Shiva Nandy 'I have to thank all those eleven teams'

It was far from the ideal start for the $300,000 tournament being held in Mumbai which was supposed to revive the Indian Counter-Strike scene. Skyesports faced numerous issues on the opening day including logistical and technical shortcomings, which ticked off many of the international players, who were quick to voice their displeasure about the preparation for them.

The 12-team event saw BetBoom withdraw and leave on the night of the opening day itself and the participation of the rest were in doubt but Skyesports reassured the remainder of the teams and made sure the rest of the tournament went ahead smoothly without any major glitches or setbacks.

Following the conclusion of the Grand Final, Dust2 India spoke about Skyesports' founder and CEO Shiva Nandy about the event itself and plans ahead.

From the perspective of Skyesports, what were the difficulties faced in carrying out a tournament of this scale in India?

So the first day we faced little bit difficulties in terms of some technical things which has been sorted. It was because we didn't anticipate it. It was all about the electricity and other kinds of things. We didn't expect it. And once we came to know about the electrical issues, we were not able to solve it within 2 or 3 hours. Because already all the teams were frustrated. We met all the managers and took a decision - 'let's give a break, today off and then we will work on that'. So immediately we got our solutions, and that's why we had a reserved day. We used the reserved day, and solved all the issues within the same day. And from that day till now, I don't think any issues happened. Because we have already done so many LAN events. This was the first event we have done in a hotel room, and I don't want to blame anyone because it's our responsibility. And in the future we will rectify and work accordingly.

How important was this event, both for the Indian ecosystem and for Skyesports?

This event is very important because I have been into gaming and esports for 15 years. And I have been watching for a longer time. No one has brought these many international teams to India. If someone would have done that in an esports ecosystem, it could have been better. But we tried our best, and this is the first event where 11 teams came to India. And this is going to help Indian scene in terms of bringing non-endemic sponsors, the global brands to India. And in terms of broadcasting, media rights also, it's going to be valuable going forward. That's what I am expecting.

Despite the issues on Day 1, and despite people doubting the ability of Skyesports to carry out the tournament smoothly, Skyesports has delivered on all fronts in the following days. How does it feel after hosting the biggest Counter Strike LAN in India?

So like I mentioned, Indian audience knows we have done a bunch of events. But international teams - yes, certain teams thought whether we had the ability to do it or not. But we took a veto, we took a team mangers' meeting, and 11 teams agreed to continue the tournament. I have to thank all those eleven teams. They believed and we have done our best to make it happen.

There has been some rumours spreading about Skyesports Souvenirs. Any comments on that?

If you see our Skyesports roadmap which we announced in December, we are going to continue to follow that and we are making the things going forward. And if you have noticed, our prize money also keeps increasing because of the response we are getting from the stakeholders. Our next IP, as we mentioned in our roadmap is Skyesports Souvenir, which we are definitely going to execute. More information and announcement will be made in the upcoming days.