League of Legends: Wild Rift, which launched its beta phase in September 2020, has been hyped up in the gaming community for quite a while now. Furthermore, to Indonesia’s local esports ecosystem, Riot Games’ reputation as an esports company instils the belief that the game will have a promising future. Players who have failed in going pro in other MOBAs immediately grind their way to the top to attract future pro teams. Many fans simply can’t wait to see the future of Wild Rift esports. A few esports organizations also took this early bird opportunity and began recruiting players and establishing their roster.
After the beta release and running Wild Rift SEA Pentaboom title, what will be the next step for Riot in Wild Rift? Players, fans, esports organizations, and even I will continuously be curious about Wild Rift’s esports plans.
Therefore, let us investigate the extent of the development of Wild Rift esports in the local ecosystem so far. What are actions that local esports organizations are executing and planning to do with Wild Rift? What are the appropriate steps that Riot Games should take for Wild Rift’s esports in the future? Let’s try to answer these questions one at a time.
Regional Beta and Wild Rift Pentaboom (Development from the aspect of the game)
From investigating Wild Rift’s three-month journey since its release, we can say that they have been rapidly developing. The number of Champions has been growing consistently. Patches are also continuously released to improve and balance the game.
Riot Games is also slowly releasing Wild Rift in various other countries after the first regional beta in 7 Southeast Asian countries (including Indonesia) last October 2020. However, during the three months of its development, the game had one missing feature desired by many players: Spectator Mode.
Without this feature, the stretch of Wild Rift esports in the first few months of its release has been slightly hindered. Even though players can create a custom room, the community cannot broadcast Wild Rift matches to the public because there is no Spectator Mode.
However, several organizers from the Wild Rift community are still determined to broadcast Wild Rift tournaments. One of them is a content creator called Assassin Dave. He still organizes Wild Rift Asia Brawl even though he has to accept the limitations of the absence of spectator mode. Of course, Assassin Dave went through a lot of technical challenges to make all the broadcasting possible without spectator mode.
Tournaments initiated by Riot Games also experienced similar difficulties. Wild Rift Pentaboom, for example, also uses a similar viewing method by requiring players to stream their smartphone screens. Despite being able to broadcast matches and inviting many well-known streamer figures in the MOBA scene, the tournament is not very enjoyable to watch due to its limitations that it experiences.
Fortunately, Riot Games recognized the problem and soon responded. Riot Games announced patch 2.1 on February 1, 2021 yesterday. The patch finally provided several desired features from the Wild Rift community, including Spectator Mode. In addition, the patch also contained several regular contents such as new champions, skins, and balancing.
The State of the Wild Rift’s Esports Ecosystem in Indonesia
Let’s now discuss the interest of Wild Rift in the local esports ecosystem. This discussion was important because of the presence of several well-known teams and the increase of fans’ interest in watching esports matches.
In discussing Wild Rift in the local context, four major Indonesian esports teams need to be highlighted. The teams are EVOS Esports, Bigetron Esports, BOOM Esports, and Alter Ego. I will explain why I chose these particular teams later. In addition, I also interviewed a representative from Yamisok as one of the third-party tournament organizers who have held the Wild Rift tournament in the past 2 months.
The first to be discussed is EVOS Esports. We actually have not seen the blue tiger making any moves towards Wild Rift esports. They have not held an open recruitment, let alone a roster announcement. However, their fans really hope that EVOS Esports will join the Wild Rift community in the future, especially after the AOV roster (Wirraw, Pokka, Carraway, and friends) were seen playing Wild Rift several times.
Aldean Tegar Gemilang, as Head of Esports EVOS, was my source in answering the questions regarding the team’s interest in Wild Rift. In general, Aldean said that EVOS Esports is still “waiting and observing” the whole Wild Rift esports scene play out. This strategy is quite reasonable considering that the Wild Rift ecosystem is not yet fully developed, and the game is still in its beta phase.
“Honestly, we haven’t had any plans to enter the Wild Rift. We tend to observe beforehand how Wild Rift will develop in the Indonesian esports scene. If the game will have a big impact on the scene and has a promising ecosystem, we will then start diving into the game.” Aldean says.
Out of curiosity, I also asked about the possibility of the AOV roster being the pioneer of Wild Rift EVOS Esports. If the speculation is correct, then Wild Rift esports will certainly be even more exciting due to the outstanding achievements that EVOS’s AOV roster has accumulated in the past. However, Aldean said, “We still have no comment regarding this matter. The answer could be yes or no.”
