From An Asian Games Medal To College Bans, How Gaming Became Huge In India In 2018

There was a time when hardcore Indian gamers were forced to only live vicariously through news articles and posts found online.

Though they could play themselves, there was never a chance to try it professionally, not realistically anyway. That's all changed as of 2018.

Though the change has been gradually creeping up, 2018 was the year the tables really turned. Indian gamers are starting to find decent paying opportunities to go professional, and parents of enthusiasts are starting to understand just how serious a passion it is.

It's hard to mark a point where this change first showed, but there was one incident in September this past year that was good as any.

Indian e-sports athletes crack the international scene

The Asian Games in 2018, for the very first time, held e-sports competitions as a sort of demonstration sport. It was basically a trial run, with official competitors and winners representing their country's, though medals in this category were not counted towards country totals. And one promising Indian competitor managed to actually bag a medal.

Tirth Mehta

Tirth 'gcttirth' Mehta from Bhuj, Gujarat, snagged a bronze medal in 'Hearthstone' a collectible card game that combines the strategies of chess with intricate card interactions and a goodly amount of luck. Mehta defeated challengers from Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the qualifiers, before knocking out Japan in the main event. Hopefully, this opens the floodgates for professional Indian athletes to take part in other international competitions like the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which is also reportedly experimenting with e-sports.

Later in October, another Indian team made it all the way to an international gaming tournament in Shanghai. OpTic India, the professional CS:GO arm of OpTic Gaming here in the country, won the Zowie Extremesland qualifiers to move onto the big stage in Shanghai later. It may not have been much to talk about in terms of the reward they got for their efforts (none), but the win elevated them to an international playing field, one one which Indians have been absent for far too long.

Team OpTic India

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Unfortunately, not everyone handled the pressure too well. OpTic India was eventually disqualified from the competition during a finals ladder match against Vietnamese team RevolutioN. Nikhil "forsaken" Kumawat was caught using an illegal hack during the game that gave him an unfair advantage, much to the chagrin of his unknowing teammates. Though he was banned from the game and kicked from the team, OpTic India did sadly end up dissolving after that. They may not necessarily have had a chance of winning it all, but the players were needlessly shamed by a completely avoidable action.

The exact moment when admins at #eXTREMESLAND2018 caught forsaken and he attempted to delete the hack pic.twitter.com/rZG7aYBdbD

¡ª CSGO2ASIA (@CSGO2ASIA) October 19, 2018

India starts hosting high profile pro gaming tournaments of its own

That wasn't the only high-reward event in India though this past year. Tencent, the company behind the gaming sensation PUBG Mobile, introduced a tournament in the country with a Rs 50 lakh prize pool. Aimed at college students, it brought even more attention to a game that had already gotten Indians of all kinds hooked. And that wasn't the end of India's e-sports scene.

The winners of Acer Predator League India

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For the Acer Predator League 2019 finals being held next year, the Indian qualifiers took place this past November. When of our writers made the trip, what he found was a choice selection of professional Indian teams, across two very different games, and hordes of their fans cheering them on.

From that event, Team Raptors and Team Signify won the PUBG and Dota 2 battles respectively, and will travel to Bangkok to compete for India early next year.

PUBG Mobile download frenzy

Even casual gamers got into things in 2018, with millions in Indians downloading PUBG Mobile and calculating it to the top of Google Play's download charts within just a few months of its launch. Heck, people even started basing their pre-wedding shoot themes around the popular mobile game.

Even authorities began to take notice of the game's popularity, one college in Vellore banning the pastime as they believed it was causing students to neglect their studies. Not that it stopped them of course.

Gaming may be becoming a household phenomenon

But arguably the biggest gaming event for India in 2018, was the arrival of DreamHack. We've had gaming tournaments, we've had exhibitions like IGX. But DreamHack was our first experience of a gaming festival, where the focus is on the attendees rather than a set of elite pros or the developers of a new game.

DreamHack India 2018

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When I made the rounds of DreamHack, it had the feel of a massive party that gamers have thrown for each other. There were friendly competitions, cosplayers, experience zones, and even DJs playing through the 72 hours. Most importantly though, was the vast majority of area dedicated to gamers that brought their own rigs. They set up for the duration of the festival, gaming with like-minded souls, only leaving to drink with friends and catch some shut eye. Like it's international counterpart, DreamHack India 2018 was one big LAN party.

It's heartening to see how many milestones this past year held for gaming and e-sports. Perhaps it's indicative of how parents' mindsets have changed towards the entire phenomenon. Or perhaps it's just a natural progression of a country now more connected to the Internet than ever before. Either way, I'm excited to see just how far we go down this road in 2019.