India has sent fifteen players to the Asian Games 2022 in Hangzhou, People's Republic of China, for the esports competition. The Asian Games 2022 will feature esports competitions from September 24 to October 2. The China Hangzhou Esports Centre will host all esports events. Esports will officially debut as a medal sport at Hangzhou 2023 after appearing as a demonstration sport at the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018.
Asian Games Hangzhou: Games And Schedule
A 15-person esports squad representing India was announced at the beginning of the year to compete at the Asian Games 2022. First off, India will have teams competing in the following esports games at the Asian Games in 2022:
- Street Fighter 5
- EA Sports FC Online (formerly known as FIFA Online 4)
- League of Legends
- Dota 2
Street Fighter 5
Mayank Prajapati and Ayan Biswas will be representing India in the sport. In their South Asian seeding competition before the Games, Prajapati and Ayan placed fifth and sixth, respectively. This competition is anticipated to draw competitors from 15 different nations and will also have a BO3 format for each tie.
EA Sports FC Online
Charanjot Singh and Karman Singh Tikka are the Indian representatives of this sport. Before the Asian Games, Charanjot won the South Asia seeding competition, and Karman placed sixth. 21 nations will compete in their event at the Asian Games, with a best-of-three (BO3) format used for each tie.
League of Legends
India's representatives of the game are Akshaj Shenoy (captain), Samarth Arvind Trivedi, Mihir Ranjan, Aditya Selvaraj, Aakash Shandilya, and Sanindhya Malik. India has no local League of Legends servers, so the Indian team uses the recently launched SEA server. The LoL competition at the Asian Games will involve 19 nations, and the group round will be a one-shot match before switching to a BO3 format for the quarterfinals.
DOTA 2
India's representatives of the game are Darshan Bata (captain), Krish Gupta, Abhishek Yadav, Ketan Goyal, and Shubham Goli. The Indian team faced tough competition for a chance at a medal before the Games because they placed second in their seeding group (top eight overall). In recent GEG23 (Global Esports Games) qualifying, a squad that included three of the five participants in the Asiad was defeated 0-2 by Malaysia and Mongolia. The format changes from best-of-one in the group stage to best-of-three from the quarterfinal stage on.
With gaming and esports progressively gaining popularity in India, winning gold and other honours at a prestigious competition like the Asian Games in 2022 will position the nation for success in esports in the future.