The Esport League is one of the sports leagues in Indonesia that ran during this pandemic because esport is an extension of electronic sports and allows competitions to be held online or offline. Online competitions in Indonesia are carried out by a number of esport leagues such as the MPL (Mobile Legends Professional League), this league is held by the game developer, Moonton. This league has succeeded in entertaining its fans during a pandemic by complying with physical distancing regulations, even at the 2018 Asian Games, Esport became a new sport and will even be held again at the 2022 Asian Games. The Asian Electronic Sports Federation, which said that it would help “fully exploit its potential esports in the region ”and proves the importance of including this burgeoning industry in other sporting events in the future. But what if the Esports league in Indonesia will have the same fate as the soccer league in Indonesia which is very close to the world of politics. This could happen because the development of Esports in Indonesia is very fast developing, this opportunity could have been used by politicians to do the same thing when they controlled the football league in Indonesia.
The relationship between the football league in Indonesia and the world of politics is very close, one of which was when Indonesian political figure Edy Rahmayadi became chairman of the PSSI (Persatuan Sepak Bola Indonesia) in 2016-2019 not only serving as chairman of the PSSI Edy Rahmayadi also served as Governor of North Sumatera. Edy Rahmayadi was elected as chairman of the PSSI after winning the votes of the other five candidates. during its heyday, Indonesian football experienced obstacles that were quite detrimental to PSSI itself and the football club. when Liga 1 2017 became the top division of the newly rolled Indonesian league, there were many strange regulations. Apart from being weird, the regulations also change as the league runs. PSSI also provides strange punishments such as spectator punishment without attributes, which only exists in Indonesia. The death of the supporters, oddly enough, has not been thoroughly investigated until now. The climax of Liga 1 occurred at the end of the season when Bhayangkara FC got three free points from Komdis PSSI. All of these oddities were complemented by Edy Rahmayadi's decision to choose a leave of absence from the post of Head of PSSI to advance in the 2018 Governor Election. to advance Indonesian football. Andika Sanjaya et all. in his thesis article entitled Sports Governance with Political Figures from the Military: A Case Study of the Indonesian Government in the Context of Football Political figures use football to dominate the public sphere and gain visibility. A positive image in football (due to achievements) is cultivated by political figures even though it uses controversial means.
Politicians can take advantage of this opportunity to dominate the Esports league in Indonesia because the Indonesian Esports league can be used as a political medium and the worse is the malpractice of authority, for example, what has happened in the Football league, Edy Rahmayadi is not good at serving as PSSI and only tarnishes the name of football in Indonesia. Why can this happen? Because currently the Esport League has been favored by many Indonesians for entertainment and salaries as a pro player or a player in an Esport team is estimated to be up to 5 million, this was revealed by Lius Andre, the former Esport Manager of Moonton Indonesia in a youtube video Jonathan Liandi in the Empetalk segment. “Awalnya Moonton ga netapin minimum gaji, tapi di MPL ada. Yaudahlah gua sebutin lah 5,4 (juta) minimum bahkan itu di atas UMR Jakarta. Kalau ga salah itu pernah di share waktu di press conference season 4 franchise league pertama itu disebutin angkanya berapa". Raden Muhammad in his thesis article entitled Perkembangan eSport di mata internasional dan pengakuan serta pengaruhnya terhadap masyarakat di Indonesia stated that MNC who are sponsors in Indonesia are starting to show that Indonesia can become one of their potential markets, thereby generating a response where the sponsors or event organizers started making many tournaments for esports athletes in Indonesia. Playing games is a hobby that is owned by the majority of young people in Indonesia because playing games and being selected as a pro player can earn a decent range of money. The same popularity when in the past where the Indonesian football league became entertainment and a hobby to watch favorite teams compete and see football idols, but unfortunately now the football league is mixed with the world of politics which now we cannot enjoy together on television or in person, even until now the league. Indonesian football is still not running on the grounds that physical distancing is carried out to prevent its spread. However, there is no reason for the government not to carry out elections and campaigns.
Learn from the previous case from the case of the Indonesian football league when the leadership of PSSI was led by Politis Edy Rahmayadi which made the name of Indonesian football even more tarnished. The IESPA Indonesia Esport Association (Indonesia Esport Association) needs leaders who are proficient in their fields not coming from political figures with the aim of the Esports league not having the same fate as the Indonesian football league. IESPA and the community must work together to advance the Esport league in Indonesia and reject political support that aims to find new political media.
By Muhammad Ikhsan Naufal (Students of Communication department - International program, Islamic University of Indonesia)
