While the Esports industry has been in a quest to gain legitimacy and recognition from the government, involvement and acceptance at this level is a giant stride.
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India’s first-ever franchise-based Esports league, the Esports Premier League (ESPL) has finalised the top eight teams. The ultimate face-off in the inaugural edition of the nation-wide Esports league is set to begin on August 16. State ministers from seven regions launched their respective franchise team names, logos, and jerseys. While the Esports industry has been in quest to gain legitimacy and recognition from the government, involvement and acceptance from the government at this level to the tournament is a giant stride for the Esports industry in India.
“To have the best gamers from across the country representing final eight franchise teams as well as their team’s official jersey being unveiled by the state ministers is a matter of absolute honour and pride. Even in its inaugural edition, ESPL has received exceptional response from the Esports community, the players and the audience,” said Vishwalok Nath, Director, ESPL.
Here is the complete list of Ministers and personalities that unveiled teams representing their respective states:
V. Srinivas Goud (Hon’ble Minister of Sports & Youth Services, Govt. Of Telangana), Sunil Chhatrapal Kedar (Hon’ble Minister of Sports and Youth Welfare, Govt. of Maharashtra), Manish Sisodia (Deputy Chief Minister, Govt. of Delhi), Manoj Tiwary (Hon’ble Minister of Department of Youth Services and Sports, Govt. Of West Bengal), KC Narayana Gowda (Hon’ble Minister of Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports Department of Planning, Govt. of Karnataka), Ashok Chandna (Hon’ble Minister of Sports & Youth Affairs (Independent charge), Govt. of Rajasthan), Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi (Hon’ble Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Govt. of Punjab), RJ Balaji (Radio jockey, director, sports broadcaster, and writer based out of Chennai).
The final eight franchises teams and the players were chosen through a draft process. The teams that qualified through various stages of the competition for the draft process include BADGE99, Total Gaming, 4 UNKNOWN, TSM FTX, No Chance, AFF Esports, Head Hunters, and TWO SIDE GAMERS. Each of these teams were picked to represent a city team and in the final stage during the draft, popular influencers and Esports gamers were roped in to conduct the process.
The eight franchise teams are Punjab Paladins, Chennai Celestials, Delhi Dukes, Hyderabad Hydras, Kolkata Kaijus, Rajasthan Reapers, Mumbai Marshals, and Bangalore Ballistics.
Here is the complete list of players of all these teams who will represent the respective state teams:
BADGEE99 will represent Kolkata Kaijus
Hriteek Ranjan, Muhammed Faizal. N, Prahast Garg, Azmal Akhtar Choudhury, Yogesh Buchale
Total Gaming will represent Hyderabad Hydras
Ajay Sharma, Vora Hetkumar, Daksh Garg, Narai Yadav, Anshul Rawat
4 UNKNOWN will represent Rajasthan Reapers
Swastik Madhukar Dushing, Anand Madhukar Dushing, Radhe Thakor, Vadehr Anil Devashibhai, Mohd Zuber
AFF Esports will represent Delhi Dukes
Owais Bhati, Kanishk Verma, Rahil Katoch, Pavan Adwani, Arpit Tyagi
TWO SIDE GAMERS will represent Bengaluru Ballistics
Ritik Jain, Ojasvi Kamra, Vihan Datta, Bhavesh Lakhwani
No Chance will represent Chennai Celestials
Priyansh, Devesh Chauhan, Aritra Adak, Priyanshu Kumar, Soumya Sundar
TSM FTX will represent Mumbai Marshals
Sagar Patel, Indranil Saha, Jayesh Yadav, Naitik Khosto, Asjad Khateeb
Head Hunters will represent Punjab Paladins
Satyam Thakur, Md. Abdul Moghni, Aasim Usama, Jatin Taneja, Priyanshu Halder Saha.
ESPL 2021, which began on June 16, will see the athletes competing in the popular battle royale game Free Fire as the winners will have INR 25 lacs prize money to win.
