Gaming
esports
How the Valorant community has been thriving in India
Gamers and casters from the Indian Valorant community, as well as developers and India representatives from Riot Games share their stories of growth.
A pinned post since 2021 on Ganesh ‘SkRossi’ Gangadhar’s X account reads, “I will do whatever it takes to be one of the best out there in Valorant no matter what and I’m confident I will.”
A few years ago, it would have sounded quite strange to SkRossi himself. This was a time when he would have called himself a casual gamer, who harboured dreams of pursuing criminal law someday.
All that changed in 2020 with the launch of Valorant, a first-person tactical shooter released by Riot Games. It handed folks like SkRossi a level playing field and the opportunity to make their mark starting with the domestic circuit.
“In the past, I was always playing catchup when it came to other titles, since there were so many gamers who had started out much before I had. It was an easy decision to switch to Valorant, simply because it was launched at the same time for everyone across the world. It gave me the opportunity to put in the effort to be among the best,” SkRossi says.
Valorant agent Harbor
© Riot Games
His commitment towards his craft did wonders for his progress. Study books took a backseat, as he started dedicating more hours towards his newfound passion. Today, a handful of people know him as Ganesh, while the rest admire SkRossi, one of India’s top Valorant exponents. In August 2021, his life changed overnight after he won the Valorant Conquerors Championship as part of Global Esports, while also picking up the Most Valuable Player award for his exemplary gameplay.
“I had started doing well at local tournaments by then. But winning the first official Valorant event organised by Riot Games in India was huge. It added to my fame outside the country and was a massive step forward in my career,” SkRossi says.
A brand new offering
Like SkRossi, curiosity of gaming communities across geographies was piqued when Valorant was launched in 2021, albeit under bizarre circumstances. It was an uncertain time as the world was brought to a standstill by the Covid-19 pandemic. But for Riot Games, it was the perfect opportunity to release their latest title when most gamers were homebound and with plenty of time on hand.
“Counter-Strike has been a popular title in the past, but it was more of a cafe culture game as compared to two people playing from their homes. The release of Valorant coincided with the lockdown; then, a few years later, there was the ban on PUBG Mobile. Valorant has seen a gradual growth in India ever since, a combination of circumstances and good marketing,” says Wasif Ahmed of Skyesports.
LAN stage at Red Bull Campus Clutch 2022 India Finals
© Focus Sports
The change was refreshing and it took little time for Valorant to pick up in the Indian gaming ecosystem. Content creators like Prasad ‘Bittyboi’ Joshi started receiving requests from his audience, urging him to shed light on the different Valorant agents and their abilities. Esports casters like Ranjit ‘MambaSR’ Patel were aware the title was likely to explode in the time ahead and went back to the grind to understand the nitty-gritty of the gameplay.
“Every agent has unique abilities, but on the whole, Valorant is a lot easier to play. The gap between the baseline and the ceiling is not very wide, so for someone new who wants to give it a go, the entire experience is very rewarding,” says MambaSR.
As the pandemic situation eased out, LAN tournaments started sprouting across the country, ranging from unofficial events at local cafes to more structured regional events. The interest was palpable enough to encourage professional esports organisations in India to start assembling their own Valorant squads.
“We were always looking to diversify our roster and launched our first Valorant team in March 2022. It was the most popular PC title at the time, so it made sense for us even from a sponsorship point of view,” says Rohit Jagasia, CEO at Revenant Esports.
Opportunities aplenty for Indian gamers
Riot Games too did their bit to nurture and grow the infrastructure in India, handing promising gamers a roadmap to progress over time. In 2021, they joined hands with NODWIN Gaming to launch the Valorant Conquerors Championship. It allowed teams to qualify for the APAC Last Chance Qualifier, where they would take on the best talents in Southeast Asia and eventually progress to the reputed Valorant Champions.
“It was a special moment because I got to launch an Indian agent and in my home city. And of course, I got to see actual pictures of Harbor and his accessories way before anyone else did,” V3nom says.
“No other publisher has shown as much interest in India, the way Riot Games has. Since 2020, there have been a lot of tourneys and plenty of opportunities to prove ourselves in domestic competitions as well as abroad,” SkRossi says.
Participants at Red Bull Campus Clutch 2022 India Finals
© Focus Sports
In 2022, Riot Games introduced a new Valorant esports structure that featured a premier event for Asia-Pacific called the Valorant Champions Tour: Pacific League. In 2023, Riot Games and NODWIN Gaming launched the Valorant Challengers League in South Asia. It offered a prize pool of USD 140,000 and the opportunity to qualify for the Valorant Challengers Ascension that brings together the winners of 10 similar Challenger leagues. The top team here is guaranteed a spot in the Pacific League next year.
