India’s FIFA Online 4 players Charanjot Singh and Karman Tikka bow out of the Asian Games 2022 after suffering hard-fought defeats on the opening day.
Singh suffered a 0:2 defeat to China’s Liu Jiacheng in his opening game but bounced back with three consecutive wins. He won by 2:0 against Aristorenas Jorrel of Phillipines, 2-1 against Alrowaihi RKM of Bahrain and 2-0 against Yessentayev Olzhas of Kazakhstan in the Losers Bracket Round 1, 2 and 3 respectively. However his campaign came to an end after enduring another 0-2 defeat against Liu Jiacheng of China in the Losers Bracket Round 4.
On the other hand, Tikka went down fighting in a 1-2 loss against Faqeehi Abdulaziz Abdullatif of Bahrain in his tournament opener. He too made a strong comeback by defeating Kiswani Abdelrahman of Palestine by 2-1 in the Losers Bracket Round 1 before going down by 1-2 against Aldhafiri Meshari of Kuwait in the Losers Bracket Round 2 to exit the competition.
The Asian Games 2022 are being held from 23 September to 8 October 2023 at Hangzhou Esports Centre in China. While there are a total of seven official esports events at the tournament, India has participated in four of the seven titles: DOTA 2, FIFA Online 4, League of Legends, and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition.
On Tuesday, India’s Street Fighter V: Champion Edition athletes, Mayank Prajapati (MiKeYROG) and Ayan Biswas (AYAN01) exited the tournament on the opening day.
Biswas clinched a victory by 2-0 against Nguyen Khanh Hung Chau of Vietnam to start his campaign on a winning note before going down in a 1-2 defeat against Alrayfal Abdulrahman Salem A of Saudi Arabia in the Winners Bracket Round 1. He then beat Vietnam’s Nguyen again by 2-0 in the Losers Bracket Round 2. However, he fell short against Yeh Man Ho of Hong Kong in the Losers Bracket Round 3 and bowed out of the tournament. Prajapati, on the other hand, began his tournament against Rajikhan Talal Fuad T of Saudi Arabia and fought valiantly in a fiercely contested 1-2 defeat. He then endured another loss against Al-Mannai Abdulla of Qatar by 0-2 and exited the tournament.
Even as India’s FIFA Online 4 and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition teams suffered defeat, the country’s DOTA 2 team is gearing up to take on Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines in their opening group stage games on 29 September. The unit comprising Krish Gupta (Krish-), Abhishek Yadav (Abhi-), Ketan Goyal (Evil-Ash), and Shubham Goli (Madness) has been drawn into Group A, where they are scheduled to compete against Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines in Best-of-One (BO1) single round-robin format matches. The top-ranked team from this group will advance to face Nepal in the quarter-finals on 30 September.
All matches in the elimination stage for DOTA 2 will be contested in the head-to-head, Best-of-Three (BO3) single elimination format. There will be a total of 14 notable teams participating in the title.
Lastly, India’s League of Legends team which has been seeded directly to the quarter-finals will begin its campaign on 27 September. As a result of dominating the recently held Central and South Asia seeding event and clinching top seed, the team has gained direct entry into the Top-8 of the tournament and will face Vietnam in its tournament opener.