth:

  • Esports, $1.3 billion USD
  • Gaming accessories for PC, $12 billion USD
  • PC gaming hardware, $39.3 billion USD
  • Mobile devices, $39.7 billion USD
  • Gaming content creation, $9.3 billion USD
Various industries that have benefited from the development of the gaming industry. | Source: Accenture

The rising popularity of gaming has also undoubtedly impacted mainstream culture. In the film industry, for example, there are a number of films that were based on video games, such as Angry Birds and War of Warcraft. Unfortunately, I must admit that most of these video game adaptation movies have drawn more criticism than praise from its fanbase. In addition to the film industry, gaming also had an impact on the toy and esports industry. Innovations in the gaming industry have also been translated into other fields ranging from education, health, and even the military. For example, education is one of the fastest-growing categories on Roblox.

The concept of gamification is also widely used by people outside gaming. As an illustration, many teachers today implement a point or ranking system in their classes to introduce competitive spirits between students. Games, nowadays, are also used as a place to hang out or socialize instead of just being a tool of personal entertainment. As proof, Travis Scott’s virtual concert at Fortnite was “attended” by 12 million players around the world. Due to the current pandemic lockdown, people also celebrate important moments, such as birthdays and weddings, in video games.

The Social Aspects of Gaming Drives the Growth of Its Industry

One of the driving factors behind the growth of the gaming industry is the development of mobile devices. For one, smartphones are usually much cheaper and accessible than gaming PCs or consoles. Furthermore, a majority of mobile games are free-to-play. Interestingly, however, the emergence of mobile games does not cannibalize the console and PC game market and instead encourages game developers to focus more on the social aspects of gaming. Therefore, don’t be surprised that more and more people today use gaming as a socializing tool.

According to data from Accenture, 84% of gamers say that they use games as a means of socializing with people with similar interests. Many gamers also play to find new friends online. This trend is further reinforced by the current COVID-19 pandemic. 74% of the respondents admitted that the pandemic has pushed them to socialize more through games. Furthermore, as many as 75% of gamers mentioned that a majority of their social interactions occur in games or gaming-related platforms such as Discord.

The importance of social aspects in games. | Source:Accenture

For most gamers, the gaming world plays an important role in their social life. Accenture’s data also shows that gamers spend about 16 hours every week playing games. On average, gamers also spend 8 hours a week watching gaming content and 6 hours on socializing in gaming communities or forums.

Unfortunately, the gaming community is also often known for its bizarre toxicity. Therefore, it is imperative that gamers always try to find suitable friends or communities that can mesh well with their personality. In fact, 84% of the respondents in Accenture’s survey admitted that having the right group of friends is key to an enjoyable online gaming experience. 

Finding a suitable group of friends while playing games is incredibly important. | Source: Accenture

All these data above show that the social aspects of gaming are becoming the main attraction for many gamers today. Thus, creating interesting games from popular franchises will simply no longer cut it. Instead, game developers must always think out of the box to innovate and optimize the social interactions and experiences between the players.

Featured Image: Team17. Translated by: Ananto Joyoadikusumo

Opinion Regarding Exclusivity Deal for MPL Team and Dropping Wild Rift Team

A while ago, Team Secret’s CEO, John Yao calls out an alleged exclusivity contract for an esports organization with Mobile Legends teams to release their Wild Rift division. He also criticizes that an esports organization could have more than a team competing against each other in the same tournament in Mobile Legends competitive scene. I do agree with his remark on the same organization that could compete in the same tournament. However, I may have a different opinion regarding the exclusivity deal.

Before that, the rumour started from a player from ONIC Esports, Govher “Gov” Tallulembang Madethen. In a live stream on Wild Rift YouTuber Kurohiko’s channel (that has been deleted), he said that Moonton is trying to monopolize esports by forcing the exclusivity deal. 

Even though I’ve been involved with Moonton and Mobile Legends for several projects in Indonesia (as a 3rd party) since the first season of MPL (Mobile Legends Professional League) Indonesia, I can’t say if the rumour is true or false. However, I am intrigued to express my opinion on this matter. 

