"Seeing Deathmaker make it big in the scene from my town, made my interest grow more towards gaming": Abhirup "Lightningfast" Paul Choudhury, Global Esports Valorant star

The growth of competition and vast opportunities provided by esports in India has helped multiple talents to come to the fore.

Inspirations from those who have already achieved the feat in this region have made others try hard for it too. One such highly inspired human being who gave it all and outgrew himself in just a couple of months of tremendous hard work is Abhirup Paul Choudhury, also known as Lightningfast.

The 22-year-old had not only been one of the best players of CS:GO in India in 2020, but is also currently holding the top spot with Global Esports in Valorant. Lightningfast's CS:GO career was fast-paced, and his career had just taken off before he decided to pursue with Valorant.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda's Satyaki Das, Lightningfast opened up about his journey so far and how he managed to equip his "lighting fast" skills.

Here's an excerpt of the conversation:

Q. First, I would like you to introduce yourself to the readers.

Lightningfast: Well, I am Abhirup Paul Choudhury and I go by the in-game name 'Lightningfast.' I am a small-town gamer from Silchar, Assam who started playing CS 1.6 in 2016 for fun and later went on to become a professional CS:GO player. From CS:GO i moved to become a professional Valorant player who mainly plays the sentinel role for Global Esports.

Q. Starting with the beginning of your journey, you were a CS 1.6 as well as a CS:GO player. Can you throw some light on the initial phase of your CS career? When did you start and how did it go?

Lightningfast: As I've mentioned earlier, I started playing CS 1.6 for fun and then shifted to CS:GO in late 2017. I used to mostly play in local cafes for a year and ultimately formed a local team named Flashback Gaming. It became the best team in Northeast India by winning the North eSports Championship in December 2018.

Post that, we tried our hand to compete on National level, but given our lack of technical things like good PC and a stable internet connection we failed to produce any good results nationally. Finally, with the team WickedGaming, which was later known as eSamurai Elite, we got some results as we qualified for the ESL IP Masters. Later, Global Esports noticed me and decided to pick me up for a trial for their CS:GO roster.

Q. You started playing CS 1.6 in 2016. When did you realize you should try FPS professionally? How did you manage to outgrow your skills so quickly?

Lightningfast: I always had a great interest in playing FPS games since my childhood days. In late 2018, when I was already playing at the local cafes and was outplaying local veterans, I realized I had the potential to become a professional CS:GO player. I managed to grow my skills during mid-2018, when I started to play with the local veterans in the cafes regularly. I learnt a lot watching them play and playing along with them.

Q. You’re from Silchar, Assam. However, you have spent some time in Kolkata, West Bengal in College. How was the gaming scene in both of these cities? Did you face any difficulties when you made this change?

Lightningfast: For the majority of my career, I have been in Silchar playing online and offline in local cafes. But the little time I spent playing in Kolkata, I spent playing online at my rented flat or in the Zone Cafe playing on steam. Not gonna lie, playing in Zone Cafe was a bit expensive, so I mostly tried to avoid it whenever I could.

Q. You’re currently pursuing a B.COM course in Bhawanipur College of Kolkata. How do you manage your studies and professional gaming simultaneously?

Lightningfast: Studies has never been an obstacle while trying to pursue my esports career because the college faculty was understanding enough and went out of their way to help me pursue my passion and make a career out of it.

At the same time when my exams were near, I used to dedicate time for my studies and somehow manage to get decent marks.

Q. What plans do you have after graduation? Do you want to pursue something in the field of academics or continue gaming professionally?

Lightningfast: I want to pursue esports as my primary career, but at the same, time I also want to complete my masters.

Q. How did you finally end up in Global Esports in CS:GO?

Lightningfast: In the mid-2020 when I was playing under eSamurai Elite, we were playing a tournament organized by Elite hubs where we won the finals defeating team 444, a team consisting of the 3 core players of Global Esports’ CS:GO roster. After the match, I got a call from Deathmaker saying that the organization was impressed by my performance and that they were willing to offer me a trial period as their CS:GO roster's 5th player.

Q. Coming to Valorant, you started participating in tournaments with Level 5, simultaneous to your CS:GO run with Global Esports. Did it not affect your gameplay in any way, be it Valorant or CS:GO?

