Bhavi on Gods Reign's 2024 struggles "We didn't improve (as individuals)"

While there isn't lot going on in the Indian Counter-Strike scene, Gods Reign are one team who have been regularly grinding it out, be it in various Asian events or the ESL Challenger League.

Following a strong 2023, Gods Reign had a relatively quiet 2024 but look to be preparing for a strong 2025 with the Indian team set to play in a host of international events.

As Gods Reign slowly gets into the mix of things and gets themselves going in the server, Gods Reign's captain Bhavesh "Bhavi" Sejwani sat down with Dust2 India to talk about the team's performance in 2024, 2025 plans, what the Indian CS scene needs and more.

Let's start with an overall recap of the year, how was 2024 for Bhavi, the player?

Personally, it was the best year of my career so far, but somewhere I also felt like I should have done more because we had a lot of chances that we could have achieved a lot more success.

Kicking off 2024, personally for you, it was a strong start as you led Marcos Gaming to India's first international LAN event win at BLAST The Draft. Talk to us about the triumph there and what were the biggest learnings for you as a captain?

Before The Draft, all of my ex-teammates ended up winning a trophy, except me and ELVIS, so winning (the) BLAST event in Malaysia was really crucial for me. Before that, I had some doubts and confidence issues, but those were all cleared out.

Soon after The Draft, you were picked up by Gods Reign, you replaced Crazy_Gamer as the IGL of the team. Given the success Gods Reign had in 2023, did you feel added pressure joining India's top team?

Honestly, I felt no pressure because I always knew I was good at IGL-ing. I just needed to work on some other things that I lacked and if I managed to do that we would be just fine.

While you won a LAN trophy at The Draft, it was a rough year for Gods Reign, as y'all went trophy-less (LAN events). Do you think it's a cause for concern or is it something else?

Winning a trophy would have been the cherry on the cake, but sometimes losing those games taught us more than if we won. Imagine at eXTREMESLAND 2024 we played the same level we played in Hyderabad, it would have been worse.

Gods Reign made two big lineup changes in 2024, first was when they got you, R2B2 and reV3nnnn at the start of the year but then again there was a big change towards the end of the year when y'all signed Rossi. As a captain do you think you have had enough time with the lineup to succeed or have the changes hurt you?

As a captain, I have enough time to make this lineup work and if we don't manage to do that, it's on me.

Why do you think Gods Reign wasn't as consistent as people expected them to be, in 2024? Has the lack of a coach, a mind behind the team, hurt you guys from being where you want to be?

A lack of coach is one of the reasons, but also, somewhere as individuals, we didn't improve that much and adapted really slowly compared to other teams in Asia.

Gods Reign finished second both times at the Major RMR Asia Closed Qualifiers, y'all went up against NIP and BIG at the Skyesports Masters 2024 and also took down Bad News Kangaroos on LAN at the Skyesports Grand Slam 2024. It's been an up and down year for the team, as the leader, do you think the team got stronger through the year or was there a fall off (in performance) ?

I would say, stronger as a team, but individually not that much, but in terms of experience we gained a lot that will help us move forward in 2025.

There aren't many tournament organisers or organisations investing in Counter-Strike at the moment with there being limited Indian tournaments, even though the region has been growing on the international scene. How is that affecting the teams and what is your message to the TOs and investors?

If we really want Indian CS to compete against a higher tier of Asian CS, or internationally, we should have a proper system regarding tournaments and orgs like take Masters 2023. For example, it wasn't a 50 days LAN that was promised but because of franchise teams and organisations locking in for 3 months with bringing imports we got a lot of experience from that could understand different types CS that was being played.

Looking past the downs and cons, what has been your biggest positive in 2024? How do you think you have grown as a player and leader? Is there something you are expecting particularly from your players?

The biggest positive will be that we can compete against Asian teams, a few years back, that really didn't seem possible, but now I'm not going to lie, the skill gap is still there, but it has gotten shorter and if we really put our focus, the upcoming months, we can shorten that gap a lot more.

Bhavi signed off with a short and straightforward goal for his team in 2025.
​

To play some good Counter-Strike, that's all.