We always knew that Valorant PC would do well in India: Sukamal Pegu, Head of Publishing, India and South Asia, Riot Games

Sukamal Pegu, Head of Publishing, India and South Asia at Riot Games, talks about Valorant’s success in India, and plans for League of Legends: Wild Rift
Sukamal Pegu, Head of Publishing, India and South Asia at Riot Games, talks about Valorant’s success in India, and plans for League of Legends: Wild Rift

Life for many can indeed be a very linear affair, with the daily grind and drudgery playing out in small snippets of time-lapse, which ends as soon as it begins.

However, for some, the journey is unequivocally circular, the ebb and flow of the path ending where it usually begins.

For Sukamal Pegu, Head of Publishing, India and South Asia, Riot Games, the relationship and journey with video games have been a rather curious affair. And in an exclusive conversion with Sportskeeda Esports’ Abhishek Mallick, he opens up about these aspects and shares some of his hopes and aspirations for Riot Games’ IPs in the Indian esports ecosystem.

Here is an excerpt of the conversation.

Q. Before we get into any of the Riot Games IPs, I would first like you to give our readers some insight into the very special relationship that you have with video games. As a professional, your journey leading up to Riot Games has been a rather curious (some might even say circular) one. Can you shine some light on the path that led to where you are today and the hurdles along the way?

Sukamal: Absolutely! I grew up playing games on Gameboys and the 16-bit consoles that we used to plug into our TVs to play Contra, Mario, and Donkey Kong. Parents could control my gaming hours at home, so you could say I was a little more ‘disciplined’ with my academics.

That changed when I went to college. CS 1.6 had just come out, and the whole college had outstanding LAN infrastructure. So you can pretty much guess what followed. I was gaming almost the entire time and even did some of the earliest forms of esport events in the college.

We even raised 50k INR as sponsorship for one of our college gaming events from NIIT. This was way back in 2001, mind you. The end result was that my academics suffered, and I had to overstay in college!

Image via Valve
Image via Valve

When I finally (managed) to graduate, I had to decide on my career choices, which was either B-school or join a tech firm. Neither interested me.

Just as I was about to say yes to a random offer, I got a call from Indiatimes.com that they were looking to start their online gaming portal and if I was interested in joining the new team. I said yes to the offer without even knowing what the package was. It was more like they were doing me a favor, and I would have said yes, even if it had no salary. Without any formal path to working in the industry available at that time, I am quite thankful that I overstayed in college. Otherwise, my path would have been very different.

After that, I never looked back, and even those stints where I was not working with a gaming company, my work was around the gaming ecosystem.

Q. What was the transition like for you when moving from Kreeda Games to Bharti SoftBank to putting in hours into your very own start-up, Marrily, and then finally, ending up with Riot Games?

Sukamal: Like I said, even when I was not working with a gaming company, my job was around the gaming ecosystem, be it helping developers monetize their mobile games, raising investment for studios, or simply spending time with developers and talking about our love for games.

Image via Marrily
Image via Marrily

The approach I took was to develop myself in layers. So, with each trend, I try to grasp its essence, learn from the best, and find something I can contribute towards. It helps stay relevant and makes us excited to get up in the morning, knowing that the day can be as exciting as we want it to be.

I believe that we can gamify a lot of our career and life path based on how we play games. We need to figure out broadly our objectives, look at the tools we have to start our mission, and simply improvise.

Q. As Head of Publishing, India and South Asia at Riot Games, what are your primary responsibilities? What is your day to day like, and what aspect of your job do you look forward to the most?

Sukamal: The primary responsibility that I have is to ensure that our players enjoy our games and service their needs.

Image via TheEsportsObserver
Image via TheEsportsObserver

Having come from the same background as most of our gamers, I remember how it felt when we didn’t get the attention and service from large publishers. But now, I have the opportunity to not only magnify the voice from our region but also accelerate some of the demands that have always held us back.

Day begins and ends with player sentiment. That helps me stay grounded, and I realize that our task is never finished. In between, I also try to stay connected with all our partners in the region who help build the ecosystem, and collectively, we try to unlock things that help elevate the player experience here.

