Abhijeet Andhare,28, is a Pune resident who rose to fame by playing PUBG as a hobby which now has turned him into a pro gamer in the Indian gaming industry. He will be representing Entity Gaming as the team captain in the upcoming South Asia semi-finals of PMCO. The event will be held in Delhi with 24 teams running up for the title.
Apart from gaming, Abhijeet Andhare, who is currently practicing with his team at the boot camp in Mumbai, spoke about his love for photography and his future plans. In an exclusive interview with GuruGamer correspondent Imran Fazal, Abhijeet Andhare opened up about his strategies to win PMCO with his teammates. Read the excerpts.
Your journey has been very complicated, how did you transform from a photographer to a full-time esports player?
Since childhood, I have been playing video games. Soon I started working on my own and opened a photo lab in Pune. In the lab, I used to play PUBG and I took gaming as a hobby. When my friends saw my gameplay they suggested that I should play often and practice it. Later I used to work in the photo lab for half-day and the other half was gaming. I signed up with Entity Gaming and the photo lab is being handled by my cousin.
Gaming in India is considered as a stress buster and is not taken as a serious business. How did your wife and family members react to this scenario?
At first, they were upset about me focusing on the gaming career. They never thought that gaming could also be a good source of income and a full-time profession. But now when they see my growth in this field they are happy about the step I have taken in my life. The banners which have been put up in Delhi for the PMCO event went viral and it also reached my family members. Many of them did not know about my gaming profession and so they started asking me questions as to when all these things happened. So there was sort of a mixed reaction from my family members and in-laws.
Coming to your game name "Ghatak", what is the reason that you chose to keep this title?
It's a funny story behind the game name. I was sitting alongside my friend and we were thinking about what name I should keep for my YouTube channel and my friend was suggesting names of players abroad. I told him that I wanted a unique and catchy name so that people can recognize me easily, after which one name came across my mind and it was "Ghatak".
PMCO Fall 2019 semi-finals are held in Delhi this month. What are your plans and strategies?
Here at the boot camp, we watch gameplays of several teams and we know their strengths and weaknesses. We practice by playing together as a team and we know our strengths. Our aim would be to get maximum kills with less damage to our teammates. We have worked hard and we are ready to clutch victory in PMCO.
We have also seen that streamers face health issues due to long hours of gaming. Your take on it?
Today when I speak to game streamers many of them face health issues. Backache is a common issue faced by many of them. I always ensure and advise that health should be given first priority. Dry eyes and blurred vision due to gaming has also been noticed. This issues must be tackled before it goes out of hand. Game streamers should take breaks and avoid long hours of gameplay.
While streaming gamers face trolling and are often bullied by the audience. How does Abhijeet Andhare deal with such trolls?
The best thing is to ignore trolls and such comments should not be taken seriously. There are many who love seeing me play and there would be few who spread hate and toxicity in the chats. The audience is very young and due to their age, they are aggressive. So just ignore them and move on in life rather than taking it to heart.