Lightningfast: No, I don't think so. At that point of time Valorant was still relatively new, and I was playing it for fun and entertainment. It didn't occupy any of my focus. My main focus was still in CS:GO. The tournaments with level 5 started happening when my friends needed a 5th player for their tournament participation, and at that point Global Esports didn't have a stable CS:GO roster, so I had the luxury of time with me.

Q. You finally made a move to Global Esports’ Valorant roster last year. What made your interest grow in Valorant which made you leave CS:GO for it, even though your career at CS:GO was upscaling at that moment?

Lightningfast: I never enjoyed playing Valorant more than CS:GO but at one point of time, I realized that the majority of the Indian esports community's focus was shifting towards Valorant. And seeing that the majority of Indian CS:GO pros were already shifting to Valorant proved that thought of mine right. I decided to pull my focus from CS:GO to Valorant. Eventually, when I started understanding the mechanisms of Valorant, my interest in it grew sharper.

Q. You were an Entry Fragger in CS:GO, however, you play as a Sentinel mainly in Valorant. Being one of the best Cypher and Killjoy mains of the country, what made you choose this role in Valorant? Any plans to change roles in the future?

Lightningfast: When I first started playing with Level 5 I was mostly playing duelist roles, for example the Jett or Phoenix. Later Hellranger called me and asked if I wanted to play Valorant for Global Esports, and because Skillz was already playing the role of the 2nd duelist, they asked me if I could fill the role of a Sentinel. At first, I wasn't sure about it, but as I kept grinding my way with the Cypher primarily I became more comfortable with it and started to like it in a way that my team would be happy with.

Q. Your recent performance in the TEC Valorant Invitational as well as ESPL was remarkable. How did it feel to conquer the esports scene currently, winning three tournaments in three days? Did you put in some extra effort in the training sessions?

Lightningfast: Well, not just me, but the entire team had put in extra efforts to improve their performance, and we also put in extra practice sessions whenever we had time in our hands. We were lucky to have Hellranger in our team. He made sure we wouldn't commit the same mistakes that we did earlier which put us in the 2nd position rather than being the champions. When it comes to winning those 3 tournaments, I was personally very overwhelmed and happy of course.

Q. Your teammate SkRossi outshone almost every opponent recently, popping off the heads of every enemy who peeked him. What are your thoughts on that?

Lightningfast: Skrossi is someone who puts in the extra hours just to get the edge over his opponents, so it was only a matter of time before he outplayed his opponents in every way he could like everyone witnessed in recent tournaments.

Q. Every gamer has a story behind their IGN, and I’m sure you have one too. Where did lightningfast originate from?

Lightningfast: Well one day I was watching kennyS play and I don't remember which tournament it was exactly but kennyS, just like every time, was hitting insane shots with his AWP. Then I heard one of the casters scream out loud saying that Kenny and his shots were lightning fast and that's where I got my IGN from.

Q. You’ve played in many teams, starting from Level 5, SunAsia, eSamurai Elite, etc. and ultimately Global Esports. How does it feel to be a part of GE and play under Hellranger’s calls? How comfortable are you in the team right now?

Lightningfast: It feels amazing to be a part of such a big organization and to be able to play with such great skilled players, it feels good. Hellranger always makes sure to keep the team together and keep players calm and composed even in the toughest of times. At this point in time, the entire team is in great form and in sync and this helps me personally in being confident with the style of play I adapted in the practice sessions.

Q. During your days in Silchar, Deathmaker was a big deal in the town when he went to Kolkata to pursue CS as a career in JMD Gaming. How big of an influence was he for you?

Lightningfast: When it came to being passionate about something, I always leaned in a bit towards gaming since my middle school days, and seeing that someone from my small town could make it big in the Indian pro scene like Deathmaker made my interest grow more towards gaming.

And let's not forget that Deathmaker was the one who brought me into the pro scene, and I will always be thankful for that.

Q. Before coming to a close, I would like you to say something to your fans. You currently have several fans across the country impressed by your Sentinel play. What advice would you give to the ones you want to be as good as you?

Lightningfast: I would like to thank the people who have always been there for me and the teams and everyone who have continued supporting us in our ups and downs. I sincerely hope we can live up to their expectations and keep on delivering the show that they deserve.

Firstly, why would anyone try to be just as good as me when they could become better than me, and I am still learning and getting better at this game. Lastly, when it comes to getting into the pro scene all it comes down to is how passionate you are about it. If you grind hard, it should give some positive result.