Indian pros react to lack of tournaments

The Indian esports scene has been on an upward trajectory since last year, particularly with the resurgence marked by Skyesports Masters 2023. In the following months, numerous other TOs joined the fray, and Skyesports continued to make significant contributions by hosting regular tournaments. November saw NODWIN hosting Dreamhack Hyderabad, whose winner earned a spot in the BLAST World Final Showmatch in Abu Dhabi. While TEC, Esportz.in and Upthrust Gaming also held various Counter-Strike events in 2023.

The year 2024 began with a bang for the Indian Counter-Strike scene, with Skyesports unveiling an ambitious roadmap featuring six events lined up for the year. In February, Indian players had the opportunity to play alongside legendary figures in "The Draft," which significantly improved the player's performance in a short period. The impact was evident when Gods Reign reached the Closed Qualifiers of the Copenhagen Major as the top seed, a fate no Indian had ever achieved before.

However, despite the players' best efforts, opportunities have dwindled since then. With organizations and TOs gradually withdrawing from the scene, players are encountering significant challenges. While we had the Skyesports Grand Slam 2024 and Skyesports Masters 2024, those events had just one slot for an Indian team and post the conclusion of Skyesports Masters 2024, no TO has announced or confirmed any upcoming event, with teams and players not having any LANs to look forward to for months now.

While Skyesports' plans have the Skyesports Championship 6.0 scheduled for July 2024, there is no confirmation on the event going ahead with the Skyesports Masters 2024 itself, shifting from a LAN to online event at the eleventh hour.

To address these concerns, we reached out to some players in our scene to hear their thoughts and gain insights into the current state of Indian esports.

In 2020, we emerged as champions of ESL India and other tournaments like the TEC Pro League. Back then, we faced challenges due to the lack of organizational support. However, now we are fortunate to have that support and access to boot camps for practice. Despite this, there are very few tournaments for us to compete in. As Indian CS athletes, we urge tournament organizers to support the Indian CS scene by hosting more tournaments. This will not only benefit us but also contribute to the rapid growth of players in our community.
SpawN, IGL, Carnival Gaming

Like SpawN, another experienced captain, DEFAULTER, spoke about the issues tournament organisers face with regards to Sponsorship and how the lack of CS2 tournaments is hurting the Indian gaming industry.

It's disappointing to see Indian Gaming TO's struggling to prioritize local events due to sponsorship challenges. Indigenous gaming events offer a unique platform for showcasing talent, preserving regional talent, and community engagement. Lack of sponsorship shouldn't deter efforts to uplift Indian gaming. Perhaps grassroots initiatives or community support could fill the void. It's crucial to maintain visibility and support for Indian events to ensure that the regional players thrive and continue to contribute to the Indian gaming industry. It's essential to uplift Indian tournaments, ensuring they remain accessible and impactful for the community they represent.
DEFAULTER, IGL, True Rippers

Gods Reign's star AWPer reV3nnnn spoke about the importance of hosting more big events more frequently rather than annually.

There should be more events or challenges for players to compete outside of their region! Unfortunately, there is only Skyesports there for us to give us a chance to compete in the international stage, but I want one more big TO to participate in this field which is NODWIN, they held a tournament in Malaysia called BLAST Draft and they did Dreamhack where winners went to Dubai and played against Tier-1 players I want this type of thing to happen by TOs for the players in season wise not yearly wise.
reV3nnnn, AWPer, Gods Reign