India is a paradox, in more than one sense. India has produced mathematical and scientific geniuses and industry leaders. Google, Microsoft and PepsiCo are some of the global giants headed by Indians today. And this, despite the stereotypes of India being a land of snake charmers. Debating that stereotype is a topic for another time. But despite the innumerable scientific, industrial and academic achievements, India’s shortcoming in one particular arena has been stark on the global stage : Sports. Of any kind. It has been a long held belief that only the game of cricket can prosper in India, and it has been proven true time and again. In the face of incredible funding and media coverage that cricket receives, many sports and athletes have fallen by the wayside, plagued by poor infrastructure and support. As a case in point, India’s total gold medal count in Olympic individual events, both summer and winter, stands at 1. Michael Phelps has 11. (A fact which was pointed out by Neil deGrasse Tyson who was then subjected to hilarious self deprecating abuse by fellow Indians on Twitter.) Given the odds, it was pretty obvious that eSports never stood a chance in India. The last relatively significant dent made by India in eSports was when Reuben ‘bBreak17’ Pereira, a former FIFA pro player, ranked in the top 5 of the world in 2008. Games such as Counter-Strike 1.6, DOTA and FIFA were widely played in college campuses across the country. But poor internet and the condescension showered on gaming by the society at large, handicapped the scene from blossoming into global significance.

Accuracy Teamwork Experience ?

As far as Counter-Strike 1.6, my game of choice, was concerned, from 2006 to 2012, one team dominated the domestic CS scene. Born from a mix of players from three different teams based in Mumbai, ATE Gaming broke on to the scene in late 2005. Their initial line-up consisted of Mikhail ‘Rshkhn’ Mehra, Ritesh ‘RiTz’ Shah, Amar ‘rey’ Ratnam, Hasnain ‘impale’ Sayed and Ben ‘r4id’ Varghese. They left a slew of destruction in their wake and earned the right to represent India on the global stage. Throughout their dominant domestic run, players familiar to the Indian scene such as Wuzz, infected, fire, PexxaR and Nile went in and out of the roster.

ATE Gaming at ESWC 2007

“As a team we were always, throughout the lineups, five guys who worked hard for the team and played our hearts out. If we hadn’t split up in 2012, we would have continued to dominate whatever was left of the CS 1.6 scene. We were always great with our aim but we never studied strats or executes. That wasn’t what ATE was about. When the scene did out, playing didn’t give us much joy, so we broke up eventually.”, said Ben ‘r4id’ Varghese whom I contacted for an interview a couple of weeks ago. He was kind enough to let me pick his brain about his career, eSports in India and what the future holds.

ATE’s level of dominance over the domestic scene never translated into international success. For the neutral observer, alook at ATE gaming’s international record makes for, frankly ,very poor reading. But as Ben admitted, they were up against the cream of the crop in every tournament and in addition, ATE had to overcome financial hurdles and visa issues to even attend these events. As a case in point, they had to withdraw from their first international event, ESWC 2006 because of visa issues and for the rest of the events that year, WCG and KODE5, they had to play with a stand-in.

Their first tournament was KODE5 2006 in Beijing where they squared off against the legendary NiP in the group stage and lost 7–16 on inferno, after being 0–5 up.

Honestly at that point, I didn’t even know who SpawN or walle or zet were, because all I knew about CS was what I had learnt in the LAN cafes in Mumbai. I was never one to research or study the international scene. It was only afterwards I realized that I was in the midst of legends. To make things worse, I got a 4k in the pistol round which was not recorded in the official match demo. So I can’t even brag about getting a 4k against NiP!

Subsequently after losses to Jax Money Crew and the Russian team forZe, ATE finished bottom of the group stage. Later that year ATE travelled to Monza, Italy for WCG where they squared off against teams such as hooch’s Virtus.Pro and a pro100 team which featured Edward and Zeus in the group stage. Again, ATE finished bottom of the group without winning a single map. Something which would be repeated again ESWC 2007. In that tournament they had to face the fnatic lineup featuring Archi and ins, and the French team emuLate which featured the likes of mSx. Heartbreakingly, they lost a close fought 16–14 against the Pakistani team Havock. It wouldn’t be until WCG 2007, held in Seattle that ATE would win their first game. Their first and to date, only international victory came against the Swiss team, Hellway, which interestingly featured Maniac who is the current coach of Team EnvyUS. ATE also managed a draw against a k1ck eSports team which had Richard ‘fox’ Pacheco, a current member of FaZe. Unfortunately, this was as good as it got for Ben and his team. 2008 came around and they failed to register a win in either Kode5 or WCG, Cologne. Interestingly, he remembers how frustrated he was while playing against Dragons, a Chinese team, at Kode 5 2008 because one of the opponents was allegedly cheating.

Recent events in the CS:GO scene have demonstrably shown how shady organizers are making a money-grab at eSports. According to Ben this was a problem which plagued the domestic scene in India as well.

