For the first time, the Asian Olympic Council (Olympics Council of Asia, OCA) includes competitive video games, aka eSports, in the most prestigious sports event in Asia.
The eSports competition at the 2018 Asian Games is held by the OCA, the Organizing Committee of the Asian Games Indonesia (Inasgoc), the Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF). This branch will involve six games, namely League of Legends, Pro Evolution Soccer, Arena of Valor, Starcraft II, Hearthstone, and Clash Royale.
The event is demonstrative, which means the winner will get a medal but the medal calculation is not included in the official tally for each participating National Olympic Committee.
Even then, this is an important form of recognition for eSports. Danny Buldansyah, a spokesman for INASGOC, said eSports was included because it was "part of a modern sport that involved a lot of millennials, and sport which is a fast-growing entertainment in the community."
eSports in Indonesia
Ilham Bahrul, one of the athletes selected to represent Indonesia in the eSports event at this year Asiad, said that eSports are actually similar to soccer in terms of requiring individual cooperation as well as teamwork.
"This eSports deserves to be called a sport as well because it requires diligent training, trainers, and the support of some kind of facility," Ilham said to BBC News Indonesia.
But it should be noted, eSports is not just about playing games.
According to Ericko Lim, one of Indonesia eSport athletes for League of Legend game in Asiad, besides becoming a pro player, there are various efforts that can be taken in the field of eSports, such as coach, brand ambassadors whose functions are similar to eSports team PR, shoutcaster, eSports match commentator, or streamer that broadcasts your game to be watched by many people.
There is a bright prospect for eSports in the country that a private high school in Jakarta decided to open an eSports program. They even provided scholarships for it, as BBC News Indonesia reported.
It's been two years for SMA 1 PSKD in Central Jakarta to offer coaching programs for eSports, where children get lessons not only about playing techniques or in-gaming but also the eSports industry as a whole.
According to Principal Yohannes P. Siagian, the eSports program at PSKD SMA 1 started as an extracurricular. Then the school sees eSports as a growing field and has the potential to become a career.
Not many schools provide special space for students to play Overwatch, but Yohannes argues that eSports train interpersonal skills and problem-solving.
However, eSports athlete Ilham Bahrul admitted that he could not yet advise Indonesian young people to make eSports as their goal. The reason is, unlike in other countries, in Indonesia, there are not enough academies that support this sport.
Recognition from the President
Indonesia president, who is known for his open-mindedness and him embracing young people and their creativities, has shown his support for e-Sports.
On his Instagram account (26/8), he posted that a photo when he attended Young on Top National Conference 2018 in Jakarta. In the event, he said that new technologies create new opportunities and professions that are unimaginable before.
One of them is a job like Tobias Julian's, a participant who admitted that he did eSport and played Mobile Legends for a living.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Joko Widodo (@jokowi) on
In that post, Jokowi advised young Indonesians not to be afraid to face challenges, to open up to change, and dare to compete.
In 2018 Asian Games, Ridel Yesaya Sumarandak, a 16-year-old teenager from North Sulawesi, secured Indonesia’s first-ever eSports gold after defeating China in online battle game Clash Royale in Jakarta on Tuesday (28/8).
Source: AG Media & The Jakarta Post, BBC Indonesia