ELEAGUE Major 2017’s grand finals came up live with the Poland countrymen Virtus.Pro took on the tournament favorites. With not a great 2016 year for the VP side, Astralis had the upper hand in the grand finals. Astralis won the grand slam tournament by beating Virtus.Pro twice (12-16 Nuke, 16-14 Overpass, Train 16-14).
The veto process drew out Nuke, Overpass, and Train after VP and Astralis banned D2 and Cobblestone, and picked the first two instead. Nuke, considered to be the conundrum map to dominate on subsequently. Virtus.Pro, though, came up with a strong start in order to peak up in the grand finals best of three series. With
With Byali and Snax delivering at every critical instance, Virtus.Pro edged above Astralis. The first half of Nuke ended 9-6 in favor of Virtus.Pro and from there onwards, didn’t fail to build on their momentum. Although, Astralis won a couple of more rounds in the second half, the map ended 16-12 in favor of the Polish men.
Overpass had VP on the CT side of the map. Even though VP won a couple of initial rounds, it was Astralis which leveled back the game by individual skills. Snax’s highground deagle hit helped the Polish side in eliminating all of the Astralis players even though they lost the round. The bloodshed in the nineth round was initiated by Pasha’s AWP pick on glave which gave them the advantage to work with.
Snax’s 1v2 clutch ticked VP’s score to three against Astralis’ six. NEO’s triple in the tenth round decimated Astralis’ economy as they were forced to play on pistols in the following series. The scores 4-6 for the Danes. The half ended 9-6 in favor for Astralis. Xyp9x stood ground at the A bombsite with 2 big kills to claim the second pistol round. NEO, though, had different plans as he picks off Device and Glave with his forced Scout weapon. Three kills from Pasha and TaZ in the following round deflated Astralis’ lead at 9-10. Xyp9x’s 1HP vs three of VP had them winning an almost impossible round. The scoreboard flashed 11-9 in favor of Astralis.
Byali’s triple entry into the B bombsite got VP back into the game with the only two round margin for error for Astralis. Snax’s double post-plant affirmed fourteenth round for Virtus.Pro as they moved closer to winning the Major. Snax’s 4K didn’t bring results as Kjarbye clutches versus him to even the scores at 14-14. Another triple from the young map gets Astralis to the 15. Astralis wins Overpass, all thanks to the triple kill by Xyp9x.
Virtus.Pro began on the terrorist side of Train with byali opening up the inner bombsite and pasha getting a double to win the round. Byali once again opened up things in the second round with a headshot on Duphreeh and getting his team to 2-0. Virtus.pro won the first gun round after getting three regulars on board. A couple of more cleanup rounds from Virtus.Pro set Astralis five rounds behind them. Astralis couldn’t get off the mark even after being persuaded to go on a tactical timeout.
Virtus.pro served a phenomenal feast to the 1.34mn viewers with seven consecutive rounds on board. At the end of eight rounds, Astralis picked up their first round. VP sent Astralis back in a state of derelict after they failed to secure the inner bombsite even though with enough firepower. Astralis won their second round just after losing the previous one. Kjaerbye didn’t fail to deliver once again as he picks up three frags to win another round for Astralis. TaZ’s 2K during a 1v3 clutch didn’t help VP securing another round. The first half ended 9-6 in favor of Virtus.Pro after they won the last round.
NEO’s double pick at ally completely put down Astralis’ rush. Eleven rounds on board for VP versus six of Astralis at the end of seventeenth round. TaZ’s 4K in the next round destroyed Astralis’ dreams of getting the c4 down and earning a bonus incentive to assist themselves. Kjaerbye’s 3K at the outer bombsite set VP back to consciousness as the margin between the two side only stood 5. VP crawled at thirteen rounds even though being only on pistols and SMGs. Xyp9x buys another round for Astralis as they get eight rounds on board.
Astralis got 11 rounds on board versus 13 of Virtus.Pro. Snax’s secured weapon saved VP in falling apart before Astralis. As the game progressed, Virtus.Pro held their ground at 14, two ahead of Astralis. VP failed to defend the inner bombsite once again as Astralis decimated their economy by not letting them save. The scores leveled at 14 after Astralis beat VP on their pistol round.
The last and final section of the quarterfinals set at the ELEAGUE Majors 2017 Atlanta had two teams battling out for the spot. SK being the legendary owner of the Major trophy twice consecutively, facing against FaZe Clan. SK beat FaZe 2-1 (7-16 Mirage, 16-3 Train, 16-5 Overpass).
Mirage
The first map started on mirage with SK playing on the favored side of the map. Fox, opening up the things for SK but immediately the trades began to come on the other end of the map. KioShima’s 2K clutch against the legends got them the first round of the game. As ordinary as it goes, the next few rounds were affirmed by FaZe.
