Indian eSports Championship, a brainchild of Essence Transmedia and Neon Gaming Studio concluded their three days mega gaming finals held from 10 to 12 November. The event was inaugurated by Sports & Youth Services, deputy director, N.B. Mote
The eight teams shortlisted from across India competed against each other in two games, Dota 2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). The winners of the championship, Team Brutality for CS:GO and Roar Esports for Dota 2 walked away with a cash prize of Rs 3 lakhs.
The Championship also had a separate gaming arena for FIFA gamers, who went up against each other and the winners were rewarded with cash prizes. The event also had a cosplay competition and saw live performances from artists like Lost Stories, Anish Sood and Navraj Hans.
Essence Transmedia, chief development officer, Ashish Jain said, “Indian eSports Championship 2016 received an exceptional response from the industry stakeholders. Our aim was to provide a healthy eco-system to the gaming industry and we will continue to support them with bigger and better competitive events in the future.
With the growing awareness and immense global popularity, we are hopeful that eSports will soon be included to the Olympic 2024 program. The inclusion of eSports in Olympic 2024 will be a solid stepping stone and will give a big boost to the eSports scene in India.”
The star-cast of ‘Wajah Tum Ho’, Sana Khan, Gurmeet Chaudhary and Vishal Pandya were in attendance for the grand finals as well.
Indian eSports Championship started with Cafe Warz, a contest for cafe owners from Mumbai. This was followed by an online knockout tournament in which 140 plus teams participated. The next stage was a month-long online league tournament in which 200 plus teams participated from across cities in India.