Esports as a career option?

 

 

I liked playing video games as a child. A part of my 'Gamer' emerged during the lockdown period when I Installed many new games which took me a day to get used to with its function and hardly 3 hours to get addicted. My brother and me got so indulged into the gaming world that we devoted the  first 5-6 months of the lockdown period to Esports. I bet this was a common trend among many youngsters.

 

 

Esports made us accessible to people all around the world with the same gaming enthusiasm. It cultivated as a hobby and took turn into a passion for some. Talking about passion , can we accept gaming as a career option in one go ? I will leave the question to my readers. Once,  I happened to watch a show on MTV called Esports Mania which gave me an insight into the field and its impact upon the masses. It's justifications of being or not being a career option solely depends upon the person justifying.

 

" Esports is a sport recognised by the International Olympic Committee and Olympic Council of Asia" once stated Lokesh Suji, the esports Federation of Indian Director in one of his interviews.  Esports continues to be a proper career option around the world,but in India it still lacks that acceptability. ESports games like Fortnite or Counter strike, FIFA, Dota needs skill and immense practice to excel. According to Suji , India has the capacity to reach commendable heights in this form as India has approximately 300million Esports enthusiasts. But the primary barrier is what we define as 'Gaming'. Most people still gaming as something one needs to do in leisure time. People often compare these high tech games with teen patti, solitude etc. Our society often hesitates to accept a new career option over the traditional ones. On that note such a new western concept will obviously face challenges. 

 

Surprisingly esports have reached appreciable heights within a short span of time. The accelerating factor of esports is mobile gaming. Live streaming has added to its popularity among the masses. According to a gaming survey done in 2018, a report from Newzoo , a market analytics company estimated that around 380 million people all over the globe will watch esports in 2018. In 2020, the same report estimated that Global Games Market will generate revenues of $159.3 billions in 2020.

 

 

Ankit 'V3nom' Panth is one of the most popular gaming figure in India took the game of Counter strike to a next level. In the year 2019 he got signed as the brand ambassador of Intel and was also signed by Red Bull as India's first redbull athlete in gaming. Other than that team 'SOUL' who took India to international level in mobile game like PubG has inspired many techies. These people set examples of how one can turn any hobby to a life changing profession just with a undefeatable spirit and devotion.

 By Ananya Mahanta

Ist semester