Asian Games: India need to produce E-Sports heroes, says top official

For many in a country like India, E-Sports is still considered as a ‘waste of time’— more of an addiction on mobile phones or gaming parlours. It’s high time to change the thinking for come September, the Gen-X discipline will make its entry as a medal sport in the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

It’s a revelation of sorts that a 15-member Indian team will be taking part in four of the seven events at stake while a senior official of the E-Sports Federation of India (ESFI) informed that tickets for the events have been virtually sold out. No surprise really, given the fact that the sport has really caught the imagination of the world like a wildfire during the COVID years.

“It’s been a long journey for us in India and like a dream coming true for us. Not many even remember that e-sports had been a demonstration event in Jakarta in 2018 but then, its popularity has increased in these five years by several notches (the Games were postponed in 2022 due to Covid threats in China). The range of titles on offer in China will not only showcase the diversity of E-Sports but will also display different aspects of skill, strategy and teamwork from the athletes,’’ remarked Lokesh Suji, Director, E-Sports Federation of India & Vice President of the Asian E-Sports Federation (AESF).

The four events where India is participating are FIFA Online 4, League of Legends, Streetfighter V Champion Edition and DOTA 2. The other three events to be on display are Arena of Valor – Asian Games version, Dream Three Kingdoms 2 and PUB-G Mobile Asian Games version. Each of these events are owned by private entities in the gaming sector and their exposure at the Games is expected to be a big driver in the growth of business as well.

Speaking to National Herald in a telephonic interview, Suji felt that the Asiad would see some serious competition with countries like South Korea, Japan and now China having a far more developed ecosystem there for esports. “Korea is what one can call the Mecca of E-Sports. At the Incheon airport where I am now, there is a separate E-Sports zone which is choc-a-bloc with travellers glued to their consoles. Every nook and corner of the country has a gaming café on offer and before long, it can become their national sport.

“However, India is ready to mount a good challenge and we should at least win two medals,’’ Suji struck on an upbeat note. In the last of the seeding events for FIFA Online 4 (FIFA fantasy football games), India’s E-Sports athlete Charanjot Singh stayed unbeaten in all his three games and is lined for a favourable seeding while his teammate Karman Singh Tikka secured the fifth position. The Indian teams in other disciplines qualified for the Games in a seeding event in Macau in June as a total of 21 medals will be at stake in China across seven events.

“When I began playing the sport as a teenager at least 10 years back, I never imagined that I will be participating under the national flag one day,’’ said Akshaj Shenoy, the enthusiastic young captain of League of Legends team.

The dichotomy about the growth of E-Sports, both in terms of participation and as an industry, vis-à-vis, the general perception about it, still exists in India. The Union government had, in a circular last December, integrated esports with mainline sports disciplines in India and recognised it as a part of a multi-sport events —which will report under the Ministry of Sports & Youth Affairs.

According to figures released by Rajan Navani, Founder & CEO of JetSynthesys, a few months back, the pandemic has seen a huge spurt in the number of E-Sports players with the number doubling from 300,000 in 2020 to 2021. Revenue, from sales of computers, mobiles & graphic cards, grew likewise by 29% from Rs 7.5 billion in 2020 to 9.7 bn in 2021.

However, as Suji himself admitted, the sport still suffers from a huge perception problem of that being an essentially urban sport for the elite — seen more as an addiction and a waste of time. “The only way to fight it is if we can create heroes by winning medals abroad. The Asian Games, to that extent, provides us a huge window of opportunity,’’ he remarked.

Suji feels that the greater India has also warmed up to the concept of E-Sports during the pandemic. ‘’We have seen that even in small towns, people are now ready to spend Rs 15-16,000 for an Android phone and playing PUB-G in it. The irony is that they may not know that they are actually playing an E-Sport,’’ he felt.

Akshaj, meanwhile, felt that the inclusion of E-Sports as a medal discipline in Asian Games could not have been better-timed. “It’s time for people to recognise that E-Sports can be a career option as well. Only then, the barriers can be broken,’’ he added.

15-member Indian contingent

FIFA Online 4: Charanjot Singh and Karman Singh Tikka

Street Fighter V: Champion Edition : Mayank Prajapati and Ayan Biswas

League of Legends: Akshaj Shenoy (captain), Samarth Arvind Trivedi, Mihir Ranjan, Aditya Selvaraj, Aakash Shandilya, and Sanindhya Malik

DOTA 2: Darshan (captain), Krish, Abhishek, Ketan, and Shubham