What Does Indian Valorant Truly Need?
Long ago, there was a game called “Counter-Strike 1.6” that truly dominated the Indian market. With games coming and going, Counter-Strike 1.6 remained a staple in the Indian gamer’s diet. With resources long overdue and a terrible esports scene, however, the Indian gamer’s aptitude and potential fell flat at the face of Asian esports and the international circuit.
With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, India found a massive resurgence in esports that developed and honed the scene as we know it today. Gamers across the country shared an enthusiasm for the scene that was long hoped for by many veterans. Controversies and scandals aside, the game continued and still continues to flourish in the South Asian scene as a casual if not a competitive endeavour.
While the CS:GO scene in South Asia was long dominated by perhaps three notable teams over half a decade, the esports tingle of the game could only manage to scratch the surface of what remained at large at the international level. The game found momentum in the domestic circuit with numerous instances of competitions that made a name for themselves among a niche community.
Enter Valorant.
While there are many games that have captured the imagination of Indian gamers, from Prince of Persia to FIFA to PUBG Mobile, few among the PC stalwarts have circumvented the popularity that Riot’s shooter has gained. With an Indian server at the global standard of 128 tick rate and a company looking to make a notable mark in the minds of the Indian esport enthusiast, the game continued to grow in momentum by the 2021s. By 2022, the game took off in its own league, far surpassing the grievous shadows of Dota 2 and Counter-Strike at large.
But perhaps it is the strength of the community over the esports scene that has dominated the minds of organisers and esport organisations alike, making Valorant truly a worthy esport to take over the Indian PC gaming scene.
Which brings us to the question — what does Indian Valorant truly need?
A similar question asked by Dota 2’s creator Valve was posed at the Cologne Gamescom 10 years ago. “What does a hero truly need?” was Dota 2’s trailer into the world that managed to turn a nascent but popular game into a worldwide sensation, far exceeding the hopes and ideals of many other esport titles in the world. Riot’s League of Legends certainly has its own prestige and fame in the worldwide scene but Dota 2 continues to have its own honour among many MOBA enthusiasts and esport fans alike.
Indian Valorant, on the other hand, is a domestic ideal filled with an idealistic if not over-idealistic community that continues to thrive off domestic rivalries and subpar Asian expectations. While there have been fair chances for the Indian teams to prove themselves at a larger scale by now, there have been few punches that truly pack something extraordinary enough to attract larger attention.
Currently, India’s name and fame in the international circuit is continued by the likes of Global Esports’ SkRossi and Velocity Gaming’s Deathmaker, not to forget many streamers garnering the attention of the likes of AverageJones. Lest we forget, the Indian Valorant community has also earned a rather notorious meme on AverageJones’ stream, namely to call a Sova fail an “Average Jignesh”.
Memes aside, SkRossi has surpassed the expectations from a South Asian gamer, most notably by being featured as “The Best Valorant Player You’ve Never Heard Of” by the uber-popular TheScore Esports. This also means that SkRossi gets a chance and a hard-earned pedestal to become something beyond the dreams and imaginations of many budding Valorant players and professionals alike. While the dream team that is Global Esports met their Asian match at the APAC Last Chance Qualifiers for the VCT, they nevertheless captured much-needed international attention that brought the glory back to Indian Valorant. It perhaps will go down as among the extremely important first milestones for the entire country if not the South Asian scene as well.
On the other hand, Deathmaker’s lucrative name to fame comes from being the highest fragger of any professional match, earning him a “some people are just built different” from Esports Talk, another renowned name in international esports media. This also comes after being among the highest-ranked players by statistics internationally alongside SkRossi who beats him by a narrow margin.
With the Indian esports scene at a pace that is growing at a rate never seen before, Indian Valorant continues to gain a shine that has its own claim to greatness. Unlike ever before for a PC game, average Indian Valorant viewer statistics are enough to put a decade worth of Dota 2 and Counter-Strike to shame. With over 2000 concurrent viewers being the average and nearly 20,000 being the apex, the game proves its worth with a fan-filled community, a long-lost need of fame for professionals, and a chance for streamers and creators to match their competitive itch with a growth trajectory that dwarfs other games in
comparison.
