India qualify for 14th World Esports Championships

India’s Counter Strike: Global Offensive team produced strong performances in the South Asian Regional Qualifiers of the 14th World Esports Championships after hammering Pakistan and Bangladesh in the South Asian regional qualifiers.

The team, comprising skipper Ritesh Sarda (Defaulter), Shuvajyoti Chakraborty (Mcg1LLzZz), Anshul Adardkar (KiiLSwitCh), Hrishikesh Shenoy (Crazy_Gamer) and Harsh Jain (lynX), recorded identical 2-0 victories over Pakistan and Bangladesh in the semi-finals and final respectively. Led by Sarda, the dominant Indian team hardly had to break a sweat in their matches as they comprehensively defeated Pakistan in two different maps by 16-6 and 16-4 and then displayed a similar aggressive performance to outperform Bangladesh in both maps of the final by 16-7 and 16-5.

Besides the CS:GO team, Tekken 7 athlete Hitesh Khorwal (rcool) and eFootball professional Hemanth Kommu (peshemak7) will also represent India at the World Esports Championships, which is scheduled to take place in Bali from November 29 to December 12, 2022. Hitesh and Hemanth secured their berths by winning the National Esports Championships (NESC) 2022, conducted by the Esports Federation of India (ESFI), earlier this year.

Organised by the International Esports Federation, the prestigious event will witness participation of top athletes from over 120 countries, competing in six different Esports titles: CS:GO, Dota 2, Tekken 7, eFootball, as well as PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which will be making its debut at the championships. The 14th WEC has a prize pool of US$500,000 (?4 crore).

Lokesh Suji, Director of Esports Federation of India and Vice President of the Asian Esports Federation, said:

“The team was simply too good for the opposition in terms of their skills, strategies and coordination. They won comfortably against Pakistan and Bangladesh shows the confidence they have in their gameplay. We are extremely proud of their performances and are now looking forward to seeing them compete with the best teams from all over the world in Bali. Everyone at ESFI wishes them the best of luck for the grand tournament.“

Ritesh Sarda, captain of the Indian CS:GO team, added:

“It feels amazing to represent India again at the World Esports Championships in back-to-back years. We definitely want to improve on our performances from last year and have been working very hard to do so. The team has done very well in showcasing its qualities in game while prevailing in all these qualifiers but the WEC final will be a stern test on a much higher level and we want to match that. I have high hopes from the tournament and we want to bring some glory from it back home.“

The same CS:GO team had participated in the last edition of World Esports Championships, held in Eilat, and finished eighth in the final.