E-sports In India.
Government of India (GoI) recently banned 54 more Chinese apps including the profound E-sports Battle Royale game – Garena Free Fire. Obviously this isn’t the first time; previously, Player Unknown’s Battleground (PUBG) was also banned, as it was published by a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company – Tencent Holdings Ltd.
Weeks after the Galwan Valley Incident between the PLA Troops & Indian Army, when GoI had banned Chinese, Call of Duty: Mobile – a profound Front Person Shooting Game (FPS) barely escaped the same by ending partnership with Tencent Holdings Ltd.
WHAT IS E-SPORTS ?
E-sports or Electronic Sports is a form of competition using video games. It often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although organized competitions have long been a part of video game culture, these were largely between amateurs until the late 2000s, when participation by professional gamers and spectatorship in these events through live streaming saw a large surge in popularity.
The most common video game genres associated with e-sports are multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), first-person shooter (FPS), fighting, card, battle royale and real-time strategy (RTS) games.
Examples:
MOBA : League of Legends, DOTA 2, Pokémon Unite, etc.
FPS : Counter Strike, ARMA Franchise, Far Cry Franchise, etc.
Fighting : Takken Franchise, Mortal Kombat Franchise, Street Fighter, etc.
Card : Shadowverse, World of Witchcraft, Legends of Runeterra, etc.
Battle Royale : Call of Duty Warzone & Mobile, PUBG, Fortnite, etc.
TOP E-SPORT TEAMS IN INDIA :
Indian teams have recently proved their mettle in competitive tournaments whether in India, Asia or even at Global Championships. Some of the ace teams from India are as follows :-
• PUBG :
1. Team Orange Rock :
Officially entered the PUBG competitive arena by signing players like Carry, Mavi, Ex6tenz and Sandhu, Team Orange Rock came 2nd in PUBG Mobile India Tour 2019, which also appeared to be their maiden competitive tournament. The prize pool for the same was Rs 20.78 lacs in October 2019.
2. Team Soul :
Team Soul is led by the popular Indian Streamer – Naman “Mortal” Mathur. Despite of the players joining & leaving frequently, it is one of the most successful competitive teams in PUBG with three 1st rankings (2 A-Tier tournaments & 1 C-Tier tournament). As of February 16, their gross earnings are approximately Rs 1.19 crores.
3. Team TSM – Entity :
In March 2020, TSM & Entity merged together and have secured 1st rankings in total 05 competitive tournaments (1 A-Tier, 3 C-Tier and 1 Show Match). Their gross earnings stand at Rs 58.44 lacs.
• Call of Duty Mobile (Multiplayer) :
1. Team Mayhem :
Formed in June 2019, Team Mayhem entered Call of Duty: Mobile with their acquision of Aesthetic X. Currently, they are the highest-earning CoDM team in South Asia & India’s 3rd most valuable E-Sports organization. Their gross earnings stand approximately at Rs 1.06 crores till date.
2. S8ul Esports :
S8ul Esports is formed by the partnership between two major organizations – Team Soul & 8bit. In February 2021, they came 2nd in Call of Duty: Mobile India Cup – Pro and their gross earnings stand approximately at Rs 1.4 lacs till date.
3. Heroes Official :
Founded in July 2020, Heroes Official is the venture of Heroes Esports LLP. Its headquarters are in Bangalore and they primarily focus on Team / Player Sponsorships, Brand Engagements, Content Creation, Promotions & Player Portfolio Management.
They came 2nd in Call of Duty: Mobile India Cup – Pro in February 2021 and their gross earnings stand approximately at Rs 6.4 lacs till now.
• Call of Duty (Battle Royale) :
1. Wicked E-Sports :
In the recent CoDM BR Championship, held in December, Team WCK / Wicked E-Sports topped the overall tournament standings. They also secured the highest kills in the Grand Finals that spanned over 3 days (102 kills). (Appar has now joined KGI)
2. Team Xcalibr :
Team Xcalibr secured 2nd position in the same tournament Grand Finals, a dominating gameplay left viewers in awe inspiring moments.
3. Horizon E-Sports :
Team Horizon E-Sports came 3rd in the same tournament, displaying a fierce gameplay that gave the viewers an adrenaline rush.
• Free Fire :
1. Galaxy Racer (Nigma Galaxy) :
Galaxy Racer & Team Nigma merged in September 2021 to form Nigma Galaxy, a UAE-based Esports organization that has a rich experience across various esports games like CS : GO, PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty: Mobile, etc.
They won the Free Fire India Championship 2021 Spring held back in March 2021 and their gross earnings stand at Rs 47.83 lacs till date.
2. Team Elite (Orangutan Elite) :
Formed in December 2020, Team Elite partnered with Orangutan to form Orangutan Elite. They won Free Fire India Championship 2021 Fall in October 2021. Their gross earnings stand at Rs 74.61 lacs till date.
3. Total Gaming E-Sports :
Total Gaming E-Sports was formed in August 2020 and has consistently come in top 3 in Tier 1&2 tournaments. With 6 tournaments won (1st rank), their gross earnings stand at Rs 77.49 lacs till date.