Next up is Bigetron Esports. The red and white robot is the leading esports organization in the Wild Rift scene thus far. They are the first team to have a Wild Rift division in Indonesia. Their roster is also quite promising as it features former professional League of Legends PC players, such as Rully “Nuts” Sutanto.
Thomas Vetra, as Head of Esports Bigetron, is my source in examining the team’s journey in the Wild Rift scene. “We had participated in an Asian level tournament called Wild Rift Asia Brawl. We admit that the results have been considered as less than optimal.” So far, Bigetron Infinity (the name of Bigetron Esports’ Wild Rift division) has successfully passed the Wild Rift Asia Brawl group phase and is competing in the Playoff round.
Because Bigetron Esports was incredibly quick to announce their Wild Rift division, I became curious about the team’s activity and their management’s view regarding this decision.
“When it comes to activities, our players are currently obliged to practice at the gaming house because most players are retirees from the last generation of esports League of Legends. When it comes to tournaments, it is not easy to find competitors to match our Wild Rift team, from what I have noticed so far. I think that investing in a premature esports ecosystem is considered a big investment instead of a loss. Moreover, I personally also feel that Wild Rift has a big opportunity in the Asian market and other regions.” Thomas said.
Next is BOOM Esports. The team with the jargon #HungryBeast has just recently announced the Wild Rift roster. BOOM Esports also plans to present the documentation of their roster selection process. BOOM Esports screened more than 3000 registrants. With insights from Leonard “OMO”, a League of Legends coach in Asia, BOOM Esports selected 5 talented young players and announced their roster on February 1, 2021 yesterday.
To investigate BOOM Esports’ decision in jumping into the Wild Rift esports scene, I interviewed Gary Ongko, Founder and CEO of BOOM Esports.
“We strongly feel that League of Legends is a franchise that has a good reputation in the esports ecosystem. We can also observe how mobile MOBAs are doing very well in Indonesia. With these two reasons, we feel that Wild Rift has high hopes of achieving similar or even greater success than its counterparts.” Said Gary Ongko to me.
Gary Ongko then also talked about the selection process carried out by BOOM Esports, which lasted for about two months.
“Talking about recruitment, we are very fortunate to be assisted by the coach OMO who has profound knowledge in League of Legends. Thanks to him, we are able to select very talented players. Our players are still relatively new, but I feel they have great potential. Their scrim results are also excellent, and they have a high motivation to improve and learn, which is crucial for becoming a successful pro player.” Gary discusses the selected players from more than 3000 contestants.
“When talking about challenges, one of the difficult problems that we face is finding qualified people from the LoL scene. The reason behind this problem is that the game is relatively undeveloped in the Indonesian esports ecosystem. Therefore, it was difficult to hire experts in the game until finally, we decided to recruit OMO (LoL trainer from Singapore). The current pandemic situation also poses another challenge. At first, we planned to do a boot camp during the selection phase. However, due to the pandemic, we were forced to perform our screening online. ” Gary continues his story discussing the challenges he faced when building the roster.
Finally, there is Alter Ego. This team is also equally important to be highlighted because they, and ONIC Esports, have just received a direct invitation to compete in the inaugural Riot Games official Wild Rift tournament: Wild Rift SEA Icon Series: Preseason. The invitation is quite surprising because Alter Ego doesn’t have a Wild Rift division until this moment.
In an interview I conducted a few days ago (04/02), Indra Hadiyanto, as COO and Co-Founder of Alter Ego, also spoke about the Wild Rift roster and the story of Alter Ego being invited to the Wild Rift Icon Series tournament.
“We speculated that we were invited because Riot noticed our achievements in the VALORANT pro scene, which is another one of Riot’s games. When asked why Alter Ego was invited, the developers actually have their own criteria, starting in terms of players, rank, and even interviewing the team’s management. When Riot invited us, they also explained to us (the team owners) about the roadmap of their games. ” Said Indra.
Regarding the roster, Indra also explained that “Even though Alter Ego hasn’t made any announcement, they have actually signed an official roster since December 2020. Alter Ego has not gone public with their roster due to the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the renovation of our gaming house, and the condition of their Wild Rift players domiciled outside Jakarta. The five players from the roster all come from Indonesia, some of which are former League of Legends (PC) players. Our Wild Rift Division has also dominated the local competitive scene that has existed so far. One of them is the community tournament called IEC, which we managed to win on several occasions. ”
Finally, to complete my investigation of the state of the Wild Rift Indonesia’s ecosystem, I also interviewed one of the representatives of third-party tournament organizers, Putri Fauziah, the Project Manager of Yamisok. Yamisok is a technology-based esports tournament platform and regularly held tournaments despite not being able to broadcast Wild Rift due to the absence of spectator mode.
