Facts and Figures about Indonesia’s eSport Teams
Evolution of eSports in Indonesia
Year by year, eSports are continuously developing globally and it is no less in Indonesia compared to the rest of the world. Going back to its root, the first E-sports in Indonesia was a tournament of a Nintendo game, Super Mario Bros in 1989 where it took place at Surabaya. Since then, the holding of eSports tournaments in Indonesia increased and Game League made an appearance as Indonesia’s official eSports competition. Online games such as Quake III, StarCraft, Counter-Strike, Age of Empires II, FIFA World Cup, and many others were being contested to win medals and earn money.
With the trending popularity of eSports in Indonesia, thousands of enthusiasts have become professional eSports players and athletes. They have competed and won gold medals even in international leveled tournaments such as the 2018 Asian Games Olympics. The following infographic is the yearly top results of eSports games played in international tournaments by Indonesian players from year to year.
As years go by, the most successful eSports games are different for Indonesia. From 2011 to 2022, this includes Counter-Strike, Point Blank, CrossFire, League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Free Fire consecutively. Currently, the Battle Royale genre is at the top. However, it seems that in the future, the popularity of these eSports games will increase. Who knows if newly invented games will surprisingly make a sudden appearance and become the most revenue-making in tournaments for Indonesian professionals?
In sum, here is the evolution of Indonesian eSports players competing in international tournaments with their earned cash prizes.
2011: Counter-Strike (Tactical Shooter) with 5 players and earnings of $2,000.
2012: Point Blank (First-Person Shooter) with 10 players and earnings of $20,000.
2013: Point Blank (First-Person Shooter) with 5 players and earnings of $9,000.
2014: CrossFire (First-Person Shooter) with 5 players and earnings of $8,000.
2015: League of Legends (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) with 38 players and earnings of $22,199.6.
2016: League of Legends (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) with 26 players and earnings of $22,488.69.
2017: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Tactical Shooter) with 13 players and earnings of $6,624.1.
2018: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) with 157 players and earnings of $250,296.52.
2019: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) with 203 players and earnings of $632,719.09.
2020: Free Fire (Battle Royale) with 349 players and earnings of $938,752.41.
2021: Free Fire (Battle Royale) with 381 players and earnings of $1,151,845.56.
2022: Free Fire (Battle Royale) with 357 players and earnings of $1,197,114.39.
Famous Indonesian eSports teams participating in international tournaments
In the eSport industry, there are certainly many teams formed to take part in existing tournaments, both national and international ones. Indonesia itself is ranked 17th as the largest game market with very rapid growth based on the 2021 Global Games Market Report. This has encouraged Indonesia to produce many eSports teams. However, due to the large growth in the number of teams, it resulted in intense competition even within their own country and only a few were able to enter as well as win International eSport competitions. Here are some of the eSport teams that carry the name of Indonesia and have achievements on the international scene.
Bigetron (BTR)
The first eSport team that introduced PUBG Mobile in Indonesia, also known as BTR. Their existence started with the League of Legends tournament and has expanded to other games like PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends. Thanks to the successes of the players such as Bigetron Red Alien’s PUBG Mobile team, they are beginning to gain recognition around the world. BTR also won several other worldwide tournaments, such as:
– 2nd place in PUBG Mobile Pro League (PMPL) Spring Split 2020 SEA.
– 1st place in PUBG Mobile World League (PMWL) 2020.
– 1st place in PUBG Mobile Pro League (PMPL) Fall Split 2020 SEA.
– 1st place in PUBG Mobile Ultimate Warrior Showdown 2021.
EVOS
EVOS eSports is known for its five-game divisions, starting from Mobile Legends, Mobile Legends Ladies, PUBG Mobile, Free Fire, to Point Blank. No less famous than BTR, EVOS has a myriad of achievements in a number of tournaments, such as:
– Runner up in Point Blank International Women’s Championship 2019.
– 1st place in Free Fire World Cup 2019.
– 1st M1 World Championship.
ONIC
Formed in 2018, ONIC is known as an eSport team that often challenge Mobile Legends game champions since their founding. They have many achievements as other teams, such as:
– 1st place in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup (MSC) 2019.
– 1st place in Mobile Legends Mytel International Championship 2020.
– Representative of Indonesia for PUBG Mobile Club Open Fall Split: SEA League and PMCO Fall Split: SEA Championship.
