KOCHI: Sometimes, a gun fetish can lead to many good things, and game organiser Ashwin Jain definitely thinks so. It was nine years ago while doing his BSc in Information Technology that he coincidentally became a gamer.
“Our college organised a cultural festival every year, and that year, we played Counter Strike with our seniors,” said Ashwin. “I started playing the game the evening before the event, through the night to prep myself. It was my true calling!”Ashwin started gaming so intensely that he opted out of the course owing to the maximum number of ‘additional tests’ in the first year.
He found the unexplored area of game tournament organising. “When I started playing Counter Strike, I was playing version 1.6. I built a 5-member team for the game and named it ‘EDIT’ (which expands to Effort, Destruction, Impact and Teamwork).”
One needs to get a license to play Counter Strike, and Ashwin did not know this for a while. One month into gaming, a fellow gamer from China gifted him the license, which pretty much sums up the camaraderie between online gamers.
In 2010, there were very few game organisers. “CyAC (Cyber Athlete Competition), a community from Japan, were at the top of their game, and were scheduling online games, limiting their offline gaming schedules to once a year,” explained Ashwin. “CyAC was the first community to bring Counter Strike 1.6 tournaments in India.”
It was around that time that Ashwin decided to take up organising game tournaments as a career, as he found that it was a more challenging aspect of gaming. He consequently founded Cyber Gaming Entertainment. “CyAC had a lot of limitations. They focused more on online games, and I wanted to create a platform for regular offline gaming as well,” he said.
Ashwin had a biggie in 2012 — the Asia Esports Cup. He organised game tournaments, when nothing of the sort was taking place in the country. India won a bronze medal in Tokyo that year, a first and the only time that an Indian team won at an International arena.
After having tasted success in organising games, Ashwin went back to academics and reclaimed the degree that he left midway. A graduate and an experienced game organiser, he started working with ASUS, in the systems and marketing department. “For high end games, one requires high end systems. So now, I organise tournaments to market gaming products,” said Ashwin.
He’s quick to add for the benefit of aspiring gamers, “Fun is good and essential in gaming. But unless you’re serious about it, don’t take it up. Your parents will worry and think you’re wiling away precious time.”And does he still find time to play? “Starting every Friday night straight through to Saturday night, I’m ‘Ibelieve’ on Counter Strike Global Offensive (evolved version),” he laughs.
And what are his ambitions for the future? “There’s ROG (Republic of Gamers) in ASUS and the competition, ROG Masters. This is bigger than Asia Esports and I want to create a platform where gamers need only a one-level-qualifier into the final. It happens in Malaysia and I’m hoping for bigger digital networks for Esports or gaming.”