“The missing Spectator Mode feature has profoundly affected the community because tournaments can’t be broadcasted and players cannot interact. In fact, according to my experience, new games are usually crowded with viewers when they are live-streamed, especially if coupled with some giveaway event.” Putri told her experience.
“Regarding the extent of enthusiasm in the community, I observed that the reception that the game received has been overall decent. Many players are interested in participating in the tournament. When we opened the tournament slots, players and teams immediately took their opportunity to register. If there are no tournaments within the span of a month, players will immediately start asking questions. Most of the players that participate in our tournaments are ex-LoL PC players who are currently playing Wild Rift. Perhaps this is because LoL PC tournaments are becoming rare these days. As far as my observation goes, Wild Rift does have a good impact on the ecosystem because it adds some enthusiasm and variety to the MOBA game spectrum. “Putri continued her story discussing the community’s enthusiasm.
All Hopes for the Wild Rift in 2021.
Closing the conversation, five of my sources also expressed their hopes for the future Wild Rift scene in 2021.
“I hope that Riot Games has a solid strategy so that the community can develop and hopefully can compete with other popular Mobile MOBAs in Indonesia. I am actually quite confident that Wild Rift will be promising in the SEA region.” Aldean Tegar from EVOS mentioned.
“I think Riot Games might be able to take advantage of League of Legends’ popularity and give big prize tournaments in the Asia region. Beyond that, I feel that Riot Games already has a solid foundation in the esports ecosystem,” said Thomas from Bigetron Esports.
“In the short term, I strongly feel that Riot Games should continue to promote Wild Rift. For the long-term future, I hope that Riot Games can provide support and constantly improve the Wild Rift esports ecosystem. From what I see from LoL and VALORANT, I’m very sure that Wild Rift will also have tremendous success. Lastly, I hope that Wild Rift will keep their high skill ceiling so we can differentiate or separate the pro players from casual players.” Said Gary Ongko.
“I really hope Indonesia can dominate the international Wild Rift scene in the future. Moreover, I also notice that Riot Games provides an incredibly big opportunity for SEA players in Wild Rift.” Indra from Alter Ego added.
“Personally, I only hope that the Wild Rift ecosystem can develop well and can remain popular for a long time. I also hope Riot will keep the game light so that it is compatible for all ranges of devices.” Putri also added.
League of Legends: Wild Rift itself is still in beta status at the time of writing this article. When I spoke with the Wild Rift development team last October 2020, Brian Feeney, the Design Director of Riot Games, shared how making mobile games is an incredibly challenging process. He also mentioned that Riot Games tends to prioritize game development and takes care of the esports section in a later stage
However, since the game is still far from being finished, the conversations above suggest that the Wild Rift ecosystem will develop much faster than expected. Although, indeed, most of the esports initiatives were taken by third parties. For example, many local teams are very confident in forming rosters even though Riot Games has not clearly disclosed Wild Rift’s esports plan. Moreover, several third-party organizers are also determined to host tournaments for the community despite all the limitations they will face.
Approximately 3 months after Wild Rift was released, it’s safe to say that the game’s development process is relatively fast, especially for developers with minimal mobile game development experience such as Riot Games. Image Source – YouTube Channel League of Legends: Wild Rift
In the future, as an observer and a fan, I have the same expectations as Gary Ongko: hoping that Wild Rift will have an international-level tournament like LoL and that teams from Indonesia participate in those tournaments. But from the point of view of the ecosystem, I hope that Riot Games can learn from Tencent in managing PUBG Mobile.
Tencent’s approach in closely being inlined with the community that flows towards the pro scene could be the sole reason why PUBG Mobile has managed to take root in Indonesia. Throughout its development, we can observe how the PUBG Mobile ecosystem pays attention to its pro scene and other esports’ ecosystem.
We can take the example of tournaments such as PMCO (community level) and PMCC (University level) which are accompanied by activities such as Caster Hunt and Campus Ambassador. After all, the esports ecosystem is not just about the pros. Instead, the whole community also plays a critical role in keeping the esports ecosystem at the top-level relevant and successful.
Translated by: Ananto Joyoadikusumo
