Gaming
esports
Meet Doctor Headshot
An ER physician by night and pro-gamer by day, Gokul Sagar is one of India's coolest pros.
Youngsters in India have to adhere to several tenets that have remained true throughout the ages - do not watch too much TV, turn down the loud music, reading is fine but do it mostly with your study books (after all, why do so much reading unless it is to get higher marks)? These become positively hilarious when video games are thrown into the mix. That is because your average Indian parent will find anything, literally anything, more useful for you to do than playing video games. Do not get us wrong – you will find this stigma apparent in most parts of the world. Western countries are coming around to the fact that video games can be profitable through development, streaming and esports, but in India, an individual’s success is dependent on whether she or he has followed a tried-and-tested career path - preferably an engineer, or a doctor.
Gokul “Dnm” Sagar is not an exception, but an excellent argument for both sides (academics and video games) existing and actually benefiting from each other. Gokul is currently part of Team Wolf, formed in 2006 and part of the competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gaming scene in India. It represented India at ESL One Cologne in 2014 and has proven itself as one of the stronger Indian teams out there. Gokul is not just an integral part of Wolf since joining in 2017, he is also an Emergency and Trauma Physician in Manipal Hospital, one of Bangalore's largest hospitals.
Gokul at the India Gaming Show 2017
© NODWIN Gaming
Having spent his childhood in Mumbai and Pune before shifting to Bangalore at age nine, Gokul spent the majority of his life in the South. “You could say the bulk of my childhood was spent in Bangalore. I grew up to be a typical Bangalorean.” In terms of a career though, it was clear that gaming was not the direction his family sought. “My family was always academically-oriented and they are not real big fans of sports, and especially esports.”
The sports aspect is interesting because Gokul was pretty active in school and college. In fact, he never had a strong bent towards medicine until he reached class 12. At the time, he had an interest in learning about medicine and surgical procedures but the push to make it a career had not yet occurred. Real-life sports would help motivate his first real brush with gaming.
“I used to be a sprinter and a basketball player but most of my friends would go to the cafe to play DOTA or Counter-Strike 1.6. That's when I would accompany them after our basketball practice and play for fun. So, the first game I ever played was Warcraft and then Counter-Strike,” said Gokul.
In class 12, both his teachers and friends said that Gokul would stand a chance of passing the medical entrance tests. “Being a doctor is neither easy nor tough but it’s what you chose to do after that. I work as an Emergency and Trauma Physician in Manipal Hospital.”
Gokul with a colleague at the hospital
© Gokul Sagar
Make no mistake, Gokul enjoys his work and finds his career to be very rewarding. “What the emergency room gives me is the rush of having unexpected cases - the thrill of performing life-saving procedures and the satisfaction of saving a life whenever we can. It's a dynamic field where you don't know what to expect at any hour and that keeps me happy and excited about my job.”
Over the years, Gokul has definitely earned his chops in the esports scene. He played with Team Virtual Impact, which won the ESCW 2014 Free2Play #1 to #3, from 2013 to 2014. In 2015, he was a part of Team Scorchers which won Mangima 2015, Edge 2015 and IGL 2015. It was in 2016 that he joined Team Invictus and Team Entity.Gold, the former winning the Extremesland Zowie Asia CS:GO 2016 – India qualifier. Though he went several months without playing in 2015 and 2016, his team won many of the LAN events they participated in.
Gokul (centre right) with his CS GO team, Invictus
© Team Invictus
The funny thing is that there was not a single revelatory moment that made Gokul suddenly take esports seriously. As he played in tournaments and continued winning, the accolades poured in. There finally came a point where Gokul believed esports was worth pursuing seriously and the rest is history. Of course, it is not easy managing an esports career and a job as an ER doctor. Gokul himself notes that his profession is not exactly “a 9-to-5 job” and depending on the emergency, his timings could always change.
Gokul does note that “When you want to put in the effort and achieve something, one always will find the time.” Then again, he recounts two occasions, once at the Electronic Sports World Cup 2014 and another at Extremesland Zowie 2016 tournament, where things got rough. Even with plenty of Red Bull, Gokul was “almost in a daze. I was doing 12-hour shifts at night and playing tournaments in the morning. Zombie times, but all worth it.”
Despite his two professions being vastly different, Gokul found a few similarities between them. In fact, some facets of one profession tend to apply to the other more often than not. “I think a hospital is a place where nothing is taken for granted, at least in my ER so it does teach one to be disciplined and focused. It could apply in gaming where you earn rewards for being focused and disciplined, but I don't think we as a community have that. I think medicine has taught me to take life seriously so if there is a match or a game I end up giving my 100 percent.”
Both careers have him relying on his team as much as his own skills. “I think gaming has taught me about a team which is also needed in an emergency setup. You can't do everything on your own to save a life. You need a plan and people helping you.”
Aside from the benefits that esports has offered Gokul, he believes that gaming itself is a great tool for stress-busting. “I have heard many surgeons play on consoles to be fresh and less stressed before surgeries. It also helps to improve eye-hand coordination, I guess.”
Given Gokul's success, both as a doctor and esports player, how have his parents come to deal with it? He notes that many of the stigmas still remain. “My parents hate gaming and everything it has to offer. They don't see it for me and a lot of myths associated with gaming still linger like, 'All gamers are dropouts,' and 'Gaming is not a profitable profession'. Anyway, they have learned to become a little tolerant about it in the past few years, which has given me more time to pursue my passion and travel when needed.”
Much of that might tie in with the overall direction that India has been veering towards over the years. Though much of the country is still pushing young people into following traditional careers, many students have a wider range of different career paths to explore. Ten years ago it was a struggle to make a living as an esports player in India. While it is still tough, the number of opportunities to make a living off of it has grown exponentially. The overall tolerance and understanding towards different career paths are definitely improving.
What are Gokul's thoughts on India's current esports scene? As many other players have noted, there is growth but India currently has a long way to go catch up with the leading Asian countries.
“Indian teams have been having close games with Risky in the ESL league. It will only improve with time but we need to be exposed to such teams on LAN much more often. It is not about the strategy or the skill - it comes down to adapting quickly, making the right decisions and reacting as a team, which only comes with time. When we do it at that level, we'll slowly but steadily get results. I'm not really hopeful for any immediate impact but eventually, yes, we would be up there.”
For improving the scene, Gokul believes that there should be “More tournaments like the ongoing leagues that push teams to get serious and slog it out to get promoted.” Having more organizations to back players and their interests, helping to obtain more sponsors for the team, would also be beneficial. The LAN culture that permeated Indian gaming and “which has been missing ever since the origin of CS: GO or at least has been the distinct difference between old 1.6 days and now” is also a factor. More time is spent playing online as opposed to playing in LAN games.
Of course, Gokul also says, “You need support from family, friends, schools and colleges but that would require gaming to be recognized as a serious sport.”
Unfortunately, that hasn't quite happened yet. If the world is still coming to terms with esports as a legitimate sporting activity, then India still has a long way to go. However, players like Gokul have proven that if you work hard enough, then nothing is impossible, whether it's becoming an esports professional, a doctor that saves lives, or both.
