"I wasn't ever dreaming of playing for the Country" - KiiLSwitCh

Anshul "KiiLSwitCh" Adarkar, the IGL of Gods Reign, has been one of the most prominent names in the realm of Indian Counter-Strike. His journey from a 5-year-old who got captivated by a game his brother introduced him to, to proudly donning the Indian colors on international soil, has been nothing short of extraordinary. In a very insightful interview with Dust2 India, Anshul talks about his remarkable journey of how a child with an unwavering dream passed every challenge that came his way and transformed it into a resounding reality with the help of his family and friends.

How did your early experiences unfold, starting from your initial introduction to the game and leading up to your eventual journey into the realm of Counter-Strike?

I think I started playing CS back in 2004 because of my elder brother. He is 6 years elder than me and is an ex-Dota and 1.6 pro. Of Course, when he was in school, he used to go to cyber cafes to play local tournaments and stuff. And then, that's when he used to come back home and practice with his friends, and play online. And that’s how I got to know about the game. I started with 1.6 back in 2005. I also used to play other games with my brother. We had PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, and stuff. So, gaming was something that was a very vital thing in my life. Even if it was GTA Vice City, I used to play for like 3-4 hours. Gaming has always been exciting to me. I used to play with my brother a lot because we had a different bonding while playing games. But then later in my life when I started exploring online Counter-Strike in general, 1.6 for that matter, I saw a lot of online servers, and back in the days there used to be servers like Davaj. So I used to play on those servers and I got to know online gaming. I didn't even know we could play 1.6 online. I figured that out one day when the internet came to my house. I saw my brother playing and whenever he was not around I used to play. Because he never used to allow me to play online. Because he knew there were people around, you know, abusing. But one day when I finally figured it out, I was like dude, it was really competitive.

How did you eventually transition into a professional Counter-Strike player?

In 2009, I joined the team called Slackers, which wasn't really a big team. But it was a big team for me back in the day because you know playing for a team and playing tournaments with them was something I had never really done. And then I used to play those tournaments after locking my room. But those were like completely online tournaments. When I was in my college I used to balance my studies and play professionally at the same time. I wasn't playing professionally until like 2019. When I was 20ish, my first big team was Reckoning Esports. I played my first ESL master with a mixed team. This was before Reckoning Esports. My teammates were Kappa, master, shann, Midas. They were mostly playing CS just for fun. There weren’t many Organizations due to COVID and stuff. And then I joined Reckoning Esports and played with them for 2 years.

What was your experience like playing Counter-Strike during the Covid-19 pandemic, and how did it impact the Indian scene?

It wasn't that great. Honestly, I played CS for an entire year, like properly. I think the ESL Master season was good. But with the lack of LANs, it wasn't that exciting since offline events were not happening. I think to play CS you need to be very competitive and you can't compare the experience of LAN to online CS. It was kind of disappointing, considering it was my first ESL Masters event, I could not play any of the three LANs in that calendar year. So I was feeling very bad. But I think later that year PUBG got banned and Riot came up with VaLORANT, So everyone who was streaming PUBG, even Scout shifted to VALORANT. Because the entire fanbase was there. COVID times were bad but I am happy everything is coming back now.

And then when VALORANT was introduced, people started shifting to that game. Did you ever feel like you wanted to make a shift too?

When I was in Reckoning, I was offered to play VALORANT. I was playing with whimp, vexy, and clouda as well and even f1redup was with me in Reckoning and they were offering a shift to VALORANT. I tried to play beta version. I used to play 10 man scrims and stuff. But I was like, I am gonna stick to CSGO because I have been playing for so many years, I have invested so much time and money. My mindset at that time was that I don't have the energy to learn a new game right now. And I thought if I played more CS even when the player base was going away, I think I can become better at the game and try to do something for myself. Just to satisfy myself. Honestly, I didn't like the mechanics or the concept of the game. Trust me, I am the guy who has 0 hours on DOTA. The concept of using ability and stuff doesn't really excite me.

And now do you feel like sticking to CS is finally paying off?

Yeah of course. in 2021, I went to play the world championship for India to Israel. I was really happy. There were Indian qualifiers first. Then they announced the regional qualifiers for Asia. When I heard the announcement, I just couldn't wait to play. So I made the best team possible with the best players around me. We played the Indian qualifiers and we won it. Then we played the South Asian Qualifiers and we won that too. And then we qualified for the main event too, which was in Israel. And it was a good experience because it was worth the wait first of all. And secondly, I wasn't ever dreaming of playing for the country. It is something that will go with me. I don't know how many players can experience what I have experienced. And trust me, it is something really special. And I feel like people who really want to do something in Esports. Not just CS, they have to be patient. They should grind a lot. People should not run behind money and fame. If you really love something you should stick to it. With patience, comes success.

When you returned from Israel, how was the reception? How did you parents react?

They came to the airport. They hugged me really tight. I was wearing the Indian jersey. People were actually noticing. They were coming to us, and asking what do we play. Then we had to sit down and explain things about Esports and CSGO. And I didn’t even think it was annoying. I was happy that people were coming up to us and we could tell them about the game. Because they did not know anything about it. They were only asking ki, PUBG khelte ho kya? (Do you play PUBG?) And we had to tell them that we don’t play PUBG and we play a game called Counter-Strike.

Stay tuned as we will be releasing Part 2 of our interview very soon.