The first ever large-scale eSports in the city event created quite a buzz

It was not about badminton nets or basketball hoops at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium last week. Instead there were widescreen monitors, backlit keyboards and highend computers, all set up for GamerConnect’s first eSport event in Visakhapatnam.

Formed in 2016, GamerConnect is a video gaming event company which organises offline and online tournaments and has over 10 million users online. The Visakhapatnam event saw more than 1,600 people turning up at the venue.

“Our focus is to bring such events into tier two cities,” said Ishaan Aryan, marketing consultant at GamerConnect. “We worked with Nvidia, Dell and LG to study social media analytics and identify the ideal cities to host our events.” He also anchored the Facebook Live sessions and conducted quizzes. According to Ishaan, some registrations came in from cities like Vijayawada, Hyderabad and even Chennai for the event here.

“I came for the event to keep up with the trends in the gaming industry. Just like traditional sports, playing video games with my children helps me bond,” said Wayne Williams, who was there with his family. He enjoys playing FIFA and Call of Duty with his two children, he said. Anusha Sanniboyina from Avanti College grew up playing games like Need For Speed and GTA Vice City with her brother. These days it is PUBG she is hooked to.

GamerConnect organised tournaments for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO); Mortal Kombat 11; FIFA 19 and PUBG Lite which saw big numbers participating. Owing to their popularity, more than half of the gaming PCs were allocated to them. Mortal Kombat 11 tournament was played on a gaming console.

Puneeth Suganli, a student of Andhra University and an enthusiastic gamer was delighted with the first-of-its-kind gaming event in the city. He said, “GamerConnect did not just focus on conducting tournaments. It also jazzed up the day with quizzes, invited professional gamers to interact with fans and brought in the latest gaming technology for sale.”

Fast and the curious Orionx2 Dual System Extreme by Overclocked, UK-based company is the world’s most expensive PC. It costs around £33,000.

Those who follow CS: GO eSport events, were in for a treat. They met Ankit Panth, captain of Team Brutality, a professional eSports team. One of the leading players in India, he has been in the profession for the past 10 years. “PUBG Mobile has injected gaming culture in India; people from the age of eight to 48 years are playing the game on their smartphones,” stated Ankit, who spent most of his time talking with fans and taking selfies with them. As of June 2019, PUBG Mobile has 400 million downloads in Android and iOS platforms and last year it recorded over 30 million daily active users.

Sohan Beela, an aspiring professional gamer, said some of the first games he played were Delta Force and Road Rash. After stumbling upon video-game streamers from India on YouTube, he knew he wanted to get professional. “I watch online streamers not just for entertainment but to learn new strategies ,” he said.

Streaming from the bay Deepak Pemmisetty is a Visakhapatnam-based video game streamer set up a YouTube account and started streaming Let’s Play videos in Telugu of games like GTA V and PUBG. He maintains multiplayer games like PUBG get better responses than single player games.

But when the 19-year-old got some harsh comments on YouTube, he stopped streaming for a while. “Internet can be cruel, we all know that.I felt really bad. Now, I have learned to ignore the trolls and just do what I love,” he says.

Deepak prefers to play on a PC because there is more variety.

Ankit sounded some words of warning about misconceptions young people had about getting famous overnight in the gaming industry. “Skipping education is a bad idea and I encourage my fans to focus on overall development so that they can build a brand around themselves.”Along with gaming, Ankit also does deejaying and is working to build his fitness brand. Similarly, Ishaan reckons being a professional player is not the only way to be a part of the industry. “The rise of eSports and gaming as entertainment is creating a need for editors, content creators, presenters, commentators and writers ,” he added.

A group of Koreans whowere from PUBG Corporation, quietly observed the proceedings. Sein Sohn, Chief Financial Officer of PUBG Corporation, said, “PUBG Mobile’s success in India, has laid the foundation for its PC version.” When asked if they would have an office in India, the response was a smiling, “Hopefully, in the future.”