In December 2022, the Indian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports officially recognised eSports under the category of ‘multisports events’, a move aimed at giving India’s professional gamers a chance to compete at the international level. The accessibility of PUBG mobile in 2017 led to the game becoming immensely popular among Indian youth, and Team SouL’s success at the national and international levels in 2018 and 2019 proved that eSports in India was a viable career rather than just a product of passion. Streaming platforms like Twitch and Youtube provide access to gameplay highlights and livestreaming, and online tournaments offer larger prize pools to attract registrations. As a result, the Indian eSports industry is projected to be worth Rs 1,100 crore by 2025.
While professional gaming has taken off in metropolitan regions
of the country, attracting sponsors and investments, the eSports scene in Goa
is still in its nascent stage. Educational institutions play a vital role in
encouraging and developing Goa’s raw talent by organising competitive gaming
tournaments. The most popular of these events is ‘Matka’, hosted by BITS Pilani
as part of the ‘Quark’ annual tech fest. Don Bosco College, Panjim, organised
the inter collegiate gaming tournament ‘The Colosseum’ as part of the ‘Colossus
10.0’ techfest on January 5 and 6, the first Goan college gaming event hosted
this year.
Keith Rodrigues, one
of the event’s organisers, shed some light over the events. “Colossus 10.0 is a
techfest organised by the BCA department. In addition to events like building a
computer, we hosted ‘The Colosseum’, a gaming tournament. Gaming in Goa has
potential, and there is increased interest in eSports. We want to promote
gaming and give gamers a chance to showcase their skills. There were even some
who had never taken part in eSports before who enjoyed the event. The first
part of the event was an inter college tournament held on Jan 5, while the
event today is open to all. We have separate prizes for each event. The games
included were Call of Duty mobile, FIFA, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and
NFS: Most Wanted,” says Keith.
Farhan Bukhari, a
member of NaryaEsports, weighed in on the ministry’s decision. “Gaming in Goa
has been relevant right from the times of DOTA2 and counter strike 1.6. People
used to compete in online tournaments from various cyber cafes. Many colleges
used to host counter strike and dota2 tournaments before. There is an eSports
scene present in the state, but with time the tournaments stopped happening
since people shifted to CS:GO and most of the colleges didn’t have the proper
infrastructure to host such tournaments. Most of the tournaments are held only
for college students. Last year, GEC hosted 2 CS:GO events having a decent
prize pool and AITD had also hosted one. Today in Goa, most of the people
consider only PUBG mobile as esports, but the roots of esports in Goa date back
to the old 1.6 and DOTA 2 days. A group of my friends formed Narya eSports in
2020, and we have boosted many players to the Global Elite, the highest rank
possible in CS:GO. What has happened now is, the Government of India has given
official recognition for eSports to be included as a part of sport,” says
Farhan.
He further explains,
“In other parts of the world, esports is already a part of people’s lives. In
Denmark, they have eSports integrated in their school curriculum. There is
special time designated for esports habits to be inculcated amongst the
students. I believe that this decision to recognise eSports here should have
been taken long ago as with changing times, people are shifting more towards
eSports. It should be treated like traditional sports, requiring the same level
of physical preparation, mental preparation, strategies, communications,
teamwork and leadership. Various studies have also shown that eSports boosts
the critical decision making abilities and thinking power of children. The
decision will reduce the taboo related to gaming in society. Various schemes
might be introduced for those interested in esports as the Olympics is
preparing to include eSports.”
Clive Fernandes and
Cedric Vaz co-founded TST eSports, one of Goa’s pioneering eSports teams, in
2020 to promote Goan eSports. “Esports in Goa is still at its early stage.
There is no proper exposure to the field as yet. As the government recently
recognized esports as an official sport, we hope it will make a huge difference.
We at TST Esports are trying our level best to make a difference in Goa. Our
team’s current winnings are 87,500. DOTA2, Clash of clans, PUBG new state and
call of duty mobile are some major games played in Goa. BGMI is still banned
but we still look forward to its return in February. So far, I haven’t seen any
tournaments conducted in Goa other than ours. We conduct a free, open to all
tournament for BGMI named ‘treasure hunt’. We hope to continue creating
opportunities in the Goan eSports industry,” says Clive.
Floyd
Sequiera, an offline gamer for trenchant eSports, hopes that the move will lead
to the growth of gaming in Goa. “The team trenchant eSports was founded by my
fellow gamer Alrou Almeida to represent our team in eSports tournaments in Goa
and online based events. The most recent tournament we played at was the event
‘TechUrja’, hosted by the Agnel Institute of Technology & Design, where we
participated in CSGO and Valorant, among others. These two popular games are
almost always included in any eSports tournament in Goa. I feel that eSports
still needs more recognition in Goa, and the current slow growth is not enough
to generate adequate interest for popular teams or tech based companies to
organise or sponsor eSports events in Goa,” says Floyd.