The Brazilian powerhouse looked lost for most of the rounds; they kept on losing one after another as the scores headed towards 9-2 in the first half of the last quarterfinals.
SK’s embarrassing retake at an empty bombsite didn’t make things better for them. The scores had halted at 10-2 before SK called their second timeout. Karrigan’s amazingly well-used smoke gave them a little room to work around, although he failed to win the round. KioShima’s 2K assisted FaZe to make an entry in the A bombsite. The scores at the end of the first half were unanticipated 12-3 in favor of FaZe.
FaZe confirming their victory in the map after winning the second pistol round. After allowing SK to get a round, FaZe get their confidence back into it winning another round on board. SK could only get seven rounds on board before falling apart on Mirage versus 16.
Train
SK’s neat start on the terrorist start in the second map left Karrigan’s Frenchmen thinking. Without rushing to force the second round, they continued concern about economy. SK’s five round lead at the very start worried FaZe in and out as the scores ticked to 5-0.
FaZe got off the mark at the seventh round all thanks to KioShima’s triple eco kills. SK Gaming headed towards the ninth round win after the end of eleven rounds. They closed the first half of the game 12-3, similar to what FaZe did to them in their map pick. FaZe failed to win the second pistols, their only opportunity to get back in the game. Apparently, train closed their depot at 16-3 in favor of SK Gaming.
Overpass
SK Gaming got to a good start in the first round of the third map after winning the pistol and followings. FaZe, however, got a quick double round after being down six rounds in a row. The scoreline looked 6-2.
Quickly crawled ahead to gather another couple of scores on their board, FaZe interestingly got back into the game with 5 points on the scoreboard in the less favored half of the map. SK Gaming held their ground strong even in the second pistol of Overpass. FaZe’s circumstantial downfall didn’t had a halt as they succummed before SK Gaming 16-5. SK gets to the semi-finals third consecutive time, they join Virtus.Pro, Fnatic and Astralis in the semi-finals. SK will face Virtus.Pro.
The second leg of quarterfinals of ELEAGUE Major 2017 was played between fnatic and Gambit. Fnatic won the series quite comfortably, defeating Gambit 2-1.
Fnatic, which is also the only team to have attended all the majors ever conducted on this planet made their way to the semi-finals very comfortably. Although they lost their first matchup against G2 Esports, they won the rest three consecutively in the group stages.
Cache
Fnatic’s pick Cache had Gambit assembled on the favored side of the map. Gambit although winning the pistol round, failed to capitalize on the opportunity as fnatic claimed the next three rounds by forcing the second one of the map. Gambit survived the rifle round with Adren’s 3K at B bombsite. Twist responded similarly with a triple and got fnatic back to a two-round lead.
Fnatic continued to extend their lead by getting shots one after another; the scores looked 10-2 after twelve rounds. Gambit, though, successfully got the third round on board with the muscle power of AdreN once again. The scores after the first half looked better than expected, 10-5 favoring Fnatic. The second pistols were claimed by Gambit in a surprisingly dominating fashion, with them not losing a single player. But Olofmeister was quick to respond to the second round alongside Dennis, to win anti-eco once again.
Fnatic forced Gambit to pause at a tactical time out and didn’t mind disrespecting it by winning the later round. The team scores 14-6 with Twist leading at 20-9. The first map wrapped up at 16-7.
Overpass
The second map, Overpass had a sudden turnaround of events. Gambit’s amazing start to the map rewarded them with a five round lead. Dosia’s knife attempt, though, helped fnatic steal guns in their eco rounds, which still didn’t end in their favor. The scores at the end of ninth round were 8-1 to Gambit.
Olofmeister’s 1v1 clutch against Zeus just merely doubled their scores as the scores headed to a 10-2 scoreline. The first half shut at 12-3 in the favor of Gambit Gaming. The second pistol also claimed by Gambit extending their scoreline even further. The map astonishingly ended 15-3 in favor of Gambit.
Dust2
The third and final map of the juncture, Dust2 had fnatic on the terrorist side of the map with four straight rounds on board. With seven consecutive plays on the B bombsite, fnatic executed all one of them with perfection.
Twist’s twist on the A bombsite on the eight round decimated Gambit’s hope well over as the scoreboard presented 8-0. The score’s ticked on the Gambit’s side as they clinched three quick rounds consecutively. Olofmesiter’s 2K set Gambit back in the backfoot. Muo’s, AdreN’s and Hobbit’s attempt to save their team worked massively in their favor as they claimed a couple of more rounds to get the score back to 9-6.
Fnatic’s triple bombsite take on the A bombsite in the second pistol helped them assure a stellar lead in the final map of the series.
Tactical time out by Gambit did contribute a round to their timeline but only to get destroyed in the following round and another one to make the scoreline 15-7. Fnatic advanced to the semi-finals of the Major for the 10th consecutive time with this win.