“We saw a really strong appetite for Challengers South Asia. We held an offline LAN final in New Delhi where we had about 500 fans attend in person. After months of intense competition, Orangutan Gaming came out on top,” says Arun Rajappa, Country Manager for India and South Asia at Riot Games.
“This new structure not only aims to provide aspiring pro players a structured pathway to showcase their skills and compete at a higher level, but also demonstrates Riot Games’ dedication to empower local players to compete professionally and foster talent and passion within the wider APAC gaming community,” Arun adds.
Nurturing young talent
Team Villainous celebrate winning Red Bull Campus Clutch 2022 India Finals
© Focus Sports
At the grassroots, Riot Games worked with college students through Red Bull Campus Clutch, which gave promising youngsters a platform to flourish at the world stage. In its third season in 2023, Red Bull Campus Clutch has drawn 6,000 players from around the world, where the top-50 national teams will feature at the World Finals in Istanbul, Turkey, in November.
“The idea is pretty solid. You just need to be a college student – and not necessarily from the same institute – to play as a team at Red Bull Campus Clutch. They’ve been organising it quite consistently for the last three years, so it’s a pretty big deal for young Indian players. This not only allows them to support their passion, but also gets parents to understand that there is something worthwhile happening in this space,” MambaSR says, having hosted the Indian qualifier in Mumbai last year.
That event was won by Team Villainous, who went on to feature at the 2022 Red Bull Campus Clutch World Final in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Kasif ‘Paradox’ Sayyed recalls reaching out to his old buddies to form the team that went on to become national champions.
“Since our team members could be from different colleges, it was really convenient to gather a few friends and participate in Red Bull Campus Clutch. We had it easy in the Indian qualifiers, but the international playoff had healthy competition that demanded our best. Going on to represent the country in Brazil was massive. Though we were short on experience, we lost some really close games against players from tier-1 regions. That tournament really helped me grow as a professional,” Paradox says.
During that time, Paradox was also turning out for Revenant Esports. At their state-of-the-art facility in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, he realised what it took to compete against the best. Alongside his teammates, he took on a gruelling grind during bootcamp, working on various aspects of their gameplay under Filipino coach, Chris ‘Pro’ Martir. In fact, their roster at the time also featured two players from the Philippines, Joshua ‘JoshS’ Miles Santos and Enrico ‘Ching’ Perez, while the rest were Indians.
“In Valorant, you need to have a lot of communication going on within the team, a lot of information that needs to be passed on. Since we had players from India and the Philippines, we had to make a conscious decision to ensure that they didn’t end up speaking in their regional languages. A lot of things had to be worked out – for instance, we decided to use shorter callouts in English while grinding,” recalls Revenant CEO Rohit.
Valorant gets a stronger Indian connection
In 2022, Riot pulled off a coup by personalising Valorant for the Indian audience. They released a new map, Lotus, which is set in the Western Ghats and features rock cut architecture inspired by the Ellora Caves and other Dravidian structures. It took many hours of research and collaboration for Joe Lansford, the design lead on Valorant maps and modes, and Brian Yam, the lead artist at Riot Games, to agree on the final look.
“We wanted to push the boundaries of fantastical and mystical elements, which were not shown in our earlier maps. The idea was to explore the theme of grand adventure, mysteries lost to time. Indiana Jones was one of the thematic inspirations we drew from,” Joe and Brian had said at the time of the map launch.
“Visually, we found the rock cut architecture fascinating because it evokes a mystical and ancient vibe to the theme. It provided a new direction from our existing maps, which mostly featured urban or modern architecture,” they added.
Riot Games added to the local flavour by launching an Indian agent, Varun Batra, also known as Harbor, at their first community event in Mumbai that was attended by top gamers, content creators and influencers from the country. Red Bull India athlete, Ankit ‘V3nom’ Panth cosplayed as Harbor and put on show his water-bending abilities. Music producer ARB4 also composed a song for the launch titled ‘Raja’, which featured musicians Tienas and Mangal Subarnan.
“No other publisher had pulled off an event like this in the past, where the community was brought together under one roof. Besides Harbor, every other agent was also cosplayed, which was quite an incredible experience because you had only seen them on screen in the past,” says Star Tania, a gamer, caster and streamer, who created content during the event.
