Playground returns after season two success; set to take competitive gaming to new heights with inaugural Playground Exhibition Cup 2023

Rusk Media is a Gen-Z focused full stack digital entertainment company with a vision to create locally relevant and globally exploitable entertainment formats & IPs. Rusk Media has 4 businesses – Rusk Studios (Fiction IP studio), Playground (Gaming & Non-Fiction IP Studio), Rusk Social (India’s largest multi-channel network) and Rumble (Social gaming platform). Rusk has produced 20+ IPs, 300+ hrs of content, worked with 50+ brands, 5+ OTTs and 50+ talent partners and reached 200M+ audiences with 10B+ views thus far. Playground returns after season two success; set to take competitive gaming to new heights with inaugural Playground Exhibition Cup 2023.

Playground Rekindles Its Triumph with Debut of Playground Exhibition Cup 2023, Elevating Competitive Gaming

On June 7, 2023, In New Delhi: Following the substantial success of Playground 2 which garnered more than 100mn reach, 80 min time spent per viewer and 125k peak concurrence, Rusk Media, a leading full stack Gen-Z first digital entertainment company is back with a brand new gaming IP – the Playground Exhibition Cup (PGEC) 2023 powered by Duolingo.

The pioneering tournament will bring together six of India’s biggest content creators including Ajey Nagar (CarryMinati), Ashish Chanchlani, Tanmay Singh (Scout), Harsh Beniwal, Nischay Malhan (Triggered Insaan), and Naman Mathur (Mortal), with the aim of transforming the competitive gaming landscape in India.

The PGEC 2023 marks the grand opening of Playground’s highly anticipated annual programming and will pave the way for the exhilarating ‘Playground eSports League’ followed by the exciting ‘Playground Season 3’. The PGEC 2023 promises to be a thrilling journey that will unite gaming enthusiasts through its electrifying, nail-biting action and showcase the best gaming talent in the industry.

Through its groundbreaking approach of forging entertainment with gaming, Playground has established its position as one of the most prominent IPs of the gaming world. 

Playground in association with its partnering sponsors bagged two awards at ABBY’s 2023 including a silver for the ‘Most Innovative Use of Gaming’ in association with KFC and a bronze for ‘Innovative Use of Branded Content’ in association with Charged by Thums Up. It also won the ‘Best Digital Strategy’ at EMVIES 2023 for KFC, and ‘Best Use of Social Media for Content Marketing’ at SAMMIE 2022, Best Digital Marketing Campaign for a web original’ at ScreenXX 2022.

“We are thrilled to announce the Playground Exhibition Cup 2023 which is an effort to redefine competitive gaming tournaments in the country. Through the Playground IPs, we have constantly strived to tap into the Gen-Z audience by pushing the boundaries of entertainment and merging it with gaming to provide a memorable experience of the highest quality. However, with PGEC 2023 we have crafted an innovative tournament that will cater to the hardcore gaming demographic of the country and propel competitive gaming to unprecedented heights,” said Mayank Yadav, CEO of Rusk Media.

The PGEC will feature a total of six teams with five of these teams hailing from the prestigious Playground 2 (PG2), including:

• The Dare Dragons mentored by CarryMinati and captained by Jay Khatri
• The AAA Werewolves led by Triggered Insaan and captained by Vanshaj Singh
• The Power Phoenixes commanded by Harsh Beniwal and captained by Harshit Kashyap (Kanary)
• The OP Unicorns guided by Scout and captained by Harshit (Gunshot)
• The KO Krakens, spearheaded by Ashish Chanchlani and captained by Nikhil (Bloodline)

Joining them will be the dynamic Raging Centaurs who will be mentored by Mortal and captained by Raviraj (Sunlord).

The tournament boasts an impressive prize pool of upto INR 25 lakhs with the Player MVP Prize Money amounting to INR 5 lakhs, while the winning team and runners-up being awarded INR 10 lakhs and INR 5 lakhs, respectively.

The tournament is powered by Duolingo and overall experience will be enhanced by its exclusive Grooming Partner Bombay Shaving Company, its Travel Partner EaseMyTrip and its voting Partner Rumble.

Fans will be treated to an immersive gaming experience with the tournament being streamed live on Playground’s channel on Youtube from June 9 – 25 at 6:30 pm on every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

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Full squads of the six teams:

Dare Dragons 

Mentor – CarryMinati

Players – Jay Khatri (Captain), Chirag Nangru aka Pingu, Manush aka Drop, and Noopor aka Alexa

AAA Werewolves

Mentor – Triggered Insaan

Players – Vanshaj Singh (Captain), Abhinav Shukla, Priyanka aka Alexa, and Gaurav Singh aka BT Android

Power Phoenixes

Mentor – Harsh Beniwal

Players – Harshit Kashyap aka Kanary (Captain), Kunal aka Chumma, Aman Dubey aka Android Gamer, and Dolly Sadana aka Senorita

OP Unicorns

Mentor – Scout

Players – Harshit aka Gunshot (Captain), Abhishek aka IQ Master, Aditya aka Bullet, and Shikha Kashyap aka Shiny Kash

KO Krakens

Mentor – Ashish Chanchlani

Players – Nikhil aka Bloodline (Captain), Anirudh Sharma, Shantanu aka ShanN, and Mukti Asin

Raging Centaurs

Mentor – Mortal

Players – Raviraj aka Sunlord (Captain), Parag Gaur aka PG207, Akhil aka Spark, and Madhuja

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