goodmorningpapua.com – The esports exhibition for PON XX Papua 2021 officially opened on Tuesday night at the Indoor Hockey Field, Doyo Baru, Jayapura Regency, at 19.00 WIT or 17.00 WIB. This opening can be watched live on the official YouTube channel of the Indonesian Esports Executive Board (PB ESI).
This opening is also a new milestone in the history of Indonesian esports. Because for the first time, the esports has finally officially become an exhibition sport competed in PON.
“PON XX Papua 2021 is a stepping stone and a golden momentum as well as history for Indonesian esports people, where esports has officially become an exhibition sport in the greatest sporting event in the country,” said Deputy General Chairperson/Chairman of PB ESI Daily, Bambang Sun.
Bambang continued, with the inclusion of esports in the exhibition sport, it opens up opportunities for PBESI to train athletes in stages and evenly. Moreover, PBESI is now present in all provinces of Indonesia and is supported by management in 498 districts/cities.
The opening ceremony of the esports exhibition for PON XX Papua 2021 was also enlivened by the performing of Nowela Mikhelia, Alfy Rev, Funky Papua, and Epo D’fenomeno. After the opening, the inaugural match for eFootbal PES 2021 between Banten and DKI Jakarta was held.
Based on the records of the Garudaku.com platform, this event succeeded to attract 49,905 athletes and 10,877 esports teams from 34 provinces who registered themselves.
They will compete in 4 competition categories, namely PUBG Mobile, Free Fire, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and eFootball PES 2021.
Based on data from Garudaku.com, PUBG Mobile was joined by 19,664 athletes from 4,916 teams, Free Fire was attended by 13,608 athletes from 3,402 teams, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was attended by 11,985 athletes from 2,397 teams, while PES 2021 was attended by 3,838 athletes.
“A total of 188 athletes from 48 teams from 25 provinces have passed the Pre-PON qualifying round and are ready to fight for the best throne in Papua,” said Bambang.
Interestingly, Indonesia’s esports power seems more evenly distributed and is no longer dominated by the island of Java.
Teams from other cities in Indonesia have also generated the talented and tough players, and as an evidence of the existence of Indonesian esports regional administrators in 34 provinces in encouraging interest. There are three provinces that have registered to appear in all categories, namely DKI Jakarta, Papua and West Papua. While other provinces are more spread out for each game title being contested.