• Counter Strike : Global Offense :
1. Global E-Sports :
Under the leadership of Bhavin ‘HellrangeR’ Kotwani and key player Debanjan ‘DEATHMAKER’ Das, Global E-Sports has managed to make a name for them in CS:GO as well.
They had been performing consistently throughout the 2020 and standing up to the expectations of their fans by winning the ESL Indian Premiumship – Summer 2020.
2. Team BL4ZE :
Team BL4ZE was founded in 2019 and soon came up as one of the best teams in Indian CS:GO competitive scenario as they finished as runner ups in the ESL Indian Premiership Summer 2020.
They also won Yuvin Community Cup Season 2 & finished runner ups in ESL Indian Premiership Winter.
3. Entity Gaming :
Entity Gaming yet again turns out to be a force to be reckoned in CS:GO and that too from a long time.
E-SPORT AS A FULL-TIME CAREER :
Content Creator : A content creator is an individual who creates entertaining or educational material to be expressed via any platform. In today’s context, it is primarily described in terms of digitalized one, via social media, YouTube, Blogging / Vlogging, etc.
Some of the profound E-Sports Content Creators are :-
1. IFergYT :
• Hailing from Ireland, Luke “Ferg” Fergie is the leading individual CoDM content creator who has been ruling the YouTube charts with 3.77+ Million cumulative subscribers.
• Ferg is a rare combination of skilful talent and media presence, for which he has made a formidable name for himself in competitive as well as YouTube communities!
• His accolades are beyond one’s imaginations – #1 player on CoDM ranked rankings (multiplayer), first content creator to be felicitated with ‘Content Creators Bundle with customised character skin’, Winner of CODM Battle Royale Worlds Invitational: Europe (with Sonho) whose prize pool was $30,000 USD.
2. Kryptonian Gaming India (KGI) :
• Spearheaded by Mr. Azam Khan (Pune), KGI is India’s highest watched Call of Duty: Mobile streamer with a massive YouTube fanbase of 32K subscribers (highest in India for a streamer).
• He commenced streaming CS:GO in October 2019; soon switched to Call of Duty: Mobile as the former was a PC game, which is unaffordable for majority of the Indian households and managed 100 subscribers in 3 months !
• Today he’s sponsored from not only Call of Duty: Mobile, but also from Activision Publishing, Inc.
• In the recent CoDM BR Championship, held in December 2021, Team KGI secured 5th position in the Grand Finals despite of being the only non-competitive team to be participating as well as in the same!
3. Dr. Disrespect :
• Herschel “Guy” Beahm IV, aka Dr. Disrespect / The Doc / The Two-time, this American YouTube streamer is a well known face across various E-Sport games – Call of Duty, PUBG, Fortnite, etc.
• Before the ban, he was enjoying a whooping 4+ Million followers on Twitch (Streaming platform) and currently having 3.74+ Million YouTube subscriber base.
• When it comes to stature, Doc surpasses everyone with a distinguishable margin (he was having over a million CP, i.e., paid in-game currency, for a game that he only played once in his life!).
E-SPORT AS AN INDUSTRY :
By now, there’s no second thought about E-Sports being a ‘Multi Billion Dollar Industry’. With a percentage increase of 12.4% since 2019, the E-Sport Industry stood at U.S. $1,084.1 million (Rs 8,000 cr) in 2021 in terms of worldwide market revenue.
Asia & North America currently holds the largest market share for the same, China being the majority contributor – one-fifth of the total market !
Indian E-Sports market value is expected to quadruple to Rs 1,100 crores by 2025 from Rs 250 crores in June 2021 !
This accounts for a whopping 46% of Compound Annual Growth Rate.
“Esports in India tells a great story. As a game of skill accessible indoors and on the ubiquitous mobile phone, it has gained popularity during the lockdowns witnessed in 2020 and 2021, consequently, it has become an attractive option for brands to connect with young and empowered audiences.” said Ashish Pherwani, Partner & Leader (Media & Entertainment), EY India.
Also by 2025, the Indian prize pool will also be increased from 0.2% to 2.0% (66% increase percentage) of the global prize pool share.
As Esports in India optimizes itself to be a ‘youth centric profession’, the players and teams are expected to rise up to 15 lacs & 2.5 lacs respectively.
The growth will tangibly be observed in increased prize pools, more tournaments, localisation and brand collaborations for regional adaptations and stronger market penetration of smartphones, tablets and broadband infrastructure.
Unlike the west, Indo-Pacific is more reliant on mobiles for playing games, hence, participate more in mobile tournaments (90%).
In-app purchases are expected to generate Rs 1,400 crores ($188 million USD), while licensing; merchandise revenue & player salaries are expected to bloom up to Rs 3,000 crores ($400 million USD).
The viewership will shoot up by 133% of the total global viewership (from 17 million to 85 million) by 2025.
Irrespective of how huge it becomes, the fact of the matter is that, it will continue to be a ‘Mobile Esports Industry’.
ESPORTS AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIA :
On February 01, 2022; when the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the FY 2022-23, certain new sectors were brought into spotlight for the very first time. Going by the acronym ‘AVGC Sector’ – Animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics Sector, she mentioned that it will provide a huge opportunity for the young generation and also create new jobs for the youth.
