Just last week we did a story about all-female Counter Strike: GO team “Top-G”, a team consisting of six gamer girls from India, winning the National Esports Championships (NESC) 2023 and qualifying for the World Esports Championships 2023. Top-G created history by being the first female team from India to qualify for an international esports tournament.
We have some more qualifications for the World Esports Championships. Abhinav Tejan won the Tekken7 grand finals at NESC 2023, and will now represent India at WEC 2023. Despite starting from the loser bracket, Tejan came from behind and beat top athletes in his category to be crowned champion. Abhinav Tejan is well known among the Tekken community in India. He will be participating at WEC for a record 6th time.
The 29-year-old was also the winner of the South Asia regional finals of the Tekken World Tour 2022 when he defeated player Loveneet by a score of 3-2, 3-2. Tejan has tons of international competitive experience under his belt, and we will certainly be hoping he can continue his winning streak at WEC 2023.
I have won a lot of tournaments in these past few years but winning the NESC 2023 was really important to me I had lost two times in it in the past 2 years. So, I wanted to make a comeback by winning it this year. Qualifying for the IESF finals in Romania had given me the chance to represent India for the 6th time in IESF finals which is personally a really proud moment. I am really looking forward to the finals where I will try my level best to get my country a medal this year.
Abhinav Tejan, NESC 2023 Tekken7 Champion
The second WEC 2023 qualifier is Ibrahim Gulrez (hashtag-gullu) for eFootball (formally Pro Evolution Soccer). Gulrez beat Pritesh Quinton Dsouza (bad_pritt) in the final round by 3-2 and 3-0 to seal his maiden WEC qualification. Similar to Tejan, Gulrez also began his campaign in the loser bracket.
The feeling is really amazing. I have been trying to achieve this feat for the last couple of years and to finally get there feels amazing. My victory involved a mixture of hard work and some luck. One can only feel that happiness after trying so hard to win the competition for the last couple of seasons
Ibrahim Gulrez, NESC 2023 Champion – eFootball
Promising prospects for CS:GO and Dota 2
Additionally, the road to WEC 2023 is just a few steps away for India’s candidates for CS:GO (Open) and Dota 2. Team Orgless5 beat two-time NESC champions Team Wicked Gaming in the finals by a score of 2-0. The team consists of captain Harsh Jain (f1redup), Jaspreet Singh (SpawN), Sadab Khan (SK wow^), Piyush Kalwania (clouda), Nikhil Kathe (N1kace) and substitute Omkar Thube (omkar09).
“Our motto to win the qualifiers was to trust the process, trust ourselves and trust our decisions. We worked extremely hard to defeat the country’s best CS:GO teams and become the champions. The World Esports Championships are very important for us and now we will prove ourselves in the regional qualifiers to qualify for the global finals as well,
Harsh Jain, Team Orgless5 Captain
The winner for the Dota 2 finals was Team Top G comprising captain Manav Kunte (mnz), Vishal Vernekar (HBK), Abhishek Yadav (Abhi-), Shahbaz Hussain (PinkMaN), Krish Gupta (Krish`) and substitute Jaikishan Malik (KaEL). Top G beat Team Mob by 2-0 in the finals. Top G’s Vishal and Abhishek were also part of India’s Bronze medal winning Dota 2 team at Commonwealth Esports Championships 2022, so we can count on some experience to win in the next stage.
Orgless5 and Top G will now compete in the upcoming Asia regional qualifiers to qualify for WEC 2023. The teams will first compete in online mode, and upon qualifying, will play the regional finals offline.
About WEC 2023
WEC 2023 will be held in Romania between August 24 to September 4. The tournament will feature gamers from 130 countries, who will battle it out against each other for a slice of the $500,000 prize pool. This will be the 15th edition of this tournament. The tournament will feature CS:GO, Dota 2, Tekken 7 and eFootball 2023.
