A Trip to India: Why Are Orgs Picking Up Teams There?
India is a fascinating country to look at from an economic and esports perspective. It’s the world’s second-largest country by population behind China, experiencing rapid growth over the last several decades. The country has provided a significant backbone for the modern global tech industry, with many tech workers for companies such as Amazon and Microsoft coming from here.
Despite all of this, the country still struggles with massive inequality, a horrid social caste system, and countless problems with public sanitation, infrastructure, and development in rural areas.
Gaming in India
On the esports side, its gaming population is estimated to hit over 620 million players next year, yet no big-name teams are competing in or winning major events in the industry.
There is a good number of teams in the region, don’t get me wrong, but I’d be impressed if you could name a player or two, let alone an organization, from the country.
There are plenty of tournaments in the country, yet none of them get coverage nor draw teams from elsewhere.
Still, despite all of these issues, western teams are starting to see potential in the region and have begun expanding into it, with OpTic and Fnatic having picked up rosters in the last couple of years.
While OpTic’s went out in a blaze of scandal after accusations of cheating, Fnatic’s squad for PUBG Mobile has the potential to become the first successful team by a big org in the country.
With big local names on the squad and a strong performance before their pickup, the team could quickly establish the Fnatic brand as the team of choice for not only Indian PUBG Mobile players, but those getting involved with other games like League of Legends, CS:GO, and others.
Even if Fnatic only manages to capture 1% of the gamer market in the country, that’s still 600,000 new fans for the org; 600,000 new people willing to spend money on merch and for Fnatic to garner sponsorship deals with.
Whether or not other big-name esports orgs follow in Fnatic’s footsteps to India remains to be seen, but this already a watershed moment for Indian esports, and the future is only looking brighter.
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