Today, eSports is gaining mass popularity among the youth. From playing games like PUBG on their phones to PC games like Counter-Strike -- colleges are conducting eSports tournaments to motivate kids.? More and more tournaments are surfacing every day, giving gamers a platform and opportunity to compete and win recognition.?
However, when eSports was still in its infancey, a few players became the masters of their game and achieved ¡®legendary¡¯ status. I got to have a conversation with one such legend at the Red Bull R1v1r Runes national finals -- Ankit ¡®V3nom¡¯ Panth -- who is regarded as one of the best Counter-Strike: GO players not just in the country but also the world.
I was curious to know how he got introduced to eSports. And his response reminded me of my childhood days of gaming. ¡°My journey started from a gaming cafe. One day I saw my school friends entering a shop which had gaming characters on its entrance door. I followed them and there were so many more kids like us inside playing games on the computers. They were shouting, enjoying and having fun. The atmosphere inside gave me a good vibe. I started with Counter-Strike 1.6 and slowly got better. Later on, I got to know that you can participate in tournaments and get prizes, also if you win the big tournaments you get a chance to represent your country. That¡¯s when I decided I should give this a try.¡±
Today Ankit 'V3nom' Panth is an inspiration to many. However, I wanted to know his inspiration when he started playing seriously. ¡°There was no mentor as such but the best player of my cafe at that time was KingdeviL. He taught me a lot during my initial days and later on when I got to professional tournaments, Aakash ¡®RiX¡¯ More who is also my current teammate, helped me a lot,¡± said Panth.
As a professional eSports player, Panth today has access to a high-end PC. But I was also inquisitive to know the kind of system he had when he just started off. ¡°It was Intel dual-core with 80GB HDD, I guess and 512MB RAM," he responded with a smile.
"I remember the quote for my PC was a bit high and was not in dad¡¯s budget so he asked the PC guy pointing at the quotation paper, remove this PSU or whatever you have written, it's very expensive. The PC guy laughed and said if we remove this the PC won't start. The memories!¡±
Gaming and parents are two entities that have always been at odds with each other, rubbing each other the wrong way. So I wanted to know his parents supported his passion, whether they could ever be cool with a child opting for eSports as a career, considering the level eSports is at today. Panth said, ¡°I would say not completely but it's better than before. For example, my parents were at 60 percent and now they are at 70 after I was signed by Red Bull as an official Red Bull athlete for gaming.¡±
He further stated, ¡°You need to earn consistently only then you can call it a profession. Today gamers search V3nom, Ankit Panth, top professional player of India, etc, but for our parents, these multinationals bring a sense of trust. So many of my relatives have called my mom and congratulated when I became the brand ambassador of Alienware & Intel, there were sweets sent to my house when the Red Bull athlete announcement went live. Now they see this as a legit profession.¡±
With so many International colleges offering courses in eSports, should Indian universities take this as a subject matter to teach. Panth said, ¡°That will be really helpful if it ever happens in India. The masses and our parents would especially love it. It will give them a sense of assurance that this is not something bad that we gamers are doing. We need to get rid of these misconceptions that are attached to eSports. I am working towards it because I know how difficult it is to convince parents and ask them for some time to play games.¡±
A lot has changed in eSports in the past few years, and V3nom shared his thoughts on the same. "The eSports scene in India is definitely improving but we still need to see the consistency. The PUBG mobile hype and consistent Counter-Strike tournaments are really helping. I have been playing from a time where we used to get stools and plastic chairs to sit and play on a computer which gave us 20-30 fps, we used to get prizes such as mousepads, CDs, etc. Today the tournament computers are better, we play on big stages for good cash prizes. We are evolving but slowly I would say. Next five years is what I have given myself to check if I can earn consistently through gaming or not.¡±
He further added, ¡°One thing that I would want to get better is the tournament prizes. I feel that right now the majority of the tournament sponsorship goes into production. If we could get a bit more for players competing it would be great. With brands like Red Bull investing in the eSports scene in India through Dota 2 (Red Bull R1V1R Runes) and Clash Royale (Red Bull MEO) Tournaments, eSports scene in India is surely growing at a faster pace.¡±