E-Sports a relatively uncommon term in India and Goa too. For years the terms ‘Engineers’ and ‘Doctors’ and ‘Cricketers’ in recent years, have been Giants of our country. Children at birth sometimes are tagged with these and spend the rest of their lives trying to live up to it.
‘Esports’ (also known as electronic sports, e-sports, competitive (video) gaming, professional (video) gaming, or pro-gaming) can be defined as a form of sports where the primary aspects of the sport are facilitated by video games; the input of players and teams, as well as the output of the Esports system, are mediated by human-computer interfaces. Most commonly Esports take the form of organized multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players. The most Popular games DOTA 2, League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive etc.
The Gaming community in India isn’t large, but India has a fair set of dedicated gamers and is growing by the years. In China, there are gaming Universities !!! viz Songjiang University District of Shanghai, China, which was opened for League of Legends, where people can eat, sleep, walk, talk and breathe gaming. Korea has a huge and enthusiastic gaming community. A Starcraft player was once used as a celebrity to motivate the entire Korean National Football Team.
E-sports is gaining great popularity in today’s world. The International, one of the biggest gaming events, offered a total prize pool of 17 million USD last year, which is higher than the IPL and comparable to the UEFA Champions League.
Goa the land of beaches, tourism etc., also has a decent sized gaming community.
The most played games in Goa are Dota 2, Counter-Strike, FIFA. Since the community is really small, most of the Gamers in Goa know each other. There are small tournaments held all year round in Cyber Cafes all over Goa, and the gamers that turn up for these events are just a handful.
But the Mega tournament for every Goan is the one that happens at BITS Pilani every year.
It’s called MATKA which is a sub-event of the main Event Quark. This has gained great popularity among the entire gaming community in Goa. More than gaming and winning, it has become a tradition for every Goan gamer, to meet up and spend time together.
Competition? Yes, there’s plenty, but healthy and worth playing for! The Month of February sees all Goan gamers taking leave from work, flying into Goa, escaping school and college and entering into a limbo of freedom at the BITS campus for a set of 3 days. The experience is different every year. This year the organisers have taken gaming to a whole new level in Goa, by raising the prize pool from a few thousand every year to a whopping 1.5 lakhs. WOW! A big WOW! This is truly the Birth of Gaming/ E-sports in our little state.