Astralis have successfully defeated the utterly strong Natus Vincere to advance into the semi-finals of ELEAGUE Major 2017. Astralis beat Na`Vi 2-1 (16-7 Overpass, Mirage 14-16 and 16-10 D2).
Natus Vincere started on the counter-terrorist side of the first map, Overpass. With the magnificent start from Astralis, Na`Vi fell well short of their target. The first half of the map witnessed a pretty dominant streak by the Danes as they took the score in their favor by an outstanding margin of over 9 rounds. The first half ended 12-3 against the Ukrainian side. Overpass concluded with Na`Vi’s depressing defeat, 16-7.
The second map, Mirage, had different tempo from the first one. Na`Vi were on the driving seat in Mirage, with undisputed 7 rounds on board, they forced Astralis to go economically after losing one to them. Astralis managed to win a round after GuardiaN failed to clutched versus three of theirs. Seized although, clinced back the victory after clutching a 1v2 after-plant situation.
Glave, however, played his leading role in getting his team back in game after clutching the thirteen round. At the end of first half, Astralis had six rounds on board. Apparently, both the teams had different versions of their arrangements for the second half. Back and forth into the fields, the game started to look exciting after Astralis initiated a comeback. The second half served superior contention of Mirage. Astralis’ focused attention on the map lead them to four straight rounds, they leveled the scores at 10. Device’s 4K gave Astralis their first lead in the map, and another four rounds followed in their favor with scores 10-14 in their favor.
Simple’s 2K got Na`Vi back in the game. The scores leveled again at 14 when S1mple and Flamie teamed up to defend A bombsite. Glave offered his team an incredible opportunity to capitalize on by getting two quick entry kills in the upper mid, which, however, was denied by the Ukranians as they got back the round with precision. The tempo followed for another 1:45 minutes as Na`Vi won the map 16-14.
After the match’s even scores, the decider map D2 had Natus Vincere on the CT base. Astralis didn’t waste any time to get the first four rounds after winning the pistol. Na`Vi, did come back from there to level the scores back again to 6. And from there further, it was back and forth until the first half froze at 8-7 in favor for Navi. The second pistol of the map was dominated by Navi, but Device’s 3K from his deagle denied them their anti-eco win, the scores 9-8. It was an equalizer by S1mple when he clutched a 1v2, getting three rounds on board and leveling the match board at 10-10.
Device opened up things in the twenty-first round which then was taken care of by Danes as they win the round without losing a single player. In the next round even, Astralis didn’t lose a single player against rifle less Army of Navi. Even after winning and extending their lead, Astralis headed towards to claim their tactical timeout before the twenty-third round. The scores being 12-10 in the favor of Astralis. Kjaerbye apparently denied another army of deagle in their base, as the score extended further to 13-10. The twenty-fourth round had massive potential to turn the tables as for the guns and rifles. Kjaerbye’s opening assited device to strike another frag as Navi fell apart in their only buy round from the last four. Astralis farewelled Natus Vincere 16-10. They move forward to the semi-finals.
At Atlanta, the ELEAGUE Major 2017 arrived at the playoffs. There are no considerable upsets yet in the tournament. The sixteen teams juncture last week has been now reduced to the top eight teams in the world.
The most exciting game of the playoffs will definitely be between Natus Vincere and Astralis, which assures to present a match as thrilling as grand finals. The playoffs will be played today between:
Natus Vincere vs. Astralis
The Ukrainian hope, all time famous for performing flawlessly in the playoffs will face the tournament favorites, Astralis. This game is supposed a pre-final final. Natus Vincere’s youngest warrior S1mpl3 will assist GuardiaN to face the Danes. The undoubtedly three best awpers in the world will be present in this game. Astralis lately, has been on form and point. The incredible matchup will bring the first semi-finalist!
Fnatic vs Gambit
Off-track swedes will face Gambit Gaming in the second set of the group stages quarters. Fnatic, which is lost in the deserts since Olof incurred injuries, look forward to regaining their form back in this major. Whereas, subjectively, AdreN’s leadership in the team have proven and done wonders for Gambit.
Virtus.Pro vs North
The third quarters of the ELEAGUE Major invites Virtus.pro to take over North, the team which bounced forward to gain spot in the playoffs, winning three straight after losing the first two games. North surrendered to GODSENT on Overpass which is obviously not a great tempo to hold before facing the plaw’s of the Polish frontmen. This semi-finals is the day’s last one.
FaZe vs SK Gaming
The fourth and final quarterfinals to determine the fourth semi-finalists will be played between FaZe and SK on Saturday. SK Gaming and FaZe both struggled in their group stages so this supposedly is an even matchup. The Brazilians did release their long time mate, fnx following personal issues and grudges between the team members, but quickly got used to their month old stand-in, fox.
