BENGALURU: Sujay Anbarasu loves football, both in the real and virtual world. What started out as an activity to kill time during school days paved way for his full-fledged career as a freelance gamer. The 25-year-old graduated five years ago and decided to venture into full-time gaming. “During school days, we would have sleep overs. My friends and I would spend hours on video games. That was the time when my friend told me there were video game tournaments happening in Chennai.
I gave it a shot in one of them and ended up as the runner-up in my very first game. I would call it a turning point,” shares Sujay who has six years of professional gaming experience and is popularly called ‘Riddler’ in his gaming circle.
Sujay’s area of expertise is FIFA video games. He has represented India in 2016 in Paris at the Electronic Sports World Convention. In addition, he has been a part of Asian tournaments, Singapore and Bangkok representing India. The gamer has won 50 tournaments in India. “Basic rules in any sport are important. It is not necessary for someone to know how to play football in real life to play the virtual game. While physical stamina is important in real world, being mentally composed is important in video games,” says
Sujay who plays six to seven hours every day. He owns a console and a play station.
Sujay keeps himself updated about latest games through streaming apps like Switch and YouTube. He is a huge fan of fighting and racing games like Mortal and Street Combat.
“Like most kids, I too started off with Super Mario. As a 10-year-old I would go to my cousin’s place to play. These kind of games have skills, button inputs are quick and there are no bugs. Football is a simulation game. These kind of games have certain bugs. Red Dead Redemption is a much-awaited game,” tells the engineer-turned-gamer.
Agge Rosenmeier, a two-time winner of FIFA eWorld Cup is his inspiration, and his aim is to win the FIFA eWorld Cup. “My mother is my biggest support. Some day I hope the gaming scenario in India catches up with that of Singapore. Sponsors play a huge role...unless people invest, the progress will be slow. Even the prize money varies. India has a better scope in FIFA. Choose the right game based on interest to play on a professional level. Call of Duty games used to do well on a professional level but now players have retired. You need to adapt,” he says.