Hypothetically, let’s say if the rumour is true. 

I think some esports organizations may feel cornered with the exclusivity deal. I do agree with John that said investing in multiple games is a strategy to survive for esports organizations. Forbidding an esports organization to enter a particular esports title means sealing off its future in that scene. People who have been working in the esports industry know that it’s too dynamic to rely on one game.

Furthermore, for Indonesian teams participating in MPL ID, they already paid investment money to join MPL since MPL ID is the only one using the franchise model — for the time being. I don’t think there is a refund button for the team which wants to withdraw from the MPL if they choose Wild Rift over MLBB. Let’s just say, we do know how a game publisher has absolute power over its esports scene that we discussed a while ago.

However, for non-Indonesians, they might not have the same perspective as we do. 

First, in the most popular MOBA esports scenes in the global market, Dota 2 and LoL, there is no such thing as an exclusivity deal. As far as I know, the closest thing to such an exclusivity arrangement in the global esports market is from Overwatch League which forces the participating teams to have an exclusive name. So, the exclusivity seems weird or even harmful.

However, Indonesian esports and Mobile Legends have a unique relationship. We have written a more in-depth story about that. But, in short, both need each other. 

Image credit: Moonton

I have been working in the Indonesian’s game and esports industry since 2008. I saw how Counter-Strike 1.6 became the most popular competitive scene here for a while. Then, it moved on to DotA and Dota 2. Garena, with their League of Legends, also created some history in the Indonesian esports scene. Although LoL could never surpass Dota 2 in terms of popularity in Indonesia. There is also Point Blank that made some noises for some time here. Those games couldn’t break the Indonesian’s esports scene into the mainstream market. It’s Mobile Legends that introduces gaming and esports markets to the non-endemic brands in Indonesia.

It’s also the case with most MPL ID teams, except for Geek Fam since they are originally from Malaysia. ONIC and Alter Ego, for example, could reach their current popularity solely because of MLBB. Even for EVOS and RRQ, the most popular esports organizations in Indonesia, I’m pretty sure their biggest fans come from MLBB and MPL. The only MPL ID team that doesn’t depend on MLBB is Bigetron since their PUBG Mobile team is so much better, even on the world stage.

Meanwhile, even though Riot Games could be said as the biggest and most popular esports publisher and developer globally, it is not that important for the Indonesian esports scene — at least not currently — compared to Moonton. Tencent (with PUBG Mobile) and Garena (with Free Fire) are also so much more important than Riot Games here. 

So, why do Indonesian teams wants to gamble their future with Wild Rift and Riot Games when they already have a sure thing here with MLBB? If they have to choose…

Like I mentioned previously, I have done projects for Moonton and Mobile Legends as a third party on several occasions. It means I make money because of Moonton and Mobile Legends. I couldn’t say the same for Riot Games. I think this is also the case with most esports organizations in Indonesia. 

Viewers of M2 World Championship by language. Courtesy of: Esports Charts Pro Feature

On the other side, I think Moonton also knows that it makes so much money because many other publishers put the Indonesian market in the back seat or ignore it completely. If I’m not mistaken, most of the active MLBB players globally are from Indonesia. If you look at the esports scene, you could also find Indonesian viewers are the biggest number for MLBB. If Moonton knows better, and I’d like to think so, it will put its biggest care and attention to the Indonesian market.

So, in the end, even if the rumour is true, I don’t think it’s a hard choice for Indonesian esports organizations to choose MLBB or Wild Rift — more so for the MPL ID teams who have invested in the franchise league. Unless, let’s say Riot Games have bigger care for Indonesia’s esports ecosystem (which is one of the reasons why I wrote this…) than Moonton, then it will be a tougher decision to make.

Update: I do know some media write that the rumour is confirmed but Moonton is giving a choice for the esports organization to get revenue sharing in return for exclusivity. However, I can’t say it’s confirmed if there is no clear identity who’s claiming the answer.

Also, I think my conclusion is still the same if we are talking about Indonesian esports organizations. As far as I know, MPL ID teams already have revenue sharing because of the franchise league. So, it doesn’t change anything even if you want to consider the “confirmation”.