Allu and Karrigan from FaZe will have the questions to answer for if FalleN gains back his lost form in this quarters of the ELEAGUE Major 2017. The Brazilian force will triple their achievements having been qualified for the Valve Major semi-finals three consecutive times before winning them.
Astralis, the Danish pride has announced on twitter about their partnership with the german automobile manufacturer, Audi. Astralis announced the deal on Twitter. Xyp9x, later shared an image presenting an Audi branded team jersey.
“It’s fantastic news for esports and a validation of our world, that a non-endemic brand like Audi chooses to work with Astralis and Counter-Strike, I’ve been in esports for more than 10 years, and we only created Astralis a year ago. It’s a fantastic way to celebrate the anniversary today. I’m very thankful for the work RFRSH Entertainment has put into this, making it a possibility for Astralis to enter a partnership with Audi.” Astralis founder Frederik Byskov said in a statement to theScore esports.
Interestingly, Astralis was founded in the year 2016 after they were dropped out by their former organization Team SoLoMid. TSM also very recently shut their CSGO division following unfavorable hindrances. It is not although sure as to how Audi lends their support to the Denmark roster.
Astralis, however, are not the first one to get sponsored by an industry-independent brand. Axe extended their partnership to NA orgs, TSM and Cloud9. NiP partnered with Betway. Vodafone, in the previous year, sponsored G2. VISA recently supported SK Gaming.
High profile teams are gaining interest from big-time sponsors that see them as a great investment for advertising as these teams travel around the world playing CS:GO. And it’s not just companies jumping in on the investment train, but sports franchises such as the Miami Heat and their partnership with the Misfits. Industry experts are forecasting a large growth in esports in 2017 with a total revenue range anywhere between $750 million to $1 billion dollars.
Gone are the days when you had to explain to people about video games and digital entertainment. The basic understanding of video games has evolved quite a bit in the recent years, two years in particular.
USports, a ₹100 crore league, announced by the founder of UTV Group, Ronnie Screwvala, will take its course in the year 2017 in the form of two different leagues.
USports
U Sports is a futuristic sports business company. As India marches into a new productive era of global acceptance, recognition, and presence concerning an economy, we see the evolution of a growing sports ecosystem. U Sports as a company aims to work with this ever-evolving sports ecosystem in India with a projective viewer-evolving old. Thereby synergising the growth of a scalable sports company that is organically growing with the Indian Economy. The Company is focused on it’s main sporting disciplines; Kabaddi, Football, E Sports and Motorsports.
UCypher by USports
The first season of UCypher is tentatively marked in the month of May, “We will have 10 teams of 12 players each. It will be a 45-day event in the first season and we are not selling the franchises for the first year. We will establish this first,” Ronnie told ET Now.
Supratik Sen, CEO of USports assured that they deliberately spent months on researching and shortlisting the first 10 contending teams of the season. Aiming not only on PC Gaming, USports will also feature console and Mobile games. The company is in contact with the on-air TV channels which will broadcast the league for two hours, 10 to 12 pm.
India witnessed its all-time high in Esports previous year with over INR 7.4 million as the prize pool. And with Ronnie Screwvala venturing into supposedly one of the largest untapped digital sectors; the future of Esports in India convincingly appears great.
Valve have deployed an update with the significant items related to the ELEAGUE Major. The update brings team and player stickers along with the newest addition of team grafitti. The Pick’Em challenge has also been continued for the ELEAGUE Major, scheduled in Atlanta next month.
Other than the Major items are the adjustments made to improve the conductive experience of the tournament organizers, which resolves the issue “No Steam Logon” before the round ends.
Mirage, Nuke, Cache and Inferno have also been refined with bug fixes and graphical optimization. The complete update log can be found below:
Valve CSGO Update – Atlanta Major 2017
THE ELEAGUE ATLANTA 2017 CS:GO MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIP
Team stickers, stickers autographed by professional CS:GO players, and all-new team graffiti are available for purchase in-game and from the Steam Community Market, with 50% of the proceeds going to players and organizations. For more details, visit http://www.counter-strike.net/pickem/atlanta2017
Team stickers can be used as game pieces for the Atlanta 2017 Team Pick’Em Challenge.
Group stage picks can be made immediately, Playoff picks can be made when the group stage has completed.
Group stage picks lock at the start of the group stage matches.
Playoff picks lock at the start of the first Playoff matches.
GAMEPLAY
Players killed during grenade-throwing animation will no longer drop a duplicate grenade if that grenade has already been thrown.
func_breakables will no longer make noise when hits deal no damage.
MISC
Added a server setting sv_steamauth_enforce to allow tournament organizers for LAN events to delay player kick due to No Steam Logon client issue until the end of a live round when tournament match will automatically pause and a round backup with all correct information will be saved for reconnect.
AUDIO
Lowered volume of bullet-bys and bullet impacts.
