As India gears up to soak in the fever of the much-awaited ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Rooter taps into the excitement by hosting the largest Cricket eWorld Cup tournament in the country. Running from 16 October to 13 November, the Real Cricket-based esports event will be powered by 1XBet, and feature eight passionate teams named after some of the top participating nations. After the power-packed Rooter Independence Cricket League hosted during the Asia Cup, this is the company’s second major cricket IP of the year where the prize pool has been doubled to Rs 10 lakh.
Aiming to connect with the 800 million cricket fans in India, Rooter is on a journey to make cricket one of the most loved, played, and watched esport. With the previous edition of the league recording an unprecedented 15 million+ views, the company is confident of replicating the immersive experience, where fans can root for their favourite players. Speaking about this, Rooter co-founder and COO Dipesh Agarwal said, “Cricket is a sport which has an incredible potential to bind our entire country together, and this is visible in the rapid rise in fan engagement around cricket-based content like live-action sports, fantasy gaming, trivia exchanges and more. We now want to translate this fan experience into unmatched Cricket-based esports engagements as well. Our latest eWorld Cup tournament is an amplified version of our previous event, so you can expect larger teams, a bigger prize pool and double the excitement.”
This time around, 24 players will be competing in teams of three, with each one comprising of a pro-player, a top Rooter influencer, and an upcoming Rooter creator. Once again fans will get to hear Akash Chopra’s inimitable commentary for the series, creating a memorable experience similar to live matches. Supported by 1XBet, the tournament will begin with a Super 8 Stage, where all the teams will compete to qualify for the top four spots to reach the Knockout Stage. The teams emerging among the top two during the Knockout will be facing off in the finale scheduled for 13 November 2022. Speaking about the partnership, 1XBet India marketing manager Irina Kapoor said, “We are excited to support Rooter in their mission to make cricket-based esports the next big thing in gaming. Their expertise in creating strong, engaging and immersive esports IPs makes them the ideal partner and together, we look forward to setting new benchmarks in this category.”
An early market leader in a fast-growing and rapidly evolving space, Rooter has been successfully hosting eSports tournaments to nurture and promote the gaming community. As part of its endeavour to develop specialised cricket-based IPs, the company will be planning and hosting a series of Real Cricket tournaments, every time India plays. Rooter hopes to attract 50 million aggregate views on its tournaments, by the end of next year, in line with other popular mobile gaming tournaments.