“India became the first region in Valorant to receive an agent and a map featuring elements of traditional Indian architecture and locations. The character abilities, appearance, and voice lines were crafted to reflect elements of Indian heritage and traditions. It was driven by Riot Games’ commitment to inclusivity and representing diverse cultures within the game,” Arun Rajappa says.
In turn, the community has grown over the past few years. According to Riot Games, they have 14 million players around the world playing Valorant each month and a peak viewership of over 400,000 and a total of around 25 million esports hours watched at Valorant Champions Tour Pacific.
“The Indian community is one of the most active and passionate groups in APAC. It is one of the biggest and fastest growing markets in the world, with a vibrant gaming culture that has only strengthened over the past few years,” Arun says.
Opportunities to grow
Besides gamers, there have been multiple opportunities for casters and content creators as well.
In 2022, MambaSR hosted 15 Valorant events as a caster, including one done entirely in Hindi to take the title to a wider audience. While the quality of gameplay may be secondary for content creators, their onscreen persona and banter has drawn their own set of followers – for instance, the likes of Goldy and Bittyboi boast 795,000 and 390,000 followers on their YouTube channels, respectively. Besides streaming, they have memberships and super chats generating revenue for them, in addition to brand deals that come their way.
“The audience is a mix of esports nerds and casual gamers. Some are there to watch how good the gameplay is, but there’s another audience who doesn’t really care about how you’re playing. They’re just there to enjoy a good laugh at the end of the day,” MambaSR says.
“In-game banter is really popular. There are times I often trigger a player who isn’t playing too well. But that’s all for content. I feel like the most important thing is to be honest with your audience, to be yourself while streaming,” Bittyboi adds.
MambaSR interviews Riyan Parag at Red Bull Campus Clutch 2022 India Finals
© Focus Sports
In February 2023, Skyesports put together the first Valorant LAN event for women. The finalists showcased their skills at the India Gaming Show in New Delhi, where Grace Esports emerged as winners. However, it’s still a small community of women who’ve taken to Valorant and gaming in general.
“There’s just too much toxicity in India, which keeps women away. This in turn translates to a skill issue when we are up against male players,” Star Tania says.
This also means a major gap between genders in terms of opportunities and revenue. According to MambaSR, a top male Valorant player could make close to Rs 2.5 lakh for streaming 80-120 hours of content each month.
“Let’s say a brand pays a streamer under a rupee per view. With 100,000 views each month, he can earn by the thousands. And I know a few who get those many views in just a day,” MambaSR says.
In the time ahead, V3nom feels the need to focus on improving gameplay rather than evaluating domestic results. He also sees the need for an international coach and academy teams where young players can be groomed, besides semi-professional tournaments to hand them a basic understanding of Valorant in the competitive space.
“The confidence is missing when we are up against better teams. We need to improve on our fundamentals and not shy away from learning new things. Competitions like Red Bull Campus Clutch have given youngsters a good platform to showcase their talent and is a step in the right direction to start their professional journey,” V3nom says.
The idea of working a job has been long buried by SkRossi. Besides his salary as a team member at Global Esports, he earns revenue through streaming and other endorsements.
“Since my numbers on social media are good, a number of brand deals come my way as well. Over time, I was quite surprised to see brands outside the gaming space reach out to me. For instance, Gillette was something that I had always heard my father talk about, until I did an advertisement for them,” SkRossi says, laughing.
“When I started playing, the dream was to be the best in my cafe, then the city and country. Now I want to be the best in the world,” he says.
A participant at Red Bull Campus Clutch 2022 India Finals
© Focus Sports
In the time ahead, SkRossi wants to focus on winning the Valorant Champions Tour and once he calls time on his playing career, he hopes to build super teams that can compete internationally. He wants to work on the lines of what he’s observed in South Korea, where he’s met players who started out with first-person shooter games when they were as young as nine years. It’s made him realise the need to spread awareness in India. He does his bit for young players who reach out to him for advice and connects them with teams who are scouting for talent.
“I see a lot of young Indian players making it on the global stage in the future. For this to happen, they need early exposure of playing tier-1 events alongside good teammates and guided by an experienced coach. There should be a lot of work done by the team management to hand them resources and help them out with any issues that they are facing,” SkRossi says.
For now, he’s relishing the risk he took a few years ago to chase what a few still consider to be an unconventional career.
“My mother calls everyone over and tells them how I bought them a house with my own money. It’s a proud moment for them. And it’s happened because of the passion and dedication for what I do. I get recognised on the streets and a fan once even proposed marriage. If you are really talented and willing to invest time in figuring out ways to succeed, there are plenty of opportunities to build a career in this space,” SkRossi says.
