CHENNAI: Sunit Jain fell in love with the Mario franchise when he was five years old. From playing Mario on Nintendo TV consoles, Sunit is now able to buy his own gaming PC, mouse and keyboard from his earnings from gaming. The 18-year-old Hyderabadi says that it has been a phenomenal journey.
“I have been a casual Counter Strike 1.6 gamer ever since I was 10, although I never participated in any LAN events or multiplayer competitions. I also played online tactical games such as Clan Wars. I realised I was obsessed with video games when I started thinking about the next missions and strikes during school. I would always think about the mistakes I made in the previous mission and how to correct it the next time,” he said.
He registered his first win at the 2CS 1.6 LAN tournament in 2016. Unlike his friends in the gaming community, he does not enjoy horror games and prefers to excel in the newer versions of CS. “Battlefield Bad Company 2 is one of my favourites as it demands sharp logical thinking and strategy, and I can play it for the whole day,” he said.
He not only spends about eight hours a day gaming on the large screen and wide keyboard of his PC, but also plays mobile games. A strategist in real life too, he recently earned `40,000 through gaming and used it to upgrade his PC. “I have spent over `1 lakh so far on my PC, but nobody complains about it because I never waste my money and use it to sponsor my gear to play Counter Strike and games from Steam or Skidrowgames,” he said.
GTA and action-adventure video games are his stress busters. He says he gets a high from playing these games, and winning. But how did this teenager convince parents to let him take up gaming in a big way? “For most parents, anything that earns back the money you invested is something worth pursuing. I showed them that gaming is a big industry where one can earn big, and they are now cool with it,” he said. However, he is now taking a break from studies for a year to form a good team for online tournaments.
When he was 10, he chose the screen name ‘Killer Friend’ and gamed under that name on Miniclip and Zapak. He was ‘Killing’ people with a ‘Machine’ gun, and thus earned the nickname Killer Machine.
Like his fellow gamers, he also believes that gaming shapes one’s personality. “Games teach me to make decisions in a split second. In real life too, you need this skill,” he said. His idols in gaming are Christopher Alesund, known as GeT_RiGHT, whose tutorials inspired him to begin playing CS 1.6. “His dedication to gaming at the age of 29 is inspiring,” said Killer Machine.