Our aim is to ensure a gamer with skill will be recognized and identified to represent India across international tournaments: Yash Pariani, CEO, Indian Gaming League (IGL)

Q2. How successful has the Indian Gaming League been ever since its conception? Especially in terms of community engagement and the number of titles that it has hosted tournaments in.

Yash: We’ve seen a lot of ups and downs. During the early days of the pandemic, we saw a massive jump in numbers. And when the PUBG Mobile ban occurred, we saw a drop, followed by a surge, in users for Free Fire.

We’ve seen a lot of success, having hosted more than 2000 tournaments in the last 12 months. Also, our user engagement has been thriving and increasing daily.

We also have many successful and unique IPs that have been well received, such as the Call of Duty Women’s Cup and the India vs Pakistan Call of Duty series. We look forward to launching multiple new IPs this year across a broader range of titles.

Q3. What particular role do you play in the org? What’s your day to day like as the CEO of Indian Gaming League?

Yash: As the CEO of a start-up, day-to-day operations have been increasingly longer but more fulfilling. We’ve gone from a team size of 3 last year to above 25 all in less than a year,

The main task I oversee is how to ensure we see growth while retaining our current users. As simple as it sounds, it’s a lot more complicated and involves assigning and hiring multiple individuals to have the data collected, analyzed, and implemented while managing the current team and adding more game titles to the platform, as well as ensuring that we’re streaming daily.

Q4. Where do you see the Indian Gaming League in the Indian esports landscape at present and in the next five years?

Yash: We hope to have several million users and help push the boundaries of esports through large-scale events and reaching further into new audiences across different cities, and creating a sustainable esports ecosystem.

We aim to ensure that a gamer with skill will be recognized and identified to represent India across international tournaments.

With the inclusion of esports in the upcoming 2022 Asian Games, it will be mainstream, and top esports athletes would get the same recognition as their sports counterparts.

We aim to help identify them at early stages and keep them challenged by hosting regular tournaments.