Shiva Nandy 'We had to deviate from our initial vision of the franchised Skyesports Masters'

With the Skyesports Grand Slam 2024 set to take place later this week, it officially kicks off Skyesports' CS2 journey as it is the Indian tournament organiser's first CS2 event.

Back in December 2023, Skyesports revealed a massive roadmap for the 2024 season and two weeks ago the details were released about Skyesports Master 2024, which brings Tier-1 teams such as Liquid to the country for the very first time.

Before getting into the server for the action, Dust2 India had a chat with Skyesports India's founder and CEO Shiva Nandy about his CS2 vision, thought process behind the roadmap and much more.

Half of the events on Skyesports' CS2 2024 calendar are international events, what was the main idea behind heading abroad?

It was a combination of many factors. Firstly, when I ventured into esports in 2018, it was always my dream to bring international teams to play in our IPs in India rather than licensing or bringing international IPs to India. After 5 years, my dream is coming true with tier-one Counter-Strike teams coming to India. This provides a great platform for Indian players and teams as well to compete directly with international teams.

Secondly, from 2025 onwards, the Counter-Strike esports ecosystem will witness a significant shake-up as Valve’s new rules for tournament organizers come into place. These rules restrict business relationships between TOs and teams, making the ecosystem much more open for new IPs like ours to emerge. In line with these rules, we have already made some changes like moving away from franchising in the Skyesports Masters. We will be establishing our roadmap with international events in 2024 in anticipation of the 2025, 2026 seasons. Our long-term vision is aligned with Valve’s goal of an open and level-playing field for Counter-Strike.

With regards to the international events and teams, we have seen you personally at some of the international events recently, mixing with some of the biggest organisations in the world. What would you say is the biggest difference between the orgs abroad and at home?

International esports organisations have had years of experience and investment in the Counter-Strike esports ecosystem. With large fan bases and audiences, they have unlocked significant opportunities for revenue generation through the game. This, accompanied by years of experience, has made them much more competitive than Indian teams. However, we have created a roadmap that ensures constant opportunities for Indian teams to practice and compete against international teams, bringing exposure and experience to local players. I believe we’re only a couple of laps behind and we will catch up soon.

Along the same lines, most of Skyesports' events this year have slots for international teams which has reduced the slots for our Indian teams. That has received mixed reactions from our community as some are wanting more Indian teams at the events, what can you share on this matter?

We are creating an ecosystem that is sustainable for us and for the teams as well. In line with this, we are unlocking the potential of the international Counter-Strike ecosystem audience, especially in Europe and Russia where time zones are more compatible for tournaments hosted in India and neighbouring regions.

For Indian teams, the opportunities are much higher than even the previous year. All of our international events will have India Qualifiers, giving a chance for Indian teams to fight for a prize pool and international slots. Our roadmap has ensured that teams stay invested in Counter-Strike which can be leveraged by other Indian tournament organizers to host tournaments in the game. We are already seeing this happening as there has been significant interest from brands and other TOs to invest in Counter-Strike, a PC game that commands an audience with higher purchasing power, thus attracting more brands.

On this point, we are working with top brands like GIGABYTE and even Nvidia to bring grassroots-level tournaments such as the GIGABYTE Café League. This CS2 tournament across more than five cities saw hundreds of players getting an opportunity to showcase their skills in the game from their local gaming cafes.

We see uncertainty in the Indian scene, uncertainty in the sense that organizations aren't that willing to invest in Counter-Strike 2. We have seen multiple orgs over the course of the last year itself, come into the sport for a brief period before backing out and dropping their rosters. As tournament organizers (TO), do you feel there is an added responsibility to help the orgs stay in the sport for a longer period?

I will be honest. We had to deviate from our initial vision of the franchised Skyesports Masters due to Valve’s new rules for TOs. These rules actually benefit the Indian Counter-Strike scene even more as it permits a more open ecosystem. However, almost all of the initial teams that had invested in Counter-Strike esports in India had done so for our roadmap. As we transitioned to a different vision, many of them pulled out from the game pending our new roadmap. Furthermore, the trend of some organisations divesting is something that has been observed throughout the ecosystem due to sustainability issues, not just Counter-Strike.

However, like Gods Reign reaffirming its commitment to Counter-Strike, other organizations will follow suit, given our $1 million 2024 roadmap. True Rippers and Grayfox are two orgs that have already done so. To answer your question, yes, as a TO, there is an added responsibility to help orgs stay in the sport. And we are taking this responsibility head-on. For example, Gods Reign recently announced LG UltraGear as its display partner for its Counter-Strike 2 lineup, which was a deal we facilitated.

As the leading TO in the region, what is your message to other tournament organizers and also the community?

We have healthy communication channels with other TOs like AA Gaming and Upthrust Esports who are doing great work for the Counter-Strike ecosystem as well. A huge shout out to the Dust2in team too for extensively recording the Indian Counter-Strike ecosystem.

For the community, we are still at a nascent stage. However, compared to 10 years ago, we have so many young, passionate people showing interest in esports. If we keep supporting the right people, the right decisions, and putting in the work - bit by bit - we’ll be on top in no time.

As a message, I am asking them to wait for the Skyesports Masters, as this is going to be the first top-tier CS2 esports tournament in India, with main Tier 1 esports teams coming to India. After that, I am confident that there will be no stopping Counter-Strike 2 in this region.

Skyesports is set to host the Skyesports Championship 6.0 this year, the latest edition of the Championship series but Championship 5.0 never took place. It was postponed indefinitely, but can you give us an update on that?

The Skyesports Championship 5.0 - Counter-Strike 2 would’ve been bigger than the Skyesports Masters 2023 if we had the opportunity to host the teams in LAN. However, due to a few foreign political conditions and a little bit of bad luck, we had to shelve the project for now. The teams involved were compensated by providing an invite to the 2024 roadmap. Fortunately, the teams were understanding and cooperated like champs. We’ve learned from the setback and promise to deliver better.