India equalled its record tally of 15 gold medals at the recently concluded Asian Games 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia. But for fans of video games, there was a special surprise waiting on the last day of the tournament.
23-year-old Tirth Mehta created history by winning the country's first ever eSports medal at Asian Games 2018, coming third and winning bronze in the collectible card-based video game tournament, called Hearthstone.
In eSports' debut at this year's Asian Games, Tirth ¡®gcttirth¡¯ Mehta from Bhuj, Gujarat, bagged an elusive bronze medal and officially began India's medal count for electronic sports.
Tirth Mehta came third in the championship for Hearthstone, a video game where players have to collect and trade cards. Tirth defeated challengers from Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the qualifiers, before knocking out Japan in the main event.
But after losing to eventual gold medal winner from Hong Kong, Tirth didn't lose hope and defeated the other losing semi-finalist from Vietnam 3-2 to secure India's first and historic eSports bronze medal at Asian Games 2018.
Naturally, Tirth Mehta has been ecstatic and over the moon since he won the bronze medal in Hearthstone at Asian Games. Since then, accolades have been flowing in from all quarters, including a congratulatory message from the Chief Minister of Gujarat, and a warm welcome back home at Bhuj Airport.
Hopefully, Mehta's breakthrough win for the country will encourage more gamers to represent India in professional games, bringing more glory in the near future -- remember, Tokyo Olympics 2020 is still experimenting with which eSports to allow for medal events.
Also this is huge validation for all the gamers out there whose friends and family thought that they were just wasting their time playing video games. They are most definitely not having the last laugh on this one.