Changed default weapon near/far crossfade max distance so that a slight perceived volume bump doesn’t happen at crossfade junctions.
Also lowered volume of distant weapons slightly to address the same issue.
Slightly increased the min distance of the falloff so that 3rd parties can hear max volume at about 1m away from shooter.
Increased the input curve amount so that rate of volume decay over distance is more pronounced.
Added descriptions to many mixer groups.
MAPS
Mirage
Fixed various spots where C4 could get stuck
Removed some slight gaps in cover in Bombsite A
Nuke
Fixed bug where jumping inside of Toxic in Bombsite B would clip the playermodel through the ceiling
Removed vent-sound from top of Mini, Bombsite A
Cache
Fixed sound-spam when shooting at vent in Checkers through a prop
Clipping improvements
Optimizations
Inferno
Fixed some minor graphical bugs
Fixed a spot where players could get stuck near Boiler, Bombsite A
Added backfaces to gate used at bottom of Banana, Bombsite B
In the year 2016, I employed a couple of precarious things to my life. I quit my regular business routine. I devoted full time to TalkEsport and writing. Not sure which is more supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
The Esports fraternity of India is on the verge of creating a presence globally. The interference of sponsors for right has led the people of this country towards a rough yet equitable path. And that is for the better tomorrow. Esports is not your regular daily soap or form of boring entertainment forced on you. Esports, rather, is your daily dose of entertainment which you chose to be a part of. And India, exceptionally, welcomed this revolution in the year 2016.
India witnessed a lot in the year 2016. Regarding a new line of gaming events, and with the rearrangements of available players in the spectrum, we welcomed a couple of new esports team franchise which seems to have a broader and farther vision. The players doubled, even tripled in figures of the few games. We take a comprehensive approach towards the development and the formation of this enthusiastic community.
What was so special about 2016?
India’s wealthiest year regarding electronic sports and digital gaming. The year 2016 brought e-sports festivals defying the regressive thoughts about online gaming and video games in general.
SoStronk ended it’s beta phase and organized Valve’s official minor qualifiers. India’s mainstream beverage brand ventured into esports. MoS and senior politicians participated in an esports festival. A sum of ₹ 74,50,000 approximately were distributed among gamers. Although IeSF turned out to be a blunder, there’s still hope for a regulatory board in India. Flipkart hosted their first Esports event. Zowie entered the Indian market with BenQ. NVIDIA entered into the market willingly. International teams had a pleasant experience. Overwatch is an accepted Esports. And yeah, cosplay is a thing now.
In more than seven noteworthy gaming exponentials in India, which attracted the general crowd of over 11,00,000 people. According to the data compiled by from website statistics, searches and the impressions generated by the events, the highest number of people, MountainDew’s DewArena had the most impactful results.
The gaming events
Mangima 2016
The year started with a bang when a group of IITians decided to host a gaming convention in Pune. The event attracted a massive crowd. The best part of the event was the diversified audience at the venue. Mangima, the brainchild of Kanishka Singh, who is also supposedly the founder of Invisible Wings, offered a stupendous prize pool of Rs. 4,50,000. Invictus clinched the victory at the year opener Esports event.
ESL India Premiership
Photo courtesy:ESL India
If not the largest, but the longest and the most consistent gaming event in India in the year 2016 was ESL India Premiership brought by NODWIN Gaming. ESL hosted multiple segments of their premiership which further categorized into different sets.
ESL India Premiership consisted of six starter cups conducted online and two challengers, were the LAN events. The winners of challengers were invited to the pinnacle event, Masters, co-hosted with Delhi Comic Con.
Indian Esports Championship
Although IeSc had a muted start to the event, it was well received by the winners of the qualifiers and eventually, the event was a huge success as far as the gaming community is concerned. Huge prizes were given away at the event, and it marked the notable acknowledgment of the non-gaming crowd at the venue. We expect to see a lot more from IeSc in the coming year and hope it grows even bigger!
DewArena
DewArena was one of its kind event, the largest and the largest India had ever witnessed. The event brought to the Indian community by ESL India & Nodwin, and it concluded remarkably well having said that the winners got valuable prizes with them assigned as ambassadors of the beverage company Pepsi Co., for a marketing gimmick.
At the event, the representatives of the brand and organizers confirmed the next installment of the festival, which returns next year with a bang!
Zowie eXTREMESLAND CSGO Championship
It all started when Zowie announced their championship partnered with LXG. The special reward of winning a paid trip to China and competing with the best was what Zowie had to offer to the community. Unfortunately, the event dates clashed with DewArena, resulting in Invictus failing to be present at both the events, in spite of being qualified.
Next to follow was ASUS ROG Masters and later WESG. India welcomed too many opportunities to represent in foreign lands. Not only Asia but even in Europe.
