Former Indian cricket star Robin Uthappa will be the face of the inaugural SOG Grandmasters Series’ South 1 Zonal Finals, an initiative of the Skillhub Online Games Federation (SOGF), scheduled for December 18-19 at the Sheraton Grand in Whitefield, Bengaluru. Along with Uthappa's strong star power and overwhelming response through their registrations for the online qualifiers of the southern zone championship, the tournament will celebrate exceptional talents and unearth mind sports athletes and promote excellence nationwide.

The inaugural SOG Grandmasters Series registrations indicated significant interest across all categories. Over 55,000 players signed up for free online pre-qualifiers of Indian Rummy Grandmasters (IRG) and Indian Chess Masters (ICM), highlighting their increasing popularity as cognitive skill-based mind sports. The top 125 from the total registered players, who played the Online Qualifiers for IRG and ICM will travel to Bangalore for the Zonal finals. In addition, the Chess for the Blind event, organised by the All-India Chess Federation for the Blind (AICFB) served as pre-qualifiers to the Indian Chess Masters for the Blind (ICMB), from which 16 top players have been shortlisted for the South Zonal Finals.