“PCs will remain the first choice for professional esports and serious competitive gaming”, Amit Doshi, CMO at Lenovo India

Whether one talks about gaming on PC or on mobile, the competitive scene remains interesting on both platforms. Seeing professionals compete against each other in high intensity matches makes it extremely enjoyable.

There is a dedicated gaming scene in South Asia featuring games like Valorant, CSGO, Rainbow Six Siege and Dota. Tournaments for these games are hosted by various organizations in the region.

To discuss the topic of esports in the South-Asian region, Sportskeeda esports’ Amlan Roy conducts a one-on-one interview with Amit Doshi, Chief Marketing Officer of Lenovo India.

The following is an excerpt from their conversation.

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1) Mr. Amit Doshi, just to get our readers familiarized with you. Can you introduce yourself to our readers by telling them what your responsibilities are at Lenovo?

Amit Doshi: I lead marketing at Lenovo India and my team is focused on building equity and reputation of Lenovo’s corporate brand, its products and services in India and South Asia. Gaming is a top priority for us and it has been a privilege to work with the gaming community and witness Legion’s stellar growth in India.

2) Lenovo is quite well known in the technological industry. The company has a lot of popular products because of its effective marketing. So Mr. Amit Doshi, what strategy is Lenovo going to roll with when the subject of esports comes up.

Amit Doshi: We have a full ecosystem of Lenovo Legion products, from gaming notebooks to gaming desktops, monitors and accessories. Lenovo is also committed to supporting the gaming ecosystem through investment in esports, gaming conventions and strategic partnerships.

A testament to this is the Legion of Champions (LoC), which is our flagship gaming competition in the Asia Pacific region. We also host an annual online gaming tournament called Rise of Legion (RoL), whose fourth chapter was announced on the 10th of August in the Indian subcontinent.

3) Lenovo is known for hosting multiple game events starting from Valorant to Rainbow Six Siege. What was the reason behind picking Apex Legends for the Rise of Legion tournament on-going right now?

Amit Doshi: We love all game genres so we partner with different partners to meet the varied needs of the gamers out there. Popular titles such as Valorant and Rainbow Six Siege have featured in our Legion online tournaments. We decided to host this chapter of Rise of Legion with Apex Legends, because it is one of the biggest games in the world with over 100 million players. We were excited by the game’s quality and potential.

We also began our partnership with the Apex Legends Global Series over a year ago, and this global partnership has been great for our fans.

Introducing the new home of competitive Apex Legends: @PlayApexEsports 🏆 Be sure to hit that follow button and keep your eyes peeled for more to come! pic.twitter.com/gEqv0sCPRG

— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) August 23, 2021

4) Apex Legends has been out for almost two years and has a player base of almost 100 million. What are your thoughts about Apex Legends as an esports title in the South-Asian region?

Amit Doshi: As per our data, Apex Legends continues to be one of the most played PC games across South Asian countries. It also has an active community in this region, and eSports tournaments like the Rise of Legion are increasing the awareness about this game. We expect it to become even more popular, with a committed fanbase and player base.

5) Lenovo has already hosted multiple events partnering up with The Esports Club. Tell us about some of the experiences during this partnership, and how the organization has helped Lenovo in reaching their targeted communities?

Amit Doshi: Our most recent partnership with The Esports Club was in July 2021, when we co-hosted an exclusive ‘Apex Legends Streamer Showdown’ with AMD and Reliance Digital. Some of India’s leading gaming influencers and professional streamers participated in this.

We had also collaborated with The Esports Club for our first Valorant Open event with Intel and Croma Retail. This tournament hosted 12 live streams that generated over 424 thousand views and 1.4 million impressions.

6) The Rise of Legion was created with the aim of building a hub for gaming enthusiasts and esports professionals. So, when did Lenovo decide to diversify its business into esports while remaining a technology company?

Amit Doshi: Lenovo Legion has always been dedicated to the improvement of the gaming community, through innovative products and esports partnerships. We own a few esports properties, and the two important ones are Rise of Legion (our online gaming platform) and Legion of Champions (our flagship gaming competition). They are great avenues for us to listen to the real needs of gamers in the region, and also our way to provide a platform for aspiring gaming talents to shine.

Legion entered the Indian esports arena in 2019, and this year we are hosting the fourth chapter of the Rise of Legion.

7) From a business perspective, hosting games like Free Fire and BGMI would be more beneficial because of their huge dominance in the South Asian market. However, the Rise of Legion was solely made to support gaming enthusiasts residing in this region. Can gamers from non-mainstream games see the same light as these mainstream games with the Rise of Legion?

Amit Doshi: Why not? We always keep listening to our community and are happy to include more titles of their choice in the future.

8). It remains a matter of debate that the PC tournaments have shown more skillful plays on the platform, on the other hand, mobile tournaments have given more entertaining matches during their tournaments. Now, sports are meant to be a faceoff between players to show who is better in their chosen game. What are your views on this, which platform is more viable for esports?

Amit Doshi: Competitive tournaments are meant to be a battle of skills. PC games offer more control, more immersion and more ways to showcase gaming skills. Hence, PCs will remain the first choice for professional esports and serious competitive gaming tournaments. Although mobile gaming is very popular, it is still considered more for casual gaming.

9) Lenovo has already hosted tournaments for other games earlier and is currently hosting an Apex Legends tournament. Apart from Apex, what other games are in stock for promoting esports in the South-Asian region?

Amit Doshi: Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty Warzone, CS:GO and Fortnite are some of the games in our pipeline for gaming enthusiasts in the subcontinent.

The underdog story ends here. @DWGKIA exceeded everyone's expectations and we can't wait to see you again! #SixMajor pic.twitter.com/q5PvIFWnVi

— Rainbow Six Esports (@R6esports) August 20, 2021

10) It is a challenge for every marketing team to bring in new customers and provide them with what they need. When hosting a tournament or event, how does the marketing team at Lenovo's esports department make various decisions?

Amit Doshi: Indian gamers are well-informed and quite vocal about their opinions and demands, across social media platforms. This helps us gather a lot of information and feedback to enhance our decisions. Their feedback enables us to present activities and solutions that engage gamers the way they wish to be engaged.