In 2009 and 2010 because of a lot of corruption by event organizers, combined with the recession we couldn’t attend any international events, as we would have had to pay out of our own pockets. The WCG and ESWC brands were shaky and there weren’t proper sponsorships. In fact the WCG 2009 qualifiers happened only because I hosted a bunch of teams in Mumbai,and the tournament held in one small LAN cafe with 20 machines.

ATE did not represent India internationally again, till late 2010. That year, they attended the Beat IT grand finals in Beijing where they played a LIONS team featuring Xizt and THREAT, the Korean powerhouse WEMADEFOX, wNv.CN, Team Immunity and eventual winners Evil Geniuses lead by Lurppis, who Ben fondly remembers sharing a room with. The last appearance by ATE internationally in CS 1.6 was in WCG 2010, held in LA, where again they failed to register a win. They represented India proudly in eight international tournaments, but only had one map win to show for their efforts.

ATE Gaming had one last hurrah in CS:GO when a new lineup which had only RiTz from the previous 1.6 lineup, attended ESWC 2013 losing to fnatic, Astana Dragons and Team Alternate. 2014 saw two Indian teams attending international LANs, albeit as invited teams. The first was Team Wolf at ESL One Cologne where they lost to Hellraisers and eventual winners NiP in the group stage. The next was Virtual Impact who bombed at ESWC 2014, getting 16–0'd by LDLC (The lineup which became EnvyUS) and Virtus Pro. Interestingly enough, featured the Mongolian player Zilkenberg who later left to form the MongolZ lineup which qualified for IEM Katowice and the Asia Minor for the Columbus Major.

You’ve got to realize that the Indian scene is plagued by a variety of problems, ranging from infrastructural issues, to corruption to the mindsets of Indian families who look down upon gaming. We were barely sponsored and never got to boot-camp or practice against other international teams. That meant that at international events we had our legs kicked out from beneath us before the race even began. Given these problems, I think we had a fair run. There were many events which we couldn’t go to because of sponsors who backed out or poor management. We were naive kids who just wanted to play and we didn’t have proper management or support.

Project R4IDFORCE

Retiring from professional Counter-Strike, Ben didn’t leave the gaming scene as most of his team-mates did. In fact, while others moved on to more conventional career choices, Ben became the face of Indian eSports.

Ben ‘r4id’ Varghese Speaking at a TEDx Event

I was involved in participating and helping organize events even before ATE broke up. But 2011 and 2012 were bad in terms of events. We tried to keep the scene alive. But in 2012 the whole India Gaming Carnival fiasco happened and that whole year was a bummer as well.

Indeed, the India Gaming Carnival which promised much but delivered almost nothing, tarred the reputation of the Indian scene. The recently held Gaming Paradise event drew parallels with India Gaming Carnival. It was that bad. Ben recalls the mess very clearly because he was dragged into the mess by the organizers, WTF Eventz.

The whole event was conducted by a bunch of idiots, called WTF Eventz, in Noida. They boasted of a total prizepool of Rs 1.5 crores (USD 220,000) which was huge for a tournament in India. They reached out to me to promote the event and called me to their offices. They wanted 800 consoles and 700 gaming PCs,which sounded ridiculous. Further more, on the same dates as the IGC, Copenhagen Games were also scheduled. I told the organizers that these dates are clashing so rescheduling the tournament would be wise, to ensure international participation. They laughed and told me that they would buy off Copenhagen Games! I tried to do some damage control and asked them not to embarrass themselves. In return, the check I got for my services bounced. I wanted the event to happen for the sake of the eSports scene in India, so I tried to help in any way I can. This eventually led to me sweeping the floors of the venue the night before the event. I was supposed to be the brand ambassador!

That was the sort of incompetence which the scene was crippled by. Having learnt from his experiences and frustrated with the system, he recently embarked upon his own venture ‘Project R4IDFORCE’, with which he aims to change the face of Indian eSports. The aim of R4IDFORCE is to tackle issues both big and small, which has held the Indian eSports scene back.

R4IDFORCE was borne out of my frustration with events like the IGC. My ultimate aim is to produce 20 clubs which can compete internationally and represent India, over a period of 5 years. Phase one of this project is to start a talent hunt, which will be done in four cities, namely Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. There will be 3 month leagues in each of these cities over several game titles, so we can select the best of the best. This phase is called the Cafe R4IDFORCE Championship and we’ll be up and running by June-July. There will be regular LAN events in these cities as part of the overall R4IDFORCE Experience. The winners from the regional leagues will be provided financial and infrastructural support to pursue eSports as a career. In India “gaming” is perceived as gambling and our aim is to change that perception.

Undoubtedly, Ben has very lofty aims for his project, and he realizes this. But he has been working on this for the past four years, setting things in place and staying in the scene, foregoing other career opportunities. The potential upshot is the rise of Indian eSports and Ben could be the FALLEN of the Indian scene, although he has told me he has no desire to be compared to FALLEN. On the other hand it could crash and burn and disappear into the ether. But there is only one way to find out. Here’s wishing Ben and Project R4IDFORCE , the very best of luck.

For more information about Project R4IDFORCE and Ben, go to : https://www.facebook.com/Projectr4iDForce/