Rex Regum Qeon (RRQ)
This team has been famous since 2013 and has many titles, especially in DOTA and Point Blank, but they are expanding into other online games to broaden their achievements in other games. Below are their achievements in the international industry:
– 1st place in Point Blank World Challenge 2019.
– 2nd place in M1 World Championship.
– 2nd place in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup 2022.
BOOM
The team, which was founded in 2016, started its career from DOTA 2 to expand other online games such as RRQ. They have hundreds of trophies and awards and managed to become one of the best Esports teams in 2021, their latest achievements are:
– 1st place in UniPin SEACA Major 2021.
– 1st place in Mineski Masters.
Most Popular eSport Games in Indonesia
These days eSports have become more and more well-liked in Indonesia. In addition, the Asian Games were held there in 2018, and eSports was a demonstration event. As a result, starting next Asian Games eSports will be added to the event, even though at that time (2018 Asian Games) they do have gold, silver, and bronze medals, those medals were excluded from the total number of medals. Since then, eSports have grown in popularity in Indonesia, especially among youth. The International Esports Federation already chose Indonesia as the host nation of the World Esports Championship in Bali for 2022. It proves that the majority of Indonesians take pleasure in playing video games with opponents. The top 3 video games played by Indonesians are listed below.
1. Free Fire
Free Fire or known as FF, was developed by Singaporean company Garena, which now holds the top spot in eSports rankings in Indonesia. Free Fire is similar to the battle royale experience in the game but is more laid back. Free Fire’s graphics are simpler than PUBG Mobile’s, and the game’s success is due to the fact that it runs well on older hardware. This game predates PUBG and is regarded as one of the first battle royale smartphone games, 402 professional players play this game in Indonesia, the game generates around $3,480,440.65 in revenue annually, and more than 500 million people in Indonesia have downloaded this game
2. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
Mobile Legends or most Indonesian call it ML is a game developed by Moonton, a subsidiary of ByteDance. ML was released in 2016 and the game itself is about a mobile multiplayer online battle. ML has professional competition all over the world such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, Middle East and many more. This game is about creating good teamwork–good strategy, skills, and ability. In Indonesia, ML sits in rank 2 according to eSports Earning, by having 246 professional players. In 2022 this game itself earned $2,976,280.93, and also more than 100 million people have downloaded this game.
3. Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile
Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, also known as PUBG, is a battle royale video game that was developed by PUBG Studios in 2017 and is similar to Free Fire in this aspect. This game, which lets players choose between playing in the first- or third-person, was inspired by the Japanese film Battle Royale. The game supports up to 100 players at once and lets players kill each other using weapons and equipment. PUBG is the third most played game in Indonesia with 263 professional players, by having $2,329,690.79 million in revenue and more than 100 million people have downloaded this game.
The Most Popular Male Players in Indonesian eSport Industry
As we can see the evolution and the enthusiasm of Indonesian in the eSports industry these days are considerably huge and there must be someone or individuals who motivate fans from Indonesia to take interest in this Industry. These Individuals are players who manage to shine in the International competitive scene and make millions of Rupiah just by playing games. Watchers are interested in just how much these players get from their competitive scene and here are some examples of the brightest Indonesian players and their total earnings.
1. Xepher
Starting off with Kevin Doa famously known as Xepher. Famous for being the number one Dota2 player in Indonesia and also having a position in the top 1000 players in the world. Xepher has much international experience since he managed to play and was recruited by many international teams. Xepher manages to win the amazing amount of $373.223.24 in his whole career up until now
2. Lemon
Without a doubt, Mobile Legend has been one of the most popular games in Indonesia for the past several years. Muhammad Ikhsan or Lemon is a senior player in the competitive scene of Mobile Legends with a timid personality and not so much of a talker. He is not the number one player in Indonesia yet the fans adore and love him so much since he is one of the most loyal players to his team RRQ also with RRQ the amount of money he won is $101.545.83.
3. F0rsaken
Jason Sutanto known as F0rsaken is a young kid only the age of 18 years old and surprisingly has won himself a massive amount of money about $78.112.56.
4. Zuxxy and Luxxy
Iconic twins world champion from Indonesia Made Bagus Prabaswara and Made Bagas Pramudita. With the ranking of 4th and 5th in the leaderboard these two manage to win $441.144.32.
This article is written by B2024 students:
- Maria Nerissa A
- Michelle Josephine
- Muhammad Haikal Muhyi
- Tribawa Permono
Edited by Lily El Ferawati