NerdMeet 2.0
Not another CSGO or DotA 2 event, but NerdMeet was the epicenter of the revolution of the digital era in the Eastern region of the country. They didn’t offer fancy prize money. But the nerd culture was enough for people to make their way to this Calcutta event. NerdMeet is the brainchild of Aman Biswas and Sumon Pathak. The event follows a pretty odd yet successful mode of operation; you won’t find online registrations, nor will you be annoyed by their social media spams. But at the event, people will still turn up. The exclusive hardware and overclocking session are the zeniths of NM.
Brands like NVIDIA India, HyperX India, Quickheal, MSI India, D-Link India and XRIG supported NerdMeet.
Invisible Wings’ noticeable fleet in the year 2016 was commendable. The carrier which loaded following amounts of experience and firepower was the most successful and on point organization of the previous year.
Simar ‘psy’ Sethi
Mithil ‘MithilF’ Sawant
Ritesh ‘RitZ’ Shah
Akshay ‘Kappa’ Sinkar
Manan ‘Manan’ Bhatt
Not only did they win the maximum number of events, but they also glued together for the longest period compared to the shuffles in the recent years. IW, led by Simar ‘psy’ Sethi should be an inspiration of how diversity worked in their favor as being a strength for the Delhi-Mumbai squad.
2. Team Brutality
Stirring up the controversy by naming Brutality the second-best in India in the complete year, they did their best by maintaining the consistency. They were the favorites at most of the tournament, not only due to their performance but also because of their certainty of attending events all across India.
Ankit ‘V3nom’ Panth
Aakash ‘RiX’ More
Arun ‘Kundya’ Kandpal
Ayush ‘Astarr’ Deora
Jay ‘Fox’ Shah
Aditya ‘Ad1’ Shah
Team Brutality had a great year, their dedication towards participating in every event shows how much they want to learn rather earn. Perhaps, 2017 will seem to be difficult for the Mumbai squad, as they have two empty slots.
3. Dare2Dream
The youngest of all, Dare2Dream marked their entry into the professional scene by signing up players of their great existing squad MxB. Their achievements spoke for them. D2D were technically the team with the minimum amount of experience comparatively. Although they played most of their tournaments with stand-ins, D2D didn’t fail to impress the Indian audience when they beat Risky Gaming of UAE at ESL India Masters. D2d conquered the championship of Challengers 2 and ASUS Rog Masters, throughout the year.
India’s most promising lineup at the start of the financial year when it was making the news about its acquisition by Beyond Infinity, which already had their successful run in the DotA 2 segment. Entity Esports signed ex-Invictus players to form their identity in the FPS giant.
Tejas ‘Ace’ Sawant
Bharat ‘Ribbi’ Kiran
Karan ‘Excali’ Mhaswadkar
Gokul ‘dnm’ Shyam
Agenya ‘Marzil’ Kausik
The then supposedly best players in the country were roped in by the management, which further merged their organization with an existing establishment, Invisible Wings. Entity Esports were the frontrunner in the Indian Esports for the entire year. Although they had the firepower, they got the honor only at Zowie eXTREMESLAND India qualifiers.
5. Overcome
It appeared from nowhere; Overcome made their way into the top four teams in India during mid-year events. By participating and making most of it through gaining experience, Overcome, at one point of time were so much charged up that they were able to beat every participating team in ESWC India qualifiers and made their way to ESWC Paris, representing the nation.
Vivek ‘Shabby’ Patel
Anuj ‘Amaretsu’ Sharma
Aaqib ‘Bababiceps’ Dingankar
Shoeb ‘Minato’ Shaul
Divesh ‘Monster’
Things didn’t work well from there onwards as they were unable to continue their consistency. Although the fields were leveled, Team Overcome’s performance at Indian Esports Championship was a huge disappointment.
6. D5 – Destructive 5
If you are an old school Counter Strike fanatic, you probably have come across d5, or their players certainly. D5 had their greater performance after they recently started trying out their combination of the CSGO squad. They were among those teams who were far from being inactive.
Arguably the most consistent player of 2016. There is no rough form for this soldier. Simar ‘psy Sethi rose with the amateurish lineup from Kolkata. With his leadership and in-game skills, he took charge of the roster and rode them through their transition phase. After a strong start in Team Brutality, Psy made his way to the newest franchise in which he leads his team with conviction. Invisible Wings was to psy, as Manchester to Ronaldo.
Not to forget his performance at DewArena, Psy was one of those players who had the competency to turn the tables. Sethi originates from Delhi but has been able to keep up with most of the top players pretty well. Although Invisible Wings had players holding more experience than him, they eagerly follow their young leader when it comes to captaincy.
2. Ayush ‘astarrr’ Deora
The brutal star, who has the temperament similar to what psy holds. Ayush stays in the second position on TalkEsport’s Wrapup 2016. Ayush who started his year with Team Brutality was among few of those who can destroy the opponents courageously, unassisted.
