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The COD Mobile community in India is currently witnessing one of the most prominent social media movements in mobile gaming.
The #mobileonlycomp has become a symbol of solidarity between pros and esports organizations. They all stand for a simple idea: competitive COD Mobile should only be for mobile devices, and tournament organizers should discourage the use of iPads.
Activision recently announced that the COD Mobile World Cup will be coming back in 2021 after a brief delay due to the worldwide pandemic. The much-awaited international tournament is perhaps the ultimate road to glory for any professional COD Mobile player.
In light of this recent announcement, we had an opportunity to converse with the COD Mobile roster of Team IND. Hailed as one of the best teams in the South Asian region, they spoke about the future of COD Mobile in India.
In an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda Esports’ Dipanjan Dey, Team IND discussed why the COD Mobile #mobileonlycomp movement in the Indian mobile gaming circuit is as important as PUBG Mobile getting unbanned.
In conversation with Team IND's COD Mobile roster
Team IND's COD Mobile roster is currently preparing for the COD Mobile World Cup. Their goal is to win the tournament and prove their dominance in the region.
There is a reason why Team IND is considered the "Avengers" of the COD Mobile professional circuit.
Lead by Jash "Learn" Shah, Team IND has some of the best players in the region, including Anirudh "VegaZ" Vhavle, Zeel "Neu3no" Patel, Sameer "BrosZxs" Sinha, Rishi "TrunKs" Dubey, and Chiranthan "BurnZ" Shetty.
Here is an excerpt of the conversation:
Q1) First and foremost, congratulations on the 21-0 whitewash in the COD Mobile India Cup. Give us your origin story. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and the journey that led you to the path of becoming a COD Mobile pros?
Learn - Thank you. We are happy that we were able to set this record. It's all about the grind and experience. We started our journey from Critical Ops. It was an FPS game that we started playing competitively. Before that game, we all were in different titles, playing casually.
VegaZ - We have known each other for almost or maybe more than four years now. We were once rivals, and now that we look back, we laugh at how we used to practice. We were trying to get better than each other.
Before we realized it, we were enjoying this friendly rivalry. We didn't see ourselves playing with each other someday. So, this team is a band of passionate people who enjoy gaming competitively. Casual gaming is for chilling, but the real fun lies in the competitive nature of the game.
Q2) With the ongoing COD Mobile Indian Gaming League and BattleMania Scrims, as well as the upcoming JIOGames COD Mobile tournament, what is the team’s approach this time around? Do you think that the weapon's meta this season is going to play a part in the upcoming tournaments?
Neu3no - It's the same - play, figure out your mistakes, work on them, get better, win the game. Our chief concern would be how long it will take us to improvise on our mistakes. We cannot afford to make the same mistakes many times. So, we will focus on avoiding making them as well.
Regarding Meta, we are just waiting for the new Season update and the new meta. Those who master the new meta first would change the tide of battle, and it seems like QQ9 might not be a meta weapon in COD Mobile season 3.
Q3) What goes through your mind when you see COD Mobile stalwarts like GodLike, Force One and SO8l across the field? Are you guys inspired to be like them, or do you want to eliminate them and build your legacy?
BrosZxs - We believe every team has the potential to get to the top. It’s just the amount of time they grind that decides where they will end up. We have seen how GodLike performed in the COD Mobile India Cup Open. They surprised us. It made us grind even harder so that we won’t lose to them in the COD Mobile Pro Cup.
TrunKs - Every time we see them, we need to mentally prepare ourselves because we know they will do something new and incorporate some new strat they haven’t used before. That is honestly what's scary because, you know, they have grinded the game a lot more from their last defeat. We believe we still haven’t built our legacy yet. We have a long way to go.
Q4) Let us talk about one of the most important factors in professional COD Mobile - the device. How would you address the expensive device vs skilled-players-on-budget-phone debate in COD Mobile? Do you think a young aspiring pro-COD Mobile player should invest in a new phone or practice with what they have?
BurnZ - Devices do matter to a lot of extent when you look at the competitive side of COD Mobile. Better display and frame rate helps one to play better. However, if you have skills, then even you can outperform the ones who have a better device. COD Mobile is a game which requires a lot of space, and it runs better on devices with higher RAM capacity. That much is common knowledge.
TrunKs - Players who use budget devices to play COD Mobile should focus on developing their reflexes and muscle memory. Remember, games are about skills, not the device. Learn himself has played Critical Ops competitively on a Redmi device. Despite that, he was able to outperform his competitors. One can always take inspiration from this fact and practice on whatever device they have.
Q5) While we are on the topic of devices and platforms, let us address the latest controversy which has been trending on YouTube. The COD Mobile #mobileonlycomp hashtag has turned into somewhat of a social media movement. Could you give us a little insight into the matter?
Neu3no - Yeah, #mobileonlycomp is what this COD Mobile community needs. We have been playing this game since it was launched. In the competitive scene in India, we have seen only 3 teams staying at the top. There are a lot of teams that have potential. If given the opportunity, they can showcase their skills and prove that there are other teams besides the other three in the competitive scene.
