eSports event sketch: Skyesports Souvenir 2023, MOGO National Championship & NESC 2023

India’s esports scene has been buzzing with activity and growth, with numerous esports organizations and players making their mark in the industry.

Skyesports Souvenir 2023

In September, the Skyesports Souvenir 2023 saw India, represented by Gods Reign, take down Pakistan 2-0 in an exhilarating series. The Skyesports Souvenir, powered by AMD and Microsoft, is a cross-regional Counter-Strike esports tournament featuring India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, UAE, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The countries will fight across a single-round robin format, with each match being the best-of-three games in the Group Stage. The top two teams from here will then advance to the Grand Finals, taking place on Sept. 30 to crown a champion.

MOGO National Championship

In September, Skyesports also tied up with collegiate eSports platform, Mobile Global Esports Inc. MOGO for the mega event, the ‘MOGO National Championship’ with a prize pool of more than INR 10 lakhs, which is an initiative to bridge the gap between traditional sports and eSports while making competitive gaming a major part of collegiate events.

Having a well-developed ecosystem for collegiate Esports is important to nurture talent and grow Esports from the grassroots level

Skyesports’ Founder and CEO, Shiva Nandy

Skyesports’ Founder and CEO, Shiva Nandy, said, “Having a well-developed ecosystem for collegiate Esports is important to nurture talent and grow Esports from the grassroots level. The MOGO National Championship is doing just that with its pan-India format targeting all major colleges and the LAN Finale at the LPU. All the best to the 16 college teams competing in the inaugural Finale and I look forward to working together with MOGO to bring more events at the collegiate level.”

The Championship featured a rigorous qualifiers stage, with over 100 teams registering to compete in the event. The qualifiers were split into four divisions: West, South, North, and Central to ensure regional penetration across Indian colleges. The 16 qualified colleges will be competing across a single-elimination bracket to determine the champions with the winners of the LAN finals being rewarded with INR 4 lakhs in prize money.

The list of esteemed colleges competing in the finale are MIT WPU, Mumbai University, Pune University, SIES, JECRC University, DIT University, Poornima University, VIT Bhopal, Francis Xavier, SRM KTR, Manipal University, IIT Madras, Chandigarh University, IGNOU, Chitkara University, and Lovely Professional University.

National Esports Championships (NESC) 2023

Two of the Indian Esports community’s most distinguished athletes, Street Fighter veteran Mayank Prajapati and eFootball star Hemanth Kommu put up dazzling displays and emerged victorious in the National Esports Championships (NESC) 2023 organized by Esports Federation of India (ESFI) for the upcoming Global Esports Games which will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in December.

Mayank (MiKeYROG) hardly had to break a sweat in the Street Fighter 6 qualifiers. In a field of 14 talented athletes which also included the nation’s other Street Fighter representative for the Asian Games 2022, Ayan Biswas, the 33-year-old prevailed against Prateek Singh Bhaunt (b_HAUNT) by 3-1 in the final.