Windah Basudara

Brando Franco Windah (born 14 March 1992), better known by his online alias Windah Basudara or simply as Brando, is an Indonesian YouTuber and online streamer, best known for his video game live streaming and Let's Play videos on YouTube and noted for his comedic persona, he is also the brand ambassador for the Indonesian based esport organization Rex Regum Qeon since 2021.

Early life

Brando Franco Windah was born on 14 March 1992 in Manado, North Sulawesi, he is the second child of 4 siblings. He has two sisters, Florence and Caroline, and a younger brother, Vincent. Brando and his family moved and settle in Jakarta when he was still in Kindergarten, and grew up there. He attended SD Santo Vincentius elementary, SMP Marsudirini junior high and SMA Santo Bellarminus high school.

When Windah was in the eleventh grade, he was frequently bullied by his classmates, eventually leading him to quit school and work for his father as an internet café operator. His parents convinced him to continue his education to graduate with a diploma, so he later applied for a homeschooling program run by Kak Seto, an Indonesian Psychologist.

After graduating from high school, Windah went to college where he studied International relations for a Bachelor's degree (Strata-1 in Indonesian academic standard) at The London School of Public Relations (LSPR), but he had to drop out due to economic constraints.

In July 2022, his channel is hacked by a live streaming video showing an American businessman named Brad Garlinghouse

After quitting college, Windah began his working life as a waiter in a small café in Jakarta, where he earned around IDR 900,000 per month. He quit after only a month due to the low wage. Soon after, Windah started work at the Bluegrass restaurant in South Jakarta, where he was trained to be more professional, so his communication skills improved rapidly.

After three months at the Bluegrass, hotel officials from ''The Westin Jakarta Hotel'' visited the restaurant and Windah received an offer of work at the new five-star hotel due to open in the Gama Tower. Having decided to accept the offer, Windah quit his job at the restaurant. Because it was several months before ''The Westin Jakarta'' would open, he was unable to start immediately, so in the meantime, Windah had to find work in another restaurant.

Once working at the hotel, Windah earned a salary of around IDR 10,000,000. After approximately two and a half years working in the five-star hotel, Windah felt he was being passed over for promotion and decided that he did not want to remain in the same position any longer, so he resigned. He met his girlfriend Sesilia Agnes while still working at the hotel.

Windah decided working at a hotel was not where he wanted to be, he saw his future as a professional YouTuber, particularly in the gaming category.

Personal life

When Windah was in his freshman year in middle school, he experienced bullying by his schoolmates, this could have been due to his tall, lanky stature. He did not tell his parents because he felt ashamed to admit that others saw him this way. The bullying continued into high school which is why he decided to quit in second grade.

Career

Windah had been fond of playing video games since childhood. The first console he played on was a Nintendo Entertainment System. Since beginning elementary school, Windah was fond of his PlayStation 1 (PSX) and the RPG game Suikoden II.

Windah's interest in gaming continued into adulthood, although at that time he was working as a waiter in a five-star hotel. After he saw the success of YouTubers like MiawAug, he felt he had the potential to become a professional Gaming YouTuber and decided to resign from the hotel. To begin his new career, he bought an Asus ROG laptop for IDR 13,000,000, but he was still nervous about starting his own channel, so he planned to invite two of his siblings, Caroline and Vincent, so each could start their own channel at the same time. However, because they were still at school, he had no choice but to build a channel by himself. He created the channel Windah Basudara, taken from the family name Windah, and ''basudara'', which means 'siblings' in Manado language. Despite being named ''basudara'', his siblings have never featured in the channel. His online alias is a misnomer as the term ''basudara'' refers to Windah and his siblings.

YouTube career

Windah Basudara started his YouTube career on 29 Dec 2018. To kick-off his YouTuber career, the laptop which Windah had paid Rp. 13 million for a month earlier was damaged, so it had to be taken in for repair. Now desperate, he tried a return to hotel work, but each application was rejected. Windah confided in his mother, who offered him a loan so he could buy a new PC. He revealed that once he had difficulties getting viewers, so he began adding spam links in chats on several social media platforms such as Facebook, Google+ and Line Square.

Due to his massive success as a streamer, he now amasses around 100k viewers during his live streams. In April 2019, Windah Basudara only had a thousand subscribers, in June 2019, his subscribers increased to 100,000. He has collaborated with MiawAug in the game Secret Neighbor and was also invited to appear on stage at the 2019 YouTube FanFest event. By June 2020 he had reached one million subscribers. He is also known for the acting he usually performs during or at the end of his live streams, as part of his unique persona. He said that the performance is a form of gimmick to entertain and hopefully attract more viewers. He also said that he spent millions on costumes and miscellaneous items.

On 8 July 2021, Windah Basudara was officially announced, via their Instagram account (@teamrrq), as the new brand ambassador for the RRQ e-Sport team.

In addition to his YouTube success, Windah has also contributed to fundraising events. One of the most memorable was a 24-hour livestream, where he managed to collect funds of IDR 50 million which he donated towards helping to deal with COVID-19.

Nominations and awards

On 18 November 2021 at 18.30 GMT+7, GTV presented the ''Indonesian Esports Awards 2021''. The Awards honoured the best Indonesian Esport players and YouTubers by Awarding the nominees based on the results of a public vote. The Indonesian Esports Awards 2021 was conducted by means of an online survey, due to spread of the coronavirus. Voting was held from 20 October to 18 November 2021. Windah Basudara managed to amass the most votes to win the ''Most Favorite Gaming Content Creator of 2021'', despite tough competition in the other four nominees: Dyland Pros, Jess No Limit, Jonathan Liandi and Oura Gaming.

The ''Dunia Games Awards 2021'' was held 23–24 December 2021 and presented by Dunia Games and Telkomsel. The awards announcement was made virtually through MAXstream, as well as Dunia Games and Telkomsel's YouTube channels. There were 17 categories and winners in DGA 2021. Those categories were presented for gamers, professional esports athletes, content creators, esports organisers, local game publishers and developers, celebrity gamers, and esports fan clubs. The winner of the 2021 Dunia Games Award was determined by public vote held from 1–14 December 2021. Windah Basudara won the award for ''Gaming Content Creator of the Year''.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Basudara, Windah
Living people
Indonesian Internet celebrities
Indonesian YouTubers
Minahasa people
People from Manado
Mass media people from Jakarta
1992 births