Widely known for his target-oriented confident gameplay, Ayush never leaves hold of his sight when it comes to shooting the enemy in the head. Having said that Psy also peculiarly holds the same values, Ayush comparatively edges above him slightly due to his aim duels.
If there were a counter to mark headshots from this Mumbai fellow, he’d surely beat most of the players not by limited numbers. In the year 2016, Astarr spent most of his time with Brutality, with his aggressive playing style, he steered the team to victory through difficulties most of the times.
3. Sabyasachi ‘antidote’ Bose
It would have been a disaster to not consider this rising star in the top three best players. Sabyasachi, who has been the Voyager in his career, is an inspiration to the umpteen numbers of people. You can not only learn from him on “How to be a star player?” but this junior assassin can also give you lessons on “How to continue being a star?”
Sabyasachi has played this year mostly under the guidance of HellRanger. Starting his journey from MxB to now being playing under the reputed Dare2Dream, Antidote has all the therapy to evict mistakes. If this is not enough, Saby is also lucky to have been played under the guidance of both the prominent leaders, Simar ‘Psy’ Sethi and Bhavin ‘HellRanger’ Kotwani. Assaults or a sniper rifle, Saby can adjust his grip according to the state of requirements for his squad.
4. Karan ‘Excali’ Mhaswadkar
No bias, but this youngster from Mumbai has always been my favorite when it comes to playing style. There are not many gamers whom you’ll want to spectate continuously for hours, but Excali is rightly on the other side of the fence. Karan, who has played earlier in MxB, and Brutality, started his journey professionally through Entity Esports when he was picked up by Tejas ‘Ace’ Sawant. Although they couldn’t win in numbers, Excali’s performance was outright the best in his team.
Not only he is known to have best rifle shooting, but teammates of this youngstar can also depend on him even during pistols and economic rounds. Karan makes to the third best player in my list of the best players.
5. Bhavin ‘HellRanger’ Kotwani
Introduced above as a visionary leader, HellRanger is the man who believes in not picking up the players, but making them. He is in the scene from quite a long time and has been the reason why most of the players playing in his team have turned professionals. Bhavin is known as manufacturers of players! India’s supposedly and undoubtedly best leader.
You won’t find him top fragging in every game, but he is the reason why most of his players play out of their minds without having to think about the execution of the next and following rounds. In our list of players and leaders, Bhavin surely deserves a spot!
6. Mithil ‘MithilF’ Sawant
Beginning his journey with his patronymic duo, Tejas, Mithil had a range of consistent performance in the year 2016. Slightly downwards compared to his amazing figures in 2015, Mithil has been cut straight loyal to Invisible Wings. Not worrying about what comes next, he is known mostly for his perfect play of style with sitemate, Manan.
Despite not at his best, the year 2016 was the most successful year for Sawant, as far as lifting trophies are concerned. From winning India’s largest gaming festival DewArena to beating Brutality at the ESL Challengers #1, Invisible Wings blazed the trail at their boot camp.
7. Tejas ‘Ace’ Sawant
If we take Indian Esports a year back, you could name him undoubtedly the best player in the country, not only aim wise, but also because of his selective mind. Tejas ‘Ace’ Sawant started his year playing for Scorchers, then midway decided to join Invisible Wings, only to bounce back and revived Invictus, which was later bought by Entity Esports.
Tejas Sawant has always been the first choice for the businessmen and team franchise owners when it comes to building a professional CSGO team. This 22 yo’ from Mumbai has represented India in most of the international events. Despite the rivalry at every edge of the corner, Tejas professionally represented Team Brutality at ESL Masters as a stand-in.
8. Aakash ‘Rix’ More
The second from Brutals, RiX is a name which you won’t find anywhere else but Brutality. With the tendency and propensity to knock the opponents out of the map from his sniper rifle, Aakash has always been a Brutal guy. In the year 2016, his performance was considered as the best passive awper in the country at a point of time. Aakash is also known to share the burden of his team with his long-time duo V3nom.
In the year 2016, RiX’s supremacy with the AWP, Besides his unparalleled mastery with the AK47 left many players shocked. RiX has played a significant role in making Brutality one of the top teams and marking it where it is today.
9. BharatKiran ‘Ribbi’ Reddy
Invictus to Entity Esports, Ribbi has been the extended supportive arm for Tejas. At the Zowie eXTREMESLAND finals, Ribbi’s performance was remarkable. They even conquered the Indian championship and later traveled all the way to China to represent our country.
Ribbi’s famous for annoying the best players in the country by his lurker playing style. Even though players are familiar with his cheeky moves, you won’t always expect him to be at your back.
10. Manan ‘Manan’ Bhatt
Famous and considered to be as the support to Mithil, Manan has similar progressive actions when it comes to sticking to a team and making the most of it. Joining Invisible Wings was his positive start for the year, and from there onwards he is on the beaten track. Best performance for Manan is just being Manan.