A dedicated Task Force for the same will be setup to recommend ways to regulate domestic capacities and cater global demands as well (AVGC Task Force).
But things weren’t as vigilant earlier. The disparity in global tournaments was evident with Indian gamers. In tournaments where the organizers were diligent in their work had no such issues like unfair treatments, indifference towards gamers, etc.
This was the case in competitive tournaments like PUBG, Free Fire and Valorant, but in Call of Duty Mobile World Championship 2021, the list of problems faced by Indian gamers is pretty long :–
• Server Disparity : Unlike Japan, there weren’t any dedicated servers for India, had to play on Asian servers. This results in higher ping (higher the ping, the more it lags during the game).
In multiplayer mode(s), Indian teams went against Japanese teams on Japanese servers. Imagine the ping difference between two and the leverage it imparts to the Japanese (10-15 ms ping vs 90-110)!
• Mismanagement : To divert the PUBG audience in India towards CoD Mobile, Activision India offered Indian CoD Mobile content creators to team them up with famous YouTubers like Mythpat, TechnoGamerz, etc, but didn’t stick on to it.
Apart from this, neither the provided partners were experience enough; nor did they bother to prepare / practice for the same with the ones who could actually make a difference.
Rather these ‘Celebrity Partners’ were busy streaming Pokémon Go days before appearing in the tournament.
• Shooting the gun on someone else’s shoulder : These so called ‘Celebrity Partners’ who were not at all serious for this tournament were actually being carried by the genuine ones and despite of that the prize pool had to be distributed equally among the team!
Even that half amount was subjected to hefty taxes that GoI imposes.
• Distorted Rules : The rulebook of the event provided to the participants clearly mentioned that a participant, unable to stream the tournament, can record and post it on YouTube, yet Indian Content Creators like ‘Abu’ were barred from doing so in lieu of penalty from the prize pool, which is straightaway a violation of the rulebook.
• Marketing Compulsions : Indian managing team for CoDM persuaded Indian participants in lieu of penalty to strictly use character skins of ‘Anniversary Bundle’, whereas, there was no such compulsion for Japanese gamers !
• Ignoring competitive players : In the same tournament, top Battle Royale (BR) competitive players like Team Insanity weren’t invited, rather, the focus was clearly on YouTubers for free marketing campaign.
• Unprofessionalism at its peak : Unlike the rest of the players from Japan, Middle-East, North America and Europe, Indian players weren’t allowed to use personal devices.
Even though our players agreed, the delivery of the same had to be done only after the players started seeking public support on Twitter !
The moral of the story is that without government backing (diplomatic dialogues & administrative regulations) such issues will continue to persist.
Had it happened with a Japanese / European team, the respective team management would’ve pulled out of the tournament only to be organized separately again (because their governments are proactive in putting diplomatic pressure).
ESPORTS & ITS CHALLENGES IN INDIA :
‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ Here as well, we observe obvious challenges with the spread of E-sports.
• Cutting-Edge Infrastructure / Facilities : Success in competitive e-sports, apart from individual skills, is also a subject of tangible facilities like strong device (mobile / tablet / PC) to withstand frame drops and high speed internet connection to avoid lagging.
• Regulatory / Legal Disputes : Like other industries, e-sports is also subjected to malpractices, frauds, exploitation, etc., therefore it is advisable to have all the formalities done prior in advance at both individual and industrial levels.
• Social Acceptance : Its very unlikely that a new notion or thing comes in India and it doesn’t encounter reluctance at socio-economic levels. The common household in India is still obsessed with hefty annual packages in B.Tech, MBBS, MBA and supreme social status in Government Jobs.
It’d take time to normalize e-sports in majority of the Indian traditional mindsets, except those who are earning well already!
The problem finds its roots in a psychological prejudice – Comparison.
We sub-consciously are habitual of comparing everything with everything. Even today in local homes, in lower-middle class & lower class, an aspiring cricketer faces the question of ‘Tu konsa Sachin ya Kohli ban jayega?’.
It’s even worse for those who want to pursue something which doesn’t have successful individuals.
We all rejoiced when Neeraj Chopra scored gold in Olympics, before which few even bothered to talk about Javelin respectfully. Same with Women’s Wrestling prior Phogat Sisters, shooting prior Abhinav Bindra, Women’s Badminton prior Saina Nehwal & PV Sindhu and the list goes on!
• International Competition : As India is already miles behind in this field, it would be difficult to capture market in viewership; player acquisition; etc., against international companies.
Team Vitality, which is a ‘French E-Sports Organization’ is already managing India’s top tier players and has a greater diversification than other ones.
A WAY FORWARD :
After all this description of E-Sports, I’m not going to explain why it is important and why it deserves recognition and respect.
All I know is that there will be a day when the Prime Minister of India will certainly congratulate Indian Gamers on their victory and mentions the same in his / her speech as a symbol of our ‘Soft Power’.
It’s up to you now; whether to remain indifferent to E-Sports or contribute in your respective capacities to help India appear a superpower in the same.
Share if you like it. 😉
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