The ESL India Premierships’ summer finale was held at the Dublin lounge at Phoenix city market mall at Kurla, Mumbai and true to its’ name, was able to attract a diverse crowd that ran across all segments. HYPER X, a high performance gaming periphery manufacturer (and a subsidiary of Kingston) was one of the primary sponsors behind the event and made its’ presence felt throughout the area with prominent display booths (featuring its’ products) and events/promotions that highlighted the entirety of the day.
The booths let eager consumers sample HYPERX products with an amiable, helpful staff working the floor to guide them through the process. There were gaming PC’s installed on the booths that you were allowed to play default CSGO matches on (more on this later), as well as product demonstration of the latest HYPERX hardware that visitors could experience at their leisure. Gamers were able to experience all three variants of the newly launched HYPERX Alloy FPS mechanical keyboard and also the HYPERX Revolver S headset with Plug N Play Dolby® Surround 7.1 sound at their convenience.
The company was also responsible for providing the high intensive hardware that was used in the setups for the gaming rigs used in the competition, ensuring that matches ran at ultra-fast speeds without nary a performance hiccup, an all but vital tool of the competitive scene in the country. That they were able to pull that off completely successfully, is a testament to both HYPERX’s hardware capabilities and their efficiency and planning of their event.
HYPERX also provided plenty of opportunities for ancillary public events that further provided opportunities that showcased the effort put forth by the organization into making sure the event remained as interactive as possible. Mr. Vishal Parekh, the marketing manager of Kingston took the stage to share a few words of wisdom on his profession and what competitive gaming means to him. There was plenty of verbal jousting between him and the emcee , which turned into a fill-on interactive session with an eager crowd much sooner than expected. Passionate cosplayers that ranged from anime characters to Christian Bale Batman could be spotted across the floor, drumming up enthusiasm for the event.
There were blindfold CSGO challenges (yes) that people participated in, and to everyone’s surprise, a few actually succeeded. These were held on the same booths mentioned earlier and the fact that people could succeed in shooting an active target with a black cloth taped over their eyes was a source of infinite amusement to many present in the venue, including myself and the HYPER X staff. It was either a true testament to human potential, plain insanity or perhaps a bit of both.. A Raffle too was organized with the lucky winner laying hands on a HyperX gaming headset on both days, adding the cherry on top of the icing.
The rollout increased gradually during the day and by the end, the floor was filled with everyone ranging from competitive gamers, casual game fans to weekend mall visitors eager to get a glance into a world they were unfamiliar with but were seemed to be enticed by. Much credit to the staff for keeping it thoroughly organized event from start to finish.
My attendance specifically was on DAY 2 of the finals and the stage was busy throughout. DAY 2 was finals day and it began with DOTA competitive matches between ENTITY gaming and Team IQ and carried on through a series of blisteringly competitive games with high level play prominently displayed on the mammoth display screen above the stage. Live commentary followed throughout the duration led by a panel of pros who seemed to know every minute technical detail of every aspect of the gameplay. All of it was very entertaining and easy to absorb with plenty of dry wit and (friendly) sarcasm to go around.
Team IQ were announced the champions of the DOTA tournament at the end of the day, besting their competition and joining RISKY GAMING , who were crowned CSGO champs the day prior as winners of the tournament. Many congrats to both teams.
A lot of credit has to be given to HYPER X and the other sponsors for ensuring that the floor was well-managed and full of variety throughout. With running live commentary to match the speed of the gameplay and plenty of famous CSGO teams from India (like TEAM BRUTALITY) and beyond (RISKY GAMING) present and accounted for on the floor, there was something great lurking around every corner.
All things considered, the ESL India Premiership acted both as a provided a great day of leisure and a personal gateway into the competitive gaming mind-set in the country. It’ll be interesting to see how gaming, a still-nascent medium in India, makes progress over the upcoming years but for the time being, things seemed to be on the upswing. Here’s hoping they remain so for a long while to come.
