Yurino “Donkey” Angkawidjaja, the first Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship champion and co-owner of the Indonesian GPX professional esports team, recently expressed his desire to end his journey in the MLBB esports industry.
Donkey is well-known as a former member of the Evos Legends squad that won M1 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2019. Along with other stars like Eko “Oura” Julianto, Muhammad “Wannn” Ridwan, Ihsan “Luminaire” Besari, and Gustian “Rekt,” he was touted as part of the “Indonesian Golden Generations” at the time. They demolished Philippine teams and defeated the king of MPL ID, RRQ Hoshi, at their prime in the grand finals.
Donkey, the team’s oldest member at the time, departed from the MLBB competitive scene in mid-2020, following the MPL ID Season 5 competition, to focus on his new family. In 2021, he announced his comeback to esports competition as one of the owners of GPX Indonesia (previously known as Geng Kapax), together with Oura and Luminaire. Even though it was originally founded as a “fun” project, GPX regularly participates in various competitions in Indonesia and has become one of the community’s favorite teams, especially in the MLBB women’s competition. Furthermore, they also take part in the MLBB Development League Indonesia and the PUBG Mobile Club Open with the aim of making it big in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
Donkey was then slowly but steadily preparing his squad for the MPL ID and PMPL ID contests, Indonesia’s two largest esports championships. However, he recently disclosed that he had failed twice while attempting to enter the MPL ID league franchise due to an extremely high admission fee, which he claimed had increased from 15 billion rupiah to 37 billion rupiah.
This is, of course, a setback for the founders, particularly Donkey and Oura, who aspire to relive their glory days through the GPX team. According to one of our sources, Donkey and the other GPX founders intend to sell their team and shares as their sponsors have decided to pull the plug if the team fails to enter the MPL ID. Donkey even confesses in some of his Instagram story uploads that he is concerned about the GPX team’s future and indicates that their financial situation would suffer if their team does not enter the MPL ID anytime soon. He also acknowledges that he is pessimistic about his future in the Indonesian esports scene, considering that MPL ID is the only thing he cares about.
Some of their followers are concerned that GPX is losing its credibility and will require funding to compete in major events. One of the reasons is a lack of success in the MDL ID and PMPL ID contests. Their recent decision to “collaborate” with Morph in PMPL ID 2023 Fall was recently reported as a move to sustain their financial situation, with both teams bearing each other’s operating expenditures during PMPL ID.
The fact that the MLBB women’s professional league in Indonesia has yet to announce its big competition for the upcoming season has made their situation much worse. This is undoubtedly a setback for GPX, who are recognized for their women’s MLBB division, as they have no competition to play in and no new sponsors are drawn due to the lack of chances for competitiveness in Indonesian women’s esports.
According to previous reports, GPX is currently in negotiations with Moonton to participate in MPL ID Season 12. Nonetheless, if this fails, it is most likely that Donkey will actually abandon.
