You used to mostly work on Indian or Asian events, but we’ve seen you more and more on the stages of European events such as DreamHack Tours or Valencia. How has your ‘ascent’ been in the scene and what allowed you to climb the ranks?

My first international gigs were primarily due to my knowledge and expertise of the Asian scene, as I used to cover a lot of the regional tournaments on my twitch channel. And every international event I had done until late last year were only the Asian Minors.

It was only when StarLadder invited me for the Starladder Invitational which took place in Shanghai late last year that I had a chance to work on an event that had EU teams. And ever since then, I have managed to attend Bets.net Masters (also by StarLadder) and then Marc Winther from DreamHack gave me a shot with DreamHack Open Tours.

As to what allowed me to climb the ranks, I’d say a combination of grinding it out, putting myself out there and a little bit of luck. And patience.

Could you provide us with some more details about SoStronk and its role in the Indian / Asian scene?

SoStronk is basically a company founded by a bunch of dudes who love CS and decided to do something for India and Asia a few years back. They’re basically similar to FACEIT/ESEA but specific to Asia, with their own platform and servers. They’ve also worked with some of the big TOs like DreamHack and PGL.

I’ve been heading their broadcasting side of things for a while while wearing many hats within the company at the same time.

To be frank, we don’t know much about the Indian scene over here. So let’s try to start at the beginning. Has CS:GO been successful over there? How many active players are there?

CS:GO is I would say one of if not the biggest game in the country from an esports/competitive gaming perspective. I’m not sure about the exact total number of active players, but I’ve heard from multiple sources that it’s quite massive.

The biggest issue is the fact that there is a huge divide between the casual and the competitive player base in the country. There are a massive number of casual players, but they have no idea about the competitive side of the game. Bridging this divide could definitely turn things around, because there is definitely talent out there.

In the past were games like Counter-Strike 1.6 or Counter-Strike: Source well-known? Did they play an important role in building the Counter-Strike community?

CS 1.6 was massive. I think it was big enough, that we had the legendary 2006-7 fnatic lineup which had cArn, dsn, f0rest, etc. come down for some publicity campaign back in early 2007.

However, internet infrastructure was pretty crap back then and most of the scene was centered around local internet/gaming cafes. This meant exposure was hard to get and hence the scene wasn’t really not able to go anywhere despite having some dedicated players and teams.

Is the current infrastructure (i.e. good equipment, good internet connection) sufficient enough to play in the proper conditions? Does this pose a big enough problem to slow the development of esports in the country?

India does have a pretty good and cheap internet connectivity nowadays, and most people can afford a decent rig. I think the biggest problem right now is awareness. If we can break into the casual masses, India could very well be one of the sleeping giants in esports.

It’ll take time, but I think we’re getting there slowly.

The only notable Indian appearance at the top-level was Team Wolf’s showing at ESL One Cologne 2014, after India had been given a dedicated spot. At the time, did the fact that an Indian team took part in such a big competition have an important impact on the community?

Initially yes, most people were super excited to see what they could do. But it was evident from their performance that they had a lot of catching up to do. The initial excitement quickly turned to pessimism, which remains to this day.

But I think it was a good reality check as well. Atleast we knew where we stood and where to go from there.

Team Wolf at the ESL One Cologne 2014, third Major of CS:GO's history

Who are the best Indian teams at the moment? Where do you think they rank in relation to the rest of the Asian and Middle-Eastern scene?

Currently, Optic India and Entity are the two best teams. However, since both these particular lineups are quite new, I think time will tell where they stand from an Asian stand point. That being said, having watched their games, one can say that they are approaching it the ‘right’ way, which was never the case for a long time.

Do the players for these teams make a living off of video games?

Optic and Entity do make a salary and have a bootcamp house, setups, etc. I think there are a couple of other teams who do have monetary support but not much.

As you said, OpTic Gaming recently took an Indian team under its wing. How has the arrival of such a large organization been received by the Indian community? Today, a little more than three months later, where is the project at in its development?

I was involved in the entire process of recruiting a team for OpTic (SoStronk worked with OpTic for the entire process). We had an open selection process which had over 1400+ people sign up until we whittled it down to 5. Most of the players were new, untested guys who we felt had right mentality and skillset.

3 months later, they are currently the best team in the country, very closely followed by Entity Gaming who were the best for almost a year. Also the fact that their coach/IGL is Lukas ‘yb’ Groening from Germany and has a history with India definitely helped them approach the game differently.