Q. Moving our discussion to the Riot Games IPs. It’s no surprise that Valorant has been a massive hit in India. But in a nation that is so very inclined towards mobile esports, it’s hard for a competitive PC game to gain as much traction as Valorant did. What do you feel is the main reason behind this success? Is this something that you and your team were able to predict before the official launch?

Sukamal: Absolutely! We always knew that Valorant PC would do well in the region, considering our love for the genre. The dev team built a fantastic product, and we are super excited to bring this to our players in India with meaningful infrastructure and services.

The MVP for the success has to be our players and partners in the region. Our strategy was straightforward. Listen to our players and give them visibility. That meshed well with our partners building some pretty memorable competitive experiences with the game.

Image via Riot Games
Image via Riot Games

Q. India has seen a lot of Valorant tournaments ever since the official launch. Organizations like The Esports Club, Skyesports, NODWIN Gaming (to name a few) have done a tremendous job in bringing the community together and helping Valorant grow as much as it has today. In terms of success, how far do you think Valorant has come in this short period?

Sukamal: We love watching competitive events around Valorant, which our partners have been able to deliver. We are seeing some outstanding teams emerge from these events, and we hope to see more exciting esports around Valorant in 2021!

Q. With India getting its own Valorant servers, many in the community have been wondering if the nation is going to get it’s very own competitive league system, like the ones in place for League of Legends (LEC, LCS, LCK). So, is Riot considering a similar tournament system for India once the shooter’s esports scene properly kicks off?

Image via the LEC
Image via the LEC

Sukamal: We are still in the early stages for a full-fledged esports ecosystem around Valorant. League of Legends took ten years to reach where it is now, and so the expectations from Valorant are naturally very high. Valorant is still a very new game, and we will see how to best build esports around it.

Q. Let’s now get your take on the Valorant vs. CS: GO debate. This has been a hot topic of conversation in the community for a long time now. So, do you feel that Valorant is a “CS: GO” killer like so many chart it out to be? Or do you feel that both the shooters can exist side by side, not just in other regions but in the Indian esports landscape as well?

Sukamal: We hope that both games can co-exist as there is enough headroom for both. In the end, players should have fun. Remember that CS has been online for over two decades. Valorant has not even completed a year.

Q. When developing its games and bringing in future updates and balance patches, Riot is known to rely heavily on community feedback. What are the processes that Riot India has in place when listening to player grievances and identifying issues in its games?

Sukamal: Player sentiment is of immense importance to us at Riot. Our players are very vocal about their experiences, and we love that. Be it as feedback on our social channels or game support, we try to be keyed into player needs and escalate things that need to be addressed or fixed. We welcome both brickbats and the occasional bouquets as well.

Q. League of Legends was never truly able to take off in India. With DOTA 2 being the more popular MOBA, the competitive scene of LOL is abysmal, to put it lightly. Is Wild Rift an attempt at making the base game more approachable to the audience here?

Sukamal: Yes. We are very clear that we would be focussing on delivering Wild Rift as the authentic LoL experience for this region. We are still working on that promise.

Q. The Indian League of Legends community is quite divided when it comes to its choice of server. While a big chunk of the fan base prefers EU West, the rest spend most of their time in the Garena Singapore servers. Is there a possibility of India getting its own Wild Rift servers, just like Valorant, and bringing the community under one regional client?

Sukamal: As I said earlier, we try to deliver the best player experience possible for our gamers. I can answer this question closer to launch.

Q. With PUBG Mobile making a heroic return to India (courtesy of Microsoft Azure), do you think the game will be hurting Wild Rift’s chances in making it big as an esport in the region.

Sukamal: The answer to this question is the same as vis-a-vis CS vs. Valorant.

Image via Riot Games
Image via Riot Games

Q. Personally, which Riot IP do you love playing the most?

Sukamal: I now play card games a lot, as I like the slow-paced build-up. Runeterra is the game that I play the most, both from my mobile and PC.

Q. Before signing off, I just wanted to ask who you think is the best Valorant team and the best player in India at the moment.

Sukamal: There are way too many to mention! I love watching VLT and GlobalES, to name a few, with players like SSsami, Excali, and Rite2Ace being some of the ones I really admire for their dedication and ability to perform at clutch moments.

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Edited by Ravi Iyer