Indonesian esports gamers petitioned for revision to controversial regulation

Esports communities in Indonesia are responding to the Executive Board of Esports Indonesia (PBESI) Regulation No.34/2021 on The Implementation of Esports in Indonesia. The regulation, which was ratified by the National Sports System Law (2005), regulates all aspects involved in esports, including the athletes and games. However, some articles are under scrutiny as they are deemed problematic.

One of them is Article 7 that regulates PBESI membership of professional esports teams. The article requires all professional esports teams to pay an annual development fee to the PBESI. 

Another article is Article 39 which stated that the PBESI is the only sports organisation that has the authority to determine whether a game is eligible to be called esports. Paragraph 5 went as far as making it mandatory for game publishers to register their published games in the PBESI in order to operate in Indonesia. Paragraph 9 stated that the PBESI will work with law enforcers to terminate the operations or erase games and esports games that are not recognised by the organisation.

Video game content creator Restu Purbaya made a petition calling for revision to the problematic regulation. According to the petition, the points of the regulation create a room for monopoly in the Indonesian esports industry. Article 39 is considered to be especially limiting for game publishers, as less known games would be at risk of removal from the Indonesian gaming ecosystem.

The regulation is not of course all bad, as it proves that esports gamers are nationally recognised as athletes with improved career prospects. However, it also fail recognise esports athletes with achievements in unrecognised games and vice-versa.