Do Indian teams have opportunities to train with certain Chinese and Thai teams - or even teams of other nationalities - in order diversify their experience? Or is this too complicated to organize?

Oh, most top Indian teams do practice against the SEA and Chinese teams often. Sure the pings might be a problem, but it’s not that massive a barrier as most Indians ping well to Singapore.

It’s not the lack of training/scrimming opportunities that’s the problem, it’s what they are looking for in a scrim. I was pretty shocked when I found out some teams take the scrims as actual matches and try to win rather than try and dry run strats and defaults. Which goes to show, how there is a lack of understanding of how to approach this game by many of the players in the country.

As far as LANs and tournament organizers go, is the Indian circuit well-off? Are there many local or national tournaments organized?

Funnily enough, I think India has more money and events in CS:GO than the entirety of Asia put together, apart from China of course. There’s the year long ESL India Premiership league, which culminates in 3-4 LANs a year. Multiple other LAN events and of course all the online qualifiers for DreamHack Masters, ESL One’s, IEMs, Asian Minors, etc.

There is no lack of opportunities.

ESL has a championship in India - The ESL India Premiership. How important is this event to the circuit? More generally speaking, what does ESL’s presence bring to India?

I personally think it’s the most important thing we have here in the country because it forces teams to play for an entire season and due to roster locks give a semblance of stability. Otherwise teams would have roster swaps every 2 weeks which obviously leads to nothing.

Also I think they do a pretty good job with the broadcasting and trying to give well produced local content to the local fans.

Entity eSports, winner of the ESL India Premiership 2017 Winter

Do you think that India is ready to host an international CS:GO tournament, with pro and semi-pro teams from around the world? Would the organizers and the infrastructure be up to the task?

No. Not right now. Having had the opportunity to be a part of a few International CS:GO events I can safely say that we’re not ready but are getting there.

The infrastructure is there, but I don’t think we have enough talent in the country to pull off a good event. However, with the money pouring into the Indian scene, tying up with an ESL or DreamHack or PGL would be the right move to pull off a big event.

Outside of infrastructure, what are the other issues that could keep CS:GO, and more globally esports, from taking off? Do the size of the nation and geographic characteristics play a role in its development?

I don’t think it’s infrastructure anymore. It’s primarily to do with lack of awareness and not being able to tap into the casual scene. The potential is massive! There has been a major improvement in cheap high speed internet and infrastructure in the past few years. A massive increase in the number and quality of tournaments and prize pool.

I think the biggest challenge is the fact that many of the young players are not independent enough to pursue this on their own and rely on parental support. And due to the stigma associated with video games in general in the country it’s an uphill task.

Recently, there was a controversy regarding ESFI (The Esports Federation of India) in which they made players sign contracts that were very unfavorable for them. What role does this structure, and other governing bodies if they exist, have on the development of esports in India? Has this controversy harmed its image?

Most of the bodies like ESFI don’t really have any real power in esports in India. ESFI literally does nothing for the country’s scene apart from host qualifiers for the IeSF or recently the Asian Games quals.

There have been similar bodies who have cropped up in order to ‘regulate’ the scene but most of them are nothing but a bunch of guys looking to get a monopoly of the scene under the guise of regulation. Any such body will just stifle the growth rather than help it.

I really don’t think there are any people who are qualified enough and don’t have vested interests in the country to create a governing body. I think the scene has to grow organically and an open market with no regulation is what we need at the moment. Governing bodies can come later.

In a country where traditions (and perhaps castes) play an important role, how is the progression of esports - which holds a message of modernity – perceived?

I think the biggest change in India in the past couple of decades has been the rise of the educated working middle class. And with that comes open mindedness and purchasing power

And that I think is something that definitely helps. There is still negativity associated with video games, but with esports slowly going mainstream in the country it helps. For example: the previous season ESL India Premiership was on mainstream TV and I’m sure it did change the perspectives of a few people.

Does the Indian media talk about CS:GO? If so, how do they portray it?

Not much to be honest. But you do see the one off articles in some of the biggest newspapers about esports but rarely is it ever in depth. It’s mostly simple piees talking about esports but generally it’s always been in a positive light.

Maybe when esports actually takes off in India is when the media start accusing CS of fostering violence :D

Thank you very much for your time, we’ll let you have the last word.

Thank you for the interview! There were some great questions here and I think it’s pretty cool you guys are doing articles covering the more obscure scenes!