Indian Esports is growing in leaps and bounds. People have started recognizing Esports as a booming business and take it more seriously. More Esports organizations are created to gather and develop promising players. Esports in India has never grown this large in scale and quality. With good investment and incentives, more talents are emerging to claim their spot in some of the most spectated games. Today we deliver 8 of the most promising up-and-coming talents in India as well as their potential in the Esports scene.
1.Ankit 'V3nom' Panth - CS:GO
Ankit has successfully established himself as a respectable professional gamer in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive through hard work. He started out low in middle-class society, getting no much help from people, but managed to gain a reputation for his career in the game as well as the fitness industry. He shared more of his hardship during the time he began where people would regard him a bad example as he was "just wasting his life and would never earn from this”. Ankit feels glad now that he has proven them wrong.
3.Krish “MooN” Gupta - Dota 2
Krish has one of the most remarkable stories in Indian Esports. He started playing Dota 1 at the age of 8, and while many changes happened in his life as well as the game, he managed to stick with the game with his unceasing devotion. When Dota2 came out on Steam, he ground hard in the competitive ranking system here and soon got recognized by people for having an outstanding MMR of 4k at the early age of 13. He went on to get sponsorship from Entity Esports. Today, he’s made it into the 7k bracket and is ranked among top players in SEA server. He is now the star player for Entity Gaming’s active squad, as a 16 years old gamer!
4.Amit “Zapheto” Malwal - Dota 2
Amit’s took a liking to video games when he was just 5, starting with the game Tomb Raider. He picked up Dota 2 at 13 and got hooked immediately. Though he got good results as a student, he made the decision to follow the path of a gamer, willing to sacrifice many things in his life. Zapheto is currently position 4 player in Entity Gaming. “There have been many events in life that made me question my choice of career. I’m happy to have reached a place where I can confidently say that I am walking on the right path” he says.
5.Simar “Psy” Sethi - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
The story with Simar dated back to 2012 when his family moved to Dubai, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) was really popular there. His friends were hyped over some in-game skins and got him curious. After getting the game from his friend on Steam, he got attracted to it really quick. From that on, the young player made his way to the list of top of players in India. Psy is currently playing for Entity Gaming.
6.Aditya “Spammy” Singh Nathawat - Fortnite
Aditya's first exposure to Esports was the moment he saw his friends playing Counter-Strike at a local cafe. The eventual Esports player was appealed by the taste of victory in games where people compete with each other. He started in World of Warcraft and later on switched to Fortnite as a pro player. Having the chance to win a battle and gain higher recognization is what kept him motivated. “Every engagement is different from the other, and there is always things to learn or to do differently as the meta constantly changes,” he says. Also, he sets his goal to develop his Youtube channel and prepare the best for Fortnite World Cup.
7.Vatsal ‘NGHTMRE2K’ Uniyal - Overwatch
The first experience with video games for Vatsal was at the age of 12. He played with schoolmates in the evening just to skip cricket coaching at the weekend. One day, he stumbled upon a Counter-Strike 1.6 frag movie on YouTube which impressed him much. He became engrossed with playing the game and soon developed it into a passion. He got the motivation to go pro when he won the first edition of the NVIDIA GeForce Cup. “It was a huge confidence booster to me,” he added. Today, he plays for Global eSports and aims to achieve big with the organization with his time and effort.
8.Aman ‘Cruzi’ Vivek - Overwatch
Aman was exposed to video games at an early age of 4. In his childhood, he would spend hours playing with Smash Bros with his friends. Later on, at 2nd grade, he got the chance to play with games on PC. Here he played countless famous games like Dave, the first Need for Speed, and Tomb Raider which he enjoyed much. However, the story of going pro was another different story. It was the time he got invited to join a cafe team for the GeForce Cup. At that time, he set his goal to just trying his best and see if things went well. It turned out to be a success, he was invited to join Playerz eSports for the Hyderabad tournament. After winning the tournament, one thing led to another, and he ended up among the top players in India.
Each player has their own stories when joining Esports. Some started as a hobby, some realized their ambition as a professional player. However, there is one thing they all share, passion. With these inspiring stories, we hope more people will come forward and make their dreams come true as an Esports player. That is what helps Esports grow big and successful in India.