Learn - We have accepted the fact that iPads have too many advantages in this game. Bigger hitboxes, extra space for fingers hence easier movement, better response rate, etc. are a few notable ones. It is easier for anyone to play on an iPad, but the true competitive nature lies only on phones.
VegaZ - Everyone plays on the same level and with equal restrictions. Even all the LAN events are played on the phone. It takes time to switch to a phone, as you need to start grinding on another device with an entirely different screen size and different experience.
Q6) The #mobileonlycomp movement promises to unify the Indian COD Mobile community in ways that have only been seen in the EU/NA region. How do you think this will affect the community, especially the ones playing on iPad?
BrosZxs - We believe it unites the community, as even the top teams in our region have agreed upon switching to phone only. We aren’t looking forward to winning just a few big Indian community tournaments, but our eyes are on an even bigger goal - the COD Mobile World Championship.
VegaZ - All the teams who have qualified for further stages in the COD Mobile World Cup have already realized this, and this is why even they are supporting mobile devices in the competitive scene.
We have already seen a few iPad players switching to mobile because they are aware that the true competitive scene exists only on a mobile. This community still has some iPad players who can’t or won’t switch to mobile. They can go for content creation, just like Miney from the EU region.
Q7) The discussion about competitive COD Mobile is not complete without exposing the lack of unity in the Indian mobile gaming community. How do you propose gaming orgs, pro players, and content creators to unite and build a better community?
TrunKs - We think once a LAN will be hosted, it’ll automatically bring all pro players and content creators together. We are lucky that most of the orgs in our game are from PUBG Mobile, so they are already unified.
The #mobileonlycomp movement in COD Mobile is as important as PUBG Mobile getting unbanned in India, and like any movement, it needs proper exposure.
BurnZ - There have been many instances in our community where we have seen all orgs and players walking hand-in-hand over something. We have seen how content creators have shown unseen sides of this game.
It’s not a stressful game, but COD Mobile should be enjoyed as we play it. This is one of the important lessons all the content creators have taught us in the game.
Q8) Since most of the controversy surrounding #mobileonlycomp is about iPad users, give us an idea about the “unfair advantage” a big-screen player has in competitive tournaments?
Learn - iPads are easy to play on, and it is much easier to see everything on a big screen. In the last update of the game, a new frame rate was introduced in iPads - Ultra Frame Rate, which gives those players a slight advantage as compared to players on mobiles, which only support Max Frame Rate.
VegaZ - Let's not forget that the hitboxes on iPads are bigger as compared to mobile devices, hence it’s easier to shoot on iPads. iPads also provide enough touch space on the screen, allowing players to move easily. They can even switch their gameplay from 4-fingers to 6-fingers.
Neu3no - It’s extremely difficult to play 6-fingers claw on mobile, and it would need a lot of grinding as compared to other devices. No, we don't hate iPads, but we cannot deny that iPads have stopped the growth of the competitive community.
We have seen a lot of teams backing out, accepting they cannot win against them, and thereby not contributing towards the healthy growth of this community.
Q9) Besides the competitive endeavors, what are the plans for this roster with respect to content creation and live streaming on various platforms?
BurnZ - While playing the game competitively is our first preference, we also sometimes love to get involved with content creation. We want people to not just look at us as a bunch of people who play CODM as there are also other things in our lives. We have shared a lot of our lives in vlogs.
BrosZxs - Even on live streams, we have shown how we are not so different from the rest of the community. Our org is helping us with this. They are supporting us as much as they can so that we share our game moments as well as our funny moments with others. We haven't restricted content creation to just CODM, because it's a vast domain.
Q10) As professional COD Mobile players, what are your thoughts about the current season? Most importantly, what changes would you want in the Ranked section to improve the in-game experience?
BurnZ - The current rank season matchmaking is based on the skills of an individual, which is great. However, it’s still not up to the mark. When we enter the game matchmaking, we expect better teammates or opponents, but we have seen so many matches being one-sided. This is one thing that we want the developers to change in the game.
Q11) What does the team think about the recently formed government initiatives for gaming as a course in schools and colleges (which includes cells being set up for gaming courses). Do you think this will usher in a new generation of mechanically talented mobile gamers in India?
BrosZxs - As a kid, we have all played games, and some of us were exceptionally good at the games we played. But the games were treated as a way to keep ourselves distracted or feel relieved. Games and esports have never been taken seriously by our government and society.
TrunKs - What the government is doing will be supported by the gaming community. You can expect a massive surge in the number of people opting for gaming courses. After all, who doesn’t like playing games like COD Mobile?
We are happy that our government is now accepting gaming and not treating games as a mere source of entertainment.
We hope these steps will improve things for the current existing gaming community. It will also break the mainstream and 9-to-5 mundane routine.
Q12) Is there anything you would like to say to your COD Mobile fans and the next generation of esports talents from India?
Learn - Yeah, this game is challenging. Sometimes, it can get frustrating, but we want you to know things aren’t supposed to be unchallenging in the first place. Easy things are no fun. And the more you grind, the better you will get.
Neu3no - People don’t appreciate what you do most of the time, so ignore them and only listen to those who care about you. Esports will still take time to get accepted in our society, so keep grinding and keep proving everyone wrong.