- The Fan-Filled Community
The Indian Valorant community is currently at a phase that can be best described as “compassionate” and “eager”. Fans of the game continue to meet on servers and Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter communities and gather and grow at rates far surpassing its priors. Social media following for the game and the scene provides a much-needed break for esport professionals to turn into celebrities with their own fan-following and communities. Esport rivalries that are comparatively tamer than its priors are giving the community their thirst to dive deeper into the scene, layer after layer. But perhaps most importantly, the scene is able to sustain with competitive breaks and also continue to grow thanks to streaming now becoming a much more lucrative and casual option for professionals compared to an extremely high requirement for quality and consistency as demanded perhaps 3–4 years ago.
At the current diaspora for the Indian fans, there is little for the community to complain about. With numerous avenues for professional gameplay and casual content from competitions to memes, the game’s community achieves and continues to achieve phenomenal togetherness and growth irrespective of scandals and dilemmas for well-wishers of the community. Perhaps the only thing missing from the Indian community is a large number of well-wishers who have the courage to cheer for the prestige of having an internationally-renowned team.
With many fans quenching their thirst to cheer among GE vs VLT or Enigma Gaming vs the then-XO, there is but a matter of choice placed at the hands of fans that organisations often overlook to cash in on but are grievously miserable at not having more of them, namely the kind of fans who wish to see their favourite team succeed at an international level. However, a bright side is that Indian teams are certainly not facing the judgement and heat of its former esport titles when it came to losing to an international team. Despite a rather terrible scorecard against Paper Rex, Global Esports were still welcomed as the victors of giving India a chance to shine in the eyes of international peers. Certainly, this primary aspect of a new community combined with old faces allows for potential for organisations to replicate such positiveness and allowance of defeats in the face of many upcoming challenges to be faced in the face of growth.
- The Domestic Esports Circuit
The Indian domestic Valorant scene is making heads turn internationally itself amidst a lower prestige than hoped for by its aspiring professionals and veterans. While the Indian scene is in itself a well-established organism of its own with plenty of tournament organisers and organisations to look for, teams themselves are welcoming the chance to earn a career and a living within domestic boundaries. This marks an important and needed statistical and financial improvement for a PC title to be able to support more than 4 boot camps and over 8 professional teams in the country itself.
The lack thereof of international achievement and an international trophy, however, is perhaps the haunt that will continue to marr the many domestic victories that seem endless for teams like Global Esports and Velocity Gaming. Considered the cream of the current scene, the teams have amiable rivalries that truly suits something in accordance to Danish and Finnish Counter-Strike teams from the 2000s and the 2010s. The gap of making the leap is looked for by nearly every professional team with the VCC Qualifiers nearing day by day. The problems lacked by former PC teams were infrastructural shortages from good internet and bootcamp to the much-memed salaries, all of which are met with constant growth and support from organisations and sponsors alike. The issue from this point of resources thereafter becomes a lack of sustained competition with Asian and international teams alongside continued support for such competitions irrespective of losses from the Indian community.
To bridge these problems, the necessity of winning stands yet again at the top priority, which, unsurprisingly, is the haunting of two decades on the Indian esports scene. With a monumental leap and a steady and rapid growth over the past 2 years, India has never had a better opportunity to prove two decades worth of promises and talking, now with the ball at Valorant’s shot to take.
Indian professionals 2 years ago required a proper bootcamp, good internet, and steady salaries and championships alongside good sponsorship deals for content creation and streaming to give at least a small shot at performing internationally, if not also a good fanbase of at least 300 supporters and a trust-worthy and faithful organisation for the roster, all of which are met today in the Indian Valorant scene above expectations.
This brings us to the question — does the current Indian Valorant scene need anything more than a sustained opportunity to compete at an Asian level and diehard fans that support teams irrespective alongside organisations that know what it means to keep fans happy?
My thoughts exactly.