All games and Indian contingent confirmed for 19th Asian Games Hangzhou

The 19th Asian Games are scheduled to take place in Hangzhou, China, from September 23 to October 8, 2023. Apart from traditional sports, this edition will feature popular esports titles, including Dota 2, PUBG Mobile, League of Legends, and more, as medal events. This implies that any medals won by the countries in these games will be added to their final medal tally.

Asiad is a quadrennial multi-sport event that features the best athletes from all across the Asian continent participating in hundreds of medal events. The 19th Asian Games was initially slated to be held in September 2022. However, it was postponed to the following year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Esports titles and Indian contingent at 19th Asian Games Hangzhou

Previously, during the 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta and Palembang, esports was included as a demonstration sport, with Tirth Mehta, India’s representative in Hearthstone, winning the Bronze Medal. For this edition, the Olympic Council of Asia has taken a giant stride forward, including seven titles as official medal sports.

Initially, the esports program at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou included eight events. However, after the OCA Coordination Committee meeting in March earlier this year, Hearthstone was removed from the list, reducing the number of events to seven. The esports titles currently included in this Asiad are as follows:

• Arena of Valor
• Dota 2
• Dream Three Kingdoms 2
• FIFA Online 4
• League of Legends
• PUBG Mobile
• Street Fighter V: Champion Edition

India will be sending its 15-member contingent for four esports programs. The representatives for the various games were selected via the National Esports Championships 2022, which was held in early 2022. The list of selected players for the four events is as follows:

FIFA Online 4

• Charanjot Singh
• Karman Singh Tikka

Street Fighter V: Champion Edition

• Mayank Prajapati
• Ayan Biswas

League of Legends

• Akshaj Shenoy (captain)
• Samarth Arvind Trivedi
• Mihir Ranjan
• Aditya Selvaraj
• Aakash Shandilya
• Sanindhya Malik

DOTA 2

• Darshan (captain)
• Krish
• Abhishek
• Ketan
• Shubham

Unfortunately, Indian players will not be taking part in the three remaining events. The reason for them missing out on two of the titles in question is that Arena of Valor and PUBG Mobile are blocked in India under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. On the other hand, Dream Three Kingdoms 2 is not available in the country.