Jakarta – More than 10 thousand gamers in Indonesia took part in the Mzone Esports Expo competition which took place at the Ancol Econvention Hall, Jalan Lodan Timur, North Jakarta.
This event, which was initiated by Indosat 3ID in collaboration with Mzone and CBN Fiber as well as Techconsumptions, is a historical milestone in the development of esports in Indonesia.
Previously, Indosat 3ID had held 100 community tournaments in the last 5 months, involving more than 20,000 participants. The Mzone Esports Expo is the culmination of these efforts, showcasing tournaments across a diverse range of games, communities and formats.
One of the things that attracts the most attention is the Tri Battle Arena, which holds the DKI Korpri Tournament and the DKI Student Tournament, which are the biggest community offline tournaments for Korpri and students.
In addition, this event was held simultaneously in 10 cities throughout Indonesia, expanding the reach of the event and strengthening the esports community in various regions and becoming unified. Mzone Esports Expo not only displays gaming competitions, but also serves as a platform to highlight various other important aspects such as education and technology in the world of esports.
“We believe that an event like this can help develop the domestic esports industry, especially among the younger generation,” said Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison Commercial Director, Ritesh.
Meanwhile, CBN’s Head of Marketing Communication, Dian A Ramadhani, said that Mzone itself has become a partner for CBN’s annual tournament entitled ‘CBN Championship Series’. The tournament has been running in five phases since December.
“So we are going through five phases, the first phase was yesterday in December. The second phase was in February simultaneously in 30 cities. Then yesterday the third phase was in April. The fourth phase in May was the online regional final,” said Dian.
“So all the winners of the three phases compete again to compete for the top 16,” he continued.
Dian said that this August, her party would prepare for the grand final round.
“So starting from the quarter-finals from Java-Bali, we will come here, tomorrow we will compete here, CBN Championship Series Season 5,” he said.
As for the matches being contested today, there are Valorant Ladies and Tri Battle Arena.
“Tomorrow there are cosplay games, at CBN there is also an activity game called The CBN Tour Mission. So they come to the CBN booths, then they carry out tasks, then at the end they will have games to pick up items like that, the total prize is one hundred million,” he explained.
“Apart from that, CBN partners also have open booths, tomorrow there will also be a signing event, there will be fun matches, all kinds of things together with Evos, Bigetron, Boom Esports, Dewa United, Alter Ego and Pandum Esports,” he added.
Dian views that currently the development of esports in Indonesia is very large. Where the party itself first partnered with Evos Esports in 2017.
“We can see the development very rapidly, if we look at it from when we started making Championship Season 1, Dewa United’s players were even winners of CBN Championship Season 1. Many of the pro-teams that are tier one or tier two are now many of our imprints (CBN Championship),” he explained.
“The first pro team we partnered with was Evos Esports, who now knows how big it is,” he continued.
It’s not just about elite teams, Dian said, so far CBN has always invited communities to seriously pursue this field of esports.
“We don’t just look at the pro team, but we also play a lot in the community, we want to see and let them know, ‘Hey, esports, you don’t just play around, it really has a future, you can be a person, you can “Be something, you don’t have to just be a player, you can be a caster, you can be the person behind the scenes or anything like that, there are lots of career aspects,” he explained.
Apart from supporting pro teams, said Dian, CBN is also actively making a sustainable contribution to the eSport ecosystem. One of them is providing a reliable internet network.
“With support from CBN and we are also pro teams, all of their game houses use CBN. We support them to become champions with good internet, low latency and so on, so they can finally become champions,” he said.
“Maybe not directly, but training, all kinds of things, if there is no proper infrastructure, no good internet connection, they won’t be able to,” he added.
In terms of cooperation, Dian continued, her party has collaborated with PB ESI for many years. In fact, PB ESI asked CBN to support the 2024 PON event.
“But this is still under discussion, E-Sports Leagues of all kinds, what activities do they have, they will definitely invite us, collaborate with us and we are very open to cooperation. This is support for the country too, for Indonesia, not for brands, more for we care,” he explained.
In the same place, the Secretary General of the Central Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI), Lukman Djajadikusuma expressed his appreciation for holding the Mzone Esports Expo.
“The Central KONI appreciates Esports activities in terms of bringing together the entire community of Esports activists. We also see many participants from outside the region and this is a good thing to activate and socialize Esports itself,” said Lukman
Lukman said that currently Esports has become an achievement sport and will be officially competed in the Aceh-North Sumatra PON 2024 in September.
“Apart from that, Esports has been competed in at the Sea Games, Asian Games and even the Olympics. There will be a separate Olympics specifically for Esports and the plan is to start next year,” he said.
As a form of KONI’s real support for the development of Esports in Indonesia, said Lukman, his party has formed the Indonesian E-Sport Executive Board (PB ESI) led by Budi Gunawan as General Chair and Bambang Sunarwibowo as Deputy General Chair.
“They are the ones who will work together with KONI to manage and develop Indonesian athletes to the highest level,” he said.
“We hope that in the XXI PON event there will be competition from all 38 provinces, all Esports athletes and from there we will also of course select athletes who can continue to the Sea Games, Asian Games, etc.,” he continued .
On the other hand, he also appealed to esports athletes not only to focus on developing skills, but also to pay attention to intellectual intelligence.
“For this reason, we also appeal to all activists, they are not only successful in achievements, but also successful in academics. We see that Esports is not only athletes, there are coaches, there are game publishers, there are game developers, there are casters and this is the sports industry that will keep going,” he explained.
“We hope that Indonesia will become one of the countries that has a sports industry that can catch up with other big countries,” he said.
