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| Name: Age : 15 Game : FIFA Series Current ranking: No ranking yetWants to be: Economist |
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| Name: Age : 18 Game : FIFA Series Current ranking: India’s No.1 in FIFA series Wants to be: Professional gamer |
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| Name: Age : 23 Game :Counter-Strike Current ranking:India’s No. 1 in Counter-Strike Wants to be: Animator of games |
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| Name: Age : 21 Game : Warcraft III Current ranking: India’s No. 1 in Warcraft III Wants to be: Business manager |
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| Name: Age : 21 Game : Need for Speed Current ranking: India’s No. 1 in Need for Speed Wants to be: Animator of games |
When Sachith Reddy, an unknown teenager from Bangalore with a toothy grin, won the chance to compete in the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2008 Grand Final in Berlin earlier this year, it created a sensation in India’s computer gaming community. Nobody had ever heard of Reddy before he topped the qualifying round in Mumbai.
With his nimble hands working furiously on the game controller, and his eyes fixed on the screen, Reddy led his virtual soccer team to victory over seasoned gamers. His performance in Berlin too was commendable, where he went up to the second round in a field crowded with champions from around the world.
Gaming in India may still be in its infancy, especially when compared to countries in the West or in south east Asia. But with the arrival of crack gamers like Reddy and others, and that of big ticket gaming tournaments, adulthood may not be too far away.
Take Reuben Pereira. Now a member of the first professional Indian gaming team Indian Inferno, the 18-year-old became the first Indian to win big at an international tournament when he bagged a silver medal at the World Cyber Games (WCG), Asia, in Singapore last year. Called the ‘King of FIFA’ by friends because of his perceived invincibility in soccer games, Pereira, who took to serious gaming when he was 14, now says that gaming is his future.
“This is my domain and I enjoy it,” says the first year BCom student in between bouts at the gaming console. He manoeuvres the game controller like a pro and makes his players dribble past their opponents to slip in a much-needed goal. “If I continue to improve and also perhaps take to playing newer games and gain some expertise, I don’t see any other career for myself,” he says.
For gamers like Pereira the coming of big-time gaming tournaments to India has proved to be a boon. Last month the Vixture Gaming Championship in Mumbai, organised by the Hong Kong-based entertainment company Zero Friction, offered a total prize money of Rs 50 lakh, the highest yet in India. Pereira walked away with Rs 4 lakh for topping his category in the championship.
“The response to our first tournament was overwhelming and next year we hope to have bigger prize money,” says Charu Sabale, director of Zero Friction’s India subsidiary.
Apart from tournaments, several other recent developments have given a fillip to Indian gamers. A governing body for electronic games, E-Sports Council of India (ESC-I), was set up in November last year. Games are now being released in India simultaneously along with other countries and their prices too have come down. What’s more, a professional gaming team —India’s first — called Indian Inferno was launched in Mumbai last month.
A National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) study says that India’s gaming market will be worth around $300 million by 2009. And according to Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company, the growth will continue to be at a “very high two figure” rate.
Arun Singh Ravi, the winner in the Need for Speed category at the Vixture championship, is delighted that he now gets to play the latest international games, and at much lower prices. Considered the No. 1 racing gamer in the country, 21-year-old Ravi can scorch his cyber racing track at more than 350 km an hour. Expertly using the cursor control keys on the keyboard, and occasionally jabbing the tab key to slow down or increase the speed of his car, Ravi takes his car through narrow spaces to overtake opponents at breakneck speed. Ravi was 19 when he started taking himself seriously as a gamer. Last year, he finished among the top 16 at the E-Sports World Cup held in Paris, besides winning just about every racing game tourney in the country.
Sagar Vaishnav, the ‘Darkboi’ of the gaming world, is another gamer who is going places. An accomplished master of the game Warcraft III, and the reigning champion in India in this category, Vaishnav does some serious strategising to save the world from armies of savage, green-skinned ‘Orcs,’ walking corpses and other such weird entities. Sitting in front of the screen, he traverses plains, forests, rivers and mountains with his virtual army that keeps swelling as he captures more enemy territory. “Warcraft is a challenging game where you have to come up with a lot of strategies,” says Vaishnav, a student of Mumbai University who wants to do an MBA from the US. But he still devotes at least five hours every day to practising and honing his warring skills to prepare for upcoming tournaments.
Gaming is not all about individuals, though. It can be a team sport too. Witness Mikhail Mehra, 23, who was picked captain of Indian Inferno’s Counter-Strike team. Earlier, Mehra’s greatest moment came when he led his team to victory over Pakistan in the World Cyber Games south Asia qualifying round in Mumbai last year. That win got his team a berth in the finals of the World Cyber Games in Seattle, US.
Mehra says that his five-member Counter-Strike team spends hours trying to develop new ploys to defeat the enemy. “Kills are very important and seeing blood on the screen makes every Counter-Strike player happy as long it is not his own,” says Mehra.
Mehra, Reddy, Ravi, Vaishnav and Pereira are clearly ruling the roost among Indian gamers today. “Although there is no official ranking yet, these guys have been repeatedly winning the WCG India, which is the most participated tournament in the country. Going by that yardstick these are the top gamers in the country,” says Suhail Baghdadi, general manager Indiagames Ltd, that owns Indian Inferno.
Indiagames believes that with gamers like Mehra, Reddy and others around, it may not be long before India becomes a gaming power to reckon with. “With the right exposure and training, we will see Indian gamers catch up with their gaming counterparts from across the world,” says Baghdadi.
Pix: Gajanan Dudhalkar
