It’s been almost 80 years since the end of colonialism but the Commonwealth Games somehow is managing to keep itself relevant in contemporary times by providing a competitive platform for professional athletes.
This year is no short of positives being provided by the Commonwealth Games platform, one such positive is for India’s Esports industry. Hosted in Birmingham, the 2022 Commonwealth Games features an Esports Championship.
The inaugural multi-nation esports tournament is organised by Commonwealth Games & Global Esports Federation, scheduled in Birmingham from August 6-7. This might just be the biggest platform yet for India’s esports gamers to showcase their skills. A medal in this category will be added to India’s total tally and significantly raise the stature of esports in India.
India will be participating in the Dota 2 and Rocket League championships. A massive send-off was organised by ESFI for the contingent that consists of eight players. Here’s India’s roster for the grand event:
Team Dota 2
Moin Ejaz (Captain), Ketan Goyal, Abhishek Yadav, Shubham Goli, Vishal Vernekar
Team Rocket League
Hargun Singh (Captain), Sandeep Sahani, Rushal Reddy
Both teams qualified for the event by clinching impressive wins in the tournament’s South Asian Regional Qualifiers held in July, 2022.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2022 will also be played at the tournament, unfortunately no one from India could make it through the South Asian qualifiers.
The Commonwealth Esports Championships will have a series of Preliminary rounds from the 3rd to 5th of August at Notthingham Trent University, following which the Semi-Finals and Finals will happen from 6-7th August at ICC, Birmingham.
“The entire team is looking forward to playing against the best teams in the world and proves our mettle. We have been paying a lot of attention to our strategies and practicing a lot in the hopes of a podium finish. Getting the chance to represent the nation in the very first Commonwealth Esports Championship is a very sweet reward to show for all of the efforts we have taken in playing this game at the highest level. A big thank you to ESFI for today’s send-off ceremony and especially for the sports psychology session that taught us a lot of valuable things“
Moin Ejaz, Captain (Dota 2)
A total of 7 countries have qualified for Dota 2 and India has been placed along with England, Wales and Trinidad & Tabogo in Group A. A total of 8 countries have qualified in Rocket League and India has been placed in Group B along with Canada, England & Wales.
