Our aim is to become the world’s preferred esports smartphone brand: OnePlus Head of Marketing Siddhant Narayan

The recently concluded Domin8 event by OnePlus was a resounding success - not just in terms of consumption, but also in its endeavor to combine two highly popular but disparate worlds. For the first time in the history of PUBG Mobile, you had stars from the world of cricket such as KL Rahul, Smriti Mandhana and Yuzvendra Chahal team up with some of India’s newest esports sensations like Scout, Dynamo and GodNixon.

The tournament showcased the ever-narrowing gap between traditional sports and esports in India. Team Smriti Manadhana won the event, with over five lakh viewers watching on keenly.

No other smartphone brand in the country has come up with an idea like Domin8 yet. That shows how far ahead of the curve OnePlus is with its plans for developing India’s esports and gaming ecosystem.

The company has become an industry leader in the Indian mobile gaming market. It now has its sights set on becoming not just India's, but the entire world's preferred gaming smartphone brand.

Sportskeeda spoke exclusively to OnePlus’ Head of Marketing Siddhant Narayan, to discuss a variety of topics - from the surge of esports consumption in India and their plans of investing in other Indian PUBG Mobile teams, to the company’s vision for the next five years. Here are the excerpts of the conversation:

Q. Do you think the surge of mobile gaming player numbers and viewership in India during the COVID-19 lock-down will sustain once the traditional sports like cricket and kabaddi start airing again?

The esports industry in India has been booming over the last couple of years. When PUBG Mobile was launched in India it not only took the esports industry by storm but also lifted its standard, setting higher benchmarks with every tournament.

Since then, the Indian esports culture has seen enormous reform and has been appreciated globally as well. Streamers have projected a 4X rise in their viewership, and mobile gaming has paved new avenues for esports.

With the rise in adoption of esports in India, smartphone makers are increasingly focusing on optimizing the gaming experience on their devices. We at OnePlus have built every smartphone with the promise of a fast and smooth experience, inherently making it a gaming phone.

The unparalleled OnePlus gaming experience is curated around our industry-leading 120hz display and best-in-class Qualcomm processors. We have also introduced Dual Speakers and Dolby Atmos in our devices, which deliver crystal-clear sound for a captivating and immersive gameplay.

Our recent collaboration with Fortnite to introduce an industry-first 90FPS gaming feature is a testament to our commitment to give our fans the best gaming experience on smartphones. The recently concluded Domin8 tournament is also in line with our work towards creating exciting experiences for our gaming community

The future of esports in India is promising. And with OnePlus being the first choice for any gamer, our technologies have contributed to creating a seamless experience for the gaming community.

Q. The recent Domin8 event was a grand success, and was the first its kind in terms of being a combination of traditional sports and esports. Will we see more of such community engagement events from OnePlus in the near future?

Community engagement through offline activities and online events has been central to our engagement efforts. We are always looking to curate exciting experiences that help us connect with our community at a deeper level.

Summer in India is synonymous with cricket, so we wanted to bring the power of cricketers and gamers together and offer our consumers a unique opportunity to see and engage with their favorite cricketers in a new avatar.

With OnePlus Domin8 we saw a great opportunity for our hardcore OnePlus gamers to come forward and be a part of this unique opportunity. They could virtually interact with pro-gamers and Indian cricketers, experiencing the fast performance of PUBG Mobile on the new OnePlus 8 series - which we believe is one of the best devices for gamers.

As far as future events are concerned, we will always look at working on more unique engagement that will add value to the community.

Q. OnePlus’s relationship with esports actually goes back almost a year, with your Fnatic partnership. What was OnePlus’ vision while partnering with a renowned team such as Fnatic, and are you guys looking at getting involved with more teams in the future?

Gaming has always been central to OnePlus, and working with Fnatic was a natural partnership born from friendship: two like-minded organizations looking to push the boundaries. With all our partnerships, we strive towards breaking the norm in industries and attitudes, pursuing perfection backed by our Never Settle spirit.

We are always open to collaborating with like-minded partners who share our vision and attitude.

Q. ‘Fnatic mode’ has been introduced on OnePlus phones for hardcore gamers. Can you give us more information about that, and whether there are plans to introduce more such features going forward?

At OnePlus, we believe that one single feature cannot drive the overall functionality of a smartphone. We strive to bring the latest and most relevant technology back to our community by constantly innovating and providing the best possible user experience.

Every smartphone built by OnePlus is made to perform with the promise of a fast and smooth experience, inherently making it a gaming phone.

Focusing on the hardware, display and RAM are the two common features that users focus on while looking at a smartphone’s gaming capabilities. However, from our community feedback, we have learnt that users want devices which can deliver future-ready hardware coupled with clean and effectively optimized software. A balance between the two is necessary for delivering that superior experience.

Taking the OnePlus 8 series as an example, users prefer bigger screens with minimal bezels to get a fully immersive gaming experience, and a lot of RAM for smooth and lag-free gameplay. The OnePlus 8 Pro also includes Dual Speakers and Dolby Atmos, which deliver crystal-clear sound for captivating and immersive gameplay.

Further, software optimizations which enhance gameplay such as network enhancement, DND, enhanced CPU and GPU function and RAM optimizations are welcomed by the gaming community.

Q. What is OnePlus’ vision for eports over the next five years?

OnePlus has always been focused on building a community culture in India. One of our core focus genres is egaming, and it will only get better and stronger in the coming years. We will continue to create amazing products and authentic consumer experiences, and leverage key partnerships to build the gaming industry in India.

A few examples here would be our partnerships with Fnatic and Fortnite, and our recently concluded gaming event - OnePlus Domin8. Such partnerships and optimizations have helped us become the most preferred gaming phone of choice in the industry.

Our aim is for OnePlus to be the preferred gaming smartphone for egamers at every level, be it professional or amateur.

Q. You spent over seven years in Nike working on traditional sports like football, squash, running and athletics. What are the learnings you have taken from this industry, and how have you applied them to your roles in the tech industry with the likes of Jio and OnePlus?

I have been very privileged and fortunate to have worked in both the sports and the tech industry for a long time. One key learning for me has always been to listen to the voice of the consumer, irrespective of the industry.

At Nike, the focus was to always inspire consumers through the power of sport. At Jio, the focus was to build a truly digital-first brand for consumers that enables the whole of India to get online.