KOCHI: Passion is the key to success. Gaming has taught me this mantra,” says Rohit Pritam aka B0nstein, a 26-year-old gamer from Hyderabad, whose gaming journey was not a breeze. Born and brought up in a stereotypical Indian family where life only revolves around academic scores, he had to juggle studies and gaming to emerge successful in both domains.
Rohit took to gaming as a teen, beginning with games like Age of Empires and Counter Strike.“During my early teens, I used to play games on video games, connected to the TV. It was only during high school that my dad gifted me a PC and I started playing professionally,” he says. Rohit asserts that he did not know that he would pursue a career in gaming until he took up Counter Strike Global Offensive seriously in 2014. “CS:GO changed everything. It made me look at gaming with fresh eyes. I have my own gaming team called ‘TSG’, where we practice and help each other become good at this shooter game. I knew I wanted a full-fledged career in gaming and gaming only,” he adds.
After completing his Bachelors in Technology with flying colours, he realised that it was time to embrace his passion and wanted to invest more time in it. “I decided to practice every day with my team. During the initial stages, my parents did not support me. For them, gaming did not hold any kind of prospects. They thought I was simply wasting my time,” he shares. Rohit currently works in a US-based company, Sabio Mobiles, as a data scientist. “I maintain separate schedules for my job and gaming. I make sure I practice for at least 100 hours every two weeks,” he says, adding that he motivates members of his group, TSG, to become not only better players, but better human beings.
“Our hard work and dedication paid off when we qualified for several tournaments like ESL India Hyderabad 2017 recently. Team work is everything in gaming.”Rohit considers gaming to be a craft. “Gaming is a craft. The more you practice, the more skilled you become. It involves coordination and quick thinking. One needs to have a competitive edge in the gaming world. Presence of mind to any kind of unseen circumstances is also very essential,” he points out. Games like PubG and GTA-5 are major stressbusters for Rohit.
“I play GTA-5 for fun with my buddies. In the process, we learn coordination and get to know each other better,” says Rohit whose role models are international gamers like Coldzera, Fallen and Rain. “I believe in following multiple players so that I can learn diverse skills from them. It helps me to grow. Sometimes, one technique is not helpful so I make sure that I have backup techniques,” he shares.He advises beginners to play games like Pubg and Dota-2. “These games are helpful in teaching beginners basic skills like hand-eye coordination. Moreover, it comes cheap, but the rewards are huge, Talking about the state of gaming in India, he says that it is still not considered as a career.”