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Krafton’s recent announcement of Battlegrounds Mobile India has stirred up a lot of conversation among mobile gaming enthusiasts, and Solo Rush is no exception.
Many PUBG Mobile streamers and personalities have been quite vocal about what to expect from the upcoming title and how it will affect India’s mobile esports scene as it stands today.
In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda Esports’ Abhishek Mallick, Solo Rush, one of the most successful PUBG Mobile content creators, talks about how it has been since the original game was struck down in the country.
Solo Rush opens up about some of his expectations from Battlegrounds Mobile India
Here is an excerpt of the conversation.
Q. You have had one of the most successful PUBG Mobile YouTube channels in India. Can you tell your fans about how you got started, and what inspired you to seek a full-time career as a content creator?
Solo Rush: It all started when I was in seventh grade. I had a channel back then where I used to upload gameplays of old shooting games regularly because I love such games, but due to some issues with my channel I had to delete it. And, I gave up hope that I would ever be successful on YouTube, but then came PUBG Mobile and gave me hope.
I started playing the game, and all the practice from my shooting games paid off, and I started playing well in PUBG Mobile. I started uploading videos and had the confidence that I will improve more and more. Meanwhile, I used to watch PUBG PC players like Shroud, Ibiza and Frogman. I love these guys so much and have learnt a lot from them.
I started uploading montages after improving and I have always believed in quality over quantity, so I used to upload one or two videos in a week and always gave my best and never worried about whether I would get views or not, I always gave my best and never cared about the results.
None of my videos went viral for the first 2 years. I used to play the game on phones like Realme 3 Pro or Realme XT that gave me around 40 fps at that time, but after that when I got iPhone I uploaded a video titled "Becoming Indian fastest Player," and that video went viral. After that I still maintained my old uploading schedule to maintain the quality of my videos and I remained consistent in both the style and uploading.
I am what I am because I maintained consistency, kept on doing hard work, learnt how to present content, improved at the game, etc. Due to all the growth my channel had, I started getting support from my parents and that is how I am able to do youtube full time.
Q. PUBG Mobile has been the title that helped you make your channel so very successful. What was life like for you after the game got banned? What were some of the emotions you went through at the time?
Solo Rush: After the game got banned I never thought that it would put an impact on me but it had an impact on my skills and I realized it too late. When I used to play in the Indian lobbies before the ban, I used to get a good ping, and also players used to rush a lot but after the ban, we had to play in other servers.
Because of this I was getting high ping and was facing a lot of issues like desync, and bullets were not getting registered due to which I was getting demotivated and my playstyle got affected.
PUBG Mobile is everything for me because it had given me a lot and it has made me what I am today. I am known for my presentation and skills and these aspects were affected by the ban due to the reason I have mentioned before.
Q. Why did you pick the name Solo Rush for your channel? Is there an interesting story behind it?
Solo Rush: Yes, there is an interesting story behind naming my channel as Solo Rush. Whenever I played squad matches back in the day, and the game was new, I always used to rush solo without telling my teammates.
That way I would either get killed or kill enemies due to which my friends asked me why am I rushing solo into the enemies and they stopped playing with me after that. And that is why I named my channel Solo Rush.
Q. Since the beginning of your channel 2 years ago, you never really did reveal your name and true identity to your audiences. Is there a reason why you want to stay anonymous?
Solo Rush: There is no particular reason behind me staying anonymous, the fact is that I am not interested in revealing my identity, I just believe in working secretly while giving my best and not caring about the result.
I used to share my videos with my friends just to get the initial traction on them. When I started this channel I just wanted people to know about my skills and how I play the game, that's it and also I was quite introverted at the beginning so that is also a reason why I was never interested in revealing my identity.
Q. With the recent announcement of Battlegrounds Mobile India and the ensuing pre-registrations, there has been a lot of talk on what players can expect from Krafton’s upcoming title. What are your particular thoughts on it?
Solo Rush: I think in BGMI the changes we may see would be that it might have cosmetic items like clothes, weapon skins, vehicle skins, parachute skins, etc. that are based on an Indian theme, we might see maps that are inspired by Indian locations, the game may have Indian weather in it.
Q. How different do you feel Battlegrounds Mobile India will be compared to PUBGM? What are some of the things you would like Krafton to improve on, and some they want to retain through the previous title?
Solo Rush: As I said earlier, BGMI might be different from PUBG Mobile theme-wise. On the improvement aspect, I want them to give a better user experience and they should try to launch the game properly optimized and it should not have any game-breaking glitch or bug at the launch, the game should have good user experience and optimization (like Game For Peace).
Something that I want BGMI to retain through the previous title is the events (which may be based on Indian festivals). Events should occur from time to time just how they used to be in PUBG Mobile.
Q. When it comes to the professional aspect of Battlegrounds Mobile India, do you feel that India getting its own version will hamper the player’s chances of making it big on the international stage?
Solo Rush: I think, after the launch of BGMI, the competition will go through the roof because there is a lot of hype around the game and people are ready to play it. And after the launch, there will definitely be a lot of tournaments that are going to be hosted and the competition will skyrocket.
I think after the release of the game people will start fresh and I hope that people will get a chance because here in India there are a lot of underdogs who are not able to get recognition due to lack of chances, so they should also get a chance so that they can represent themselves.
The teams which will perform well here in India might get an invitation for international slots just like Chinese teams got an invitation to PMGC and they played the Global version of the game where Nova XQF won the PMIS Cup, so I think after the launch of BGMI the competitive scenario will become really big.
Q. Since the PUBG Mobile ban, many players have migrated to other titles, namely Free Fire, Call of Duty, and Valorant. How many of the players do you think will return when Battlegrounds Mobile India finally goes live?
Solo Rush: According to me, many players are going to return to BGMI because initially, they had migrated to other games from PUBG Mobile. And after the game's launch in India, the esports scene is going to become big and the players who had migrated from PUBG Mobile to other games after its ban will eventually return to BGMI to grind and grab the opportunities.
Q. Do you feel Battlegrounds Mobile India can help revitalize the mobile esports scene in the nation? Especially after the hit, it took in terms of both engagement and investment, ever since PUBG Mobile got banned.
Solo Rush: I think after the game goes live it is definitely going to revitalize the Indian esports scene and it will scale up. With the launch of BGMI many tournaments are going to be introduced and the players will get an opportunity to start fresh and there are many underdogs in India who are grinding, I hope they will get opportunities as well.
After the PUBG Mobile ban in India, there was a massive drop in engagement with the content that the content creators were making and the content was not performing as well as it used to perform before the ban. The people who had invested in the game have faced severe losses and some players had lost the motivation to play the game and stopped playing.
Q. What’s the future like for your channel? What can fans of Solo Rush expect from their favorite content creator in the near future?
Solo Rush: As of now I will keep on creating content on BGMI, be it scrims, funny content from classic matches, or whatever it may be and I will try to introduce a variety of content to my audience. My main focus is going to be on content creation, in the future I may shift to PC games and I am ready to entertain the audience that way too.
