Tirth Mehta, Charanjot Singh storm into quarter-finals at National Esports Championships 2022

The 2018 Asian Games medalist Tirth Mehta lived up to the expectations and entered the quarter-finals of Hearthstone at the Esports Federation of India’s (ESFI) National Esports Championships 2022 (NESC ’22) that began on April 18.

Mehta had won bronze when the Esports was played as the demonstrative title in the 2018 Asiad. Apart from Mehta, Vinayak Subramanian, Karthik Varma Vegesna, Shikhar, Adarsh Shivam, Garv Arora and Manveer Singh also made it to the quarter-final stage in Hearthstone. Charanjot Singh produced equally impressive performance in FIFA 22 and progressed into the quarter-finals as more than 200 athletes from across the country have been battling it out in five popular Esports titles: DotA 2, Hearthstone, FIFA 22, Street Fighter V, and League of Legends. The other players who advanced in the FIFA 22 are: Saransh Rajesh Jain, Karman Singh Tikka, Sagnik Banerjee, Akshat Khandelwal, Saksham Rattam, Soumak Ghosh and Afnan Ameen Khan. 

The NESC has been a prestigious national event hosted by the ESFI for the esports community since the 2018 Asian Games. This time, however, to add more thrills to the chase and up the level of competition, the ESFI has tweaked the format and the national qualifiers are played in a double elimination format. As part of this change, teams and players will now get a second chance to qualify for the finals, making the nail-biting finish of the NESC ’22 a must-watch event.

In DotA 2, Team Whoops secured their place in the quarter-finals along with Serene.Chaos, Misal 3 Pav, Team Avengers, DMC, Digicont, Stylish Gamers and New Gods while Mohit Sharma, Aman Ahuja, Viplav Bhandari, Kasif Sayyed, Bhagwant Singh, Ayan Biswas, Aditya Verma and Mayank Prajapati will be part of the Last-8 stage of Street Fighter V. As there are only four teams registered for the esports title League of Legends: Temple of Kings, Support No Vision, Pineapple Cake and Coco Cats, and all of them will start their campaign directly in the semi-finals.

Based on the performances of the on-going event, the ESFI will be selecting the Indian contingent for the upcoming Asian Games as the players will get a chance to represent the country at the mega event. Esports has been added as the medal sport for the first-time ever in the 2022 Asian Games which is scheduled to take place in Hangzhou, China from September 10–25. The winners of NESC ’22 will participate in the AESF’s Road to Asian Games – Regional Qualifiers (June–July, 2022), which are being held for seeding at the main event in China.

The ESFI will live stream the thrilling action of the NESC ’22 from the quarter-finals on its official YouTube channel from April 22–24.

The quarter-finalists from the playoffs who will be fighting it out to compete in the finals are:

DotA 2

Winner Bracket Top 4

Team Whoops, Serene Chaos, 1 Misal 3 Pav, Team Avengers

Loser Bracket Top 4

DMC, Digicont, Stylish Gamers, New Gods

Hearthstone

Winner Bracket Top 4

Tirth Mehta, Vinayak Venkat Subramanian, Karthik Varma Vegesna, Shikhar

Loser Bracket Top 3

Adarsh Shivam, Garv Arora, Manveer Singh

FIFA 22

Winner Bracket Top 4

Saransh Rajesh Jain, Karman Singh Tikka, Sagnik Banerjee, Charanjot Singh

Loser Bracket Top 4

Akshat Khandelwal, Saksham Rattan, Soumak Ghosh, Afnan Ameen Khan

Street Fighter V

Winner Bracket Top 4

Mohit Sharma, Aman Ahuja, Viplav Bhandari, Kasif Sayyed

Loser Bracket Top 4

Bhagwant Singh, Ayan Biswas, Aditya Verma, Mayank Prajapati

Since there are only four teams (Temple of Kings, Support No Vision, Pineapple Cake and Coco Cats) registered for the esports title League of Legends, all four will directly clash in the semi-finals of the national qualifiers.