You won’t find him top-fragging more often. Similarly, you won’t find him getting carried or being a burden to his team. He always plays support and has been commendable in doing so.
Manan’s DewArena’s performance was the top of his career where he lifted the trophy alongside his fellow teammates, Psy and Mithil.
Readers and critics may or may not agree with me on the rankings, but from my perspective, I arranged the ranking at my finest, closest to perfection. Other than the organizations, players, and events, I will also like to write about some personalities who are just starting to get on board.
MambaSr
I will start by offering a special mention to Ranjit ‘Mamba’ Patel. Mamba started professional shout casting for ESL in the year 2016, from there onwards, he was grouped in by AlienHCasting and there further, Drag2Death. Mamba’s year 2016 proved out to be more than successful; as he, fortunately, had many opportunities where he traveled in different parts of the world and casted with several partners. Eventually, Mamba made his way to international casting scene; he was the commentator of World Cyber Arena in China.
Angela
Noteworthy, the concept of girls playing a game was never existent until we came across this Bangalore women. Zerah goes by his in-game nick Angela when she plays DotA and streams for her followers. Apart from the streams and professional games, she is a renowned DotA 2 shout caster.
From casting ASUS Rog Masters live from the venue or being a part of various brands as their brand ambassador Zerah, has everything in her propensity which you expect to see in a girl gamer.
Most of all, she takes gaming so seriously that to experience the arena and the environment of a major event; she traveled all the way to Seatle to spectate DotA II – The International, live from within.
Boogie
Mostly known as Sid Joshi. Boogie has been astonishing with his performance. Whether it is about reporting a fellow scam or about providing valuable feedback to the community events, Sid has always been at the top of the charts of the most active esports personality. Sid’s contribution to Indian Esports has not only been unofficial, but also through his esports franchise. Not to forget that he is the HOD of management for Entity Esports! If you ever doubt the TRP booster Sid has in his propensity, do check this out.
Drag2Death Community
In no order whatsoever, Drag2Death has alse been on my list of top contributors in the year 2016. The startup, founded by Ayush Garg and Amol Bharti, apart from offering free servers to the community players, Drag2Death has actively supported the Indian esports ecosystem. Not to forget that events like SuperNova, Indian Esports Championship and Asus ROG Masters wouldn’t have been possible without Drag2Death. The team led by Jaideep Sood, D2D’s sister concern Dare2Dream were also among the top in the list of professional esports franchise.
Drag2Death, noteably, organized India’s first ever Overwatch tournament.
AlienH Casting
The previous year, you must have come across the name AlienH Casting one way or the other. An associative club to unite the casters and freelance talents in India. AlienH Casting is unprecedented when it comes to Hindi shoutcasting. They made themselves known to the world when they were named official Indian casters of a Valve Major. MLG Columbus 2016 had AlienH Casting as their official broadcasting partner. Founded by Mohit Rajgaria and Ankit Dwivedi, AlienH Casting is currently taken care of by its general manager, Preet Arora, who is also a renowned community contributor.
I have substantially covered the parts of the affairs from 2016. Esports in India will not remain esoteric for a longer period. With the sponsors having an eye towards this untapped industry, we anticipate seeing the mainstream media and companies participating in this industry with full veracity.
It is, however, arduous yet, sagacious to fully dedicate more time to the development and making the scene better than what it is today. We expect the year 2017 to be the supremo as far as digital gaming in India is concerned.
Dare2Dream, which is the third best team in India right now has successfully unveiled their lineup for the year 2017. While the three of them remain intact, two new players will be added to the lineup. Dare2Dream will play their first event at Matka, BITS Pilani, Goa, in February.
After adjusting themselves for a little while, D2D has finally settled. With the addition of their new players, D2D looks stronger than ever comparatively. Our sources close to the team and the management confirmed that D2D is going into the year 2017 with PokerF (ex-NSD) and Shabby from Team Overcome.
Dare2Dream’s new lineup:
Bhavin “HellRanger” Kotwani
Raju “PokerF” Jittu
Sabyasachi “Antidote” Bose
Shailesh “Blackhawk” Dalvi
Vivek “Shabby” Patel
On the speculations, we got in touch with the team manager of Dare2Dream, Jaideep Sood. Jaideep responded with a high degree of positivity and assured that D2D would indeed bring more surprises and trophies this year. He added:
“We have one of the youngest squad competing against legends. They have already shown their muscle power against the top tier teams. Perhaps, this year we aren’t focusing on India solely, we want to realize the dream we couldn’t live last year, representing our nation overseas.”
D2D were one of the most successful organization in 2016 in different segments of the game. Although they began their franchise only with a CS:GO roster, they soon expanded to DotA 2 and FIFA. They plan to venture into Overwatch soon.
