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Are esports gaining prominence in Mumbai? Gaming experts share insights
Updated On: 07 September, 2024 09:26 AM IST | Mumbai | Devashish Kamble
Back from a trip to the Esports World Cup 2024 in Riyadh, a Borivali-based gamer shares his experience. Plus, experts offer insights into Mumbai’s esport scene
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Vanshaj Sharma plays a match of FC24 at a local tournament in the city
A July 2024 report by the Esports Gaming Federation has revealed that India’s contingency of online gamers has grown to 442 million. Weed out the casual, leisurely kind, and you’d still have a third of the population getting in on the gaming action. Despite these numbers, gamers like Vanshaj Sharma — a veteran of the Esports World Cup qualifiers in Saudi Arabia last month — are few, and far between. Ahead of the Olympic Esports 2025, Sharma pursues the ambition diligently between juggling a college degree, practising 10 hours a day and competing with world champions.
Game, set, no match?
Although Sharma’s run at the qualifiers was cut short by a closely fought match at the main event, the gamer only has fond memories of the tour. “I was in awe of the scale of events in Riyadh. We were checked into a gamers’ village lined with gaming booths, practice zones, and community spaces,” he recalls. Incidentally, the village was built after a Saudi player won at the previous edition of the Esports World Cup. “The fact that the win sparked the creation of a whole village measuring almost eight kilometres in radius sounded bizarre,” Sharma says.
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