It’s never been more important for the community to band together for eSports in India, than it is today. The guidelines from the central government on online gaming, though a step-forward to be addressed as an issue by the government to begin with, is also slightly problematic. The guideline docket is replete with references to online gambling and fantasy sports- two versions of ‘online gaming’ that couldn’t be further away from the world of eSports. This myopic view of what online gaming represents and the fact that the official bureaucratic machinery is unable to spot the difference between eSports, online gambling and fantasy sports is dangerous.
Few months ago state governments in Telangana and Karnataka implemented stringent bills to counter the ‘threat’ of online gaming. The problem with these bills is that the issues of gambling are being mirrored as the issues with eSports. eSports is competitive gaming. The top athletes of eSports are not much different than top athletes from any other sport. They toil away for hours trying to get better than their rivals, and come game-time, they face the same amount of pressure to succeed and win. Extremely high skill levels, in addition to handwork and game intelligence, make competitive eSports a compelling watch.
eSport today gets even more legitimised after the Asian Games and Olympics have introduced them as medal events. Even in this scenario there seems to be a lull in decision making. Who, after all, is going to be the decision body to select the best of the best from India to represent the country at the biggest sporting events? It is in this scenario that bodies like the eSports Players Welfare Association- EPWA come to the fore, lobbying for the right conversations to be had in order to regulate and give what’s due to the players, without compromising on the growth of the sport.
The community of eSport athletes has never been linked together before. By its very nature of different genres and platforms, eSports is fragmented. But this fragmentation threatens to derail the growth that eSport deserves. An organisation, independent in nature, and having its ability to grow an eSport community of players- is well timed. EPWA has its task cut out. They identify themselves as an org that cuts across games, genres and platforms. But this is no easy task. Today half the active amateur eSport players are still unaware that they are in fact eSport athletes. That there does exist a world, where they can strive for excellence, in an art that they enjoy and excel at. It is the eSports community that can help them realise this.
