French Open 2018: How the inaugural eSeries tournament fared in India
The Esports scene in India has taken a turn for the better with multiple gaming tournaments being organized. There is a myriad of gamers willing to try out anything enticing which is thrown at them. The latest to join the party was Roland-Garros, with its the eSeries tournament.
Banking on the success of the French Open, Roland-Garros organized an eSeries tournament to enter the world of Gaming, wherein they partnered with the game 'Tennis World Tour'. The idea behind this was to bring gamers and tennis fans alike, to play together in a new type of competition.
There is a dearth of good tennis games and it was high time one is launched. This tournament also became a medium for Roland Garros to offer new, innovative, and interesting activities to it's public and fans.
"A substantial amount of interest and curiosity was garnered by the game. This can mostly be attributed to the fact that this is the first time a Grand Slam event is organizing this kind of competition. Gamers and tennis fans had been waiting for a long time for a platform that would offer them the opportunity to compete 'virtually' on a tennis game in a Grand Slam event," shares Adrien, the India activations coordinator for Roland-Garros.
In terms of participants, the draws were limited to 32 participants in each country, and they were all filled in pretty easily because of the interest of the game. In total around 300 participants entered the event in the 8 countries. In France itself, over 900 requests were received. Hence, the draws in France were increased to 64.
The game is currently available on PS4, Switch, Windows, and Xbox.
The International finals between the 8 winners took place on May 25th. Carlos Che, the Spaniard finished as the ultimate champion. Adrien further tells Sportskeeda, "Rohit Thakur lost in the first round against the UK's Benjamin in a final tiebreak. The format was a knock out draw of 8 and the finals were broadcast live on the Roland Garros Facebook page and captivated the audience. We are really happy with this event and the interest we got was beyond expectations. We are already looking forward to having this event from further for the years to come."
"India, in particular, has a very intense eSport scene. We hope we can count again on the Indian gaming and tennis communities to develop this tournament further in the future. In the Indian event, it was really interesting to see that some of the people showed up with very little experience on tennis rules, but were expert professional players from other games like FIFA. At the other end you also had tennis fans with very little professional gaming experience but who were looking at a new way of enjoying their passion for the game," Adrien Groscolas signs off.
Rohit Thakur, who has been in the gaming industry for 12 years now, won the Indian leg and got the chance to go to France for the final.
Rohit has won various tournaments such as God of Gaming and also made it to Paris playing FIFA before. I participated in U Cypher as well in the past.
"I went to Delhi to play the eSeries tournament and became the Indian champion, which made be eligible for the international leg. The 'Tennis World Tour' had not even been released in the market and none of the participants had ever played it, so it was a level playing field," shares Rohit.
"The whole experience of the game was great, however, during the International Finals, the controls were changed at the last moment as the Spanish player raised an objection. The new controls did not suit me," Rohit explains why he lost the quarterfinal.
Rohit lost to the player from the UK. It was a tight game, and he was even leading the game and had the match point but from there it went all downhill.
"I was good at the game so I think I could have won it had the controls remained the same. There are a few animation glitches but I am sure the bugs will be fixed soon and the gaming experience is really good on the whole."
A self-proclaimed FIFA addict who has been playing the game since 2006, Rohit had his travel and pay funded by the Roland Garros team for three days. However, the avid football fan decided to stay back and explore the different football stadiums and watch a few games.
I also followed up with a FIFA event which was taking place in Amsterdam.
A sports enthusiast, Rohit got to watch one of the biggest icons, the King of Clay - Nadal, practice, and play. This had been one of his childhood dreams and it was finally fulfilled now. Getting to see Djokovic, Cilic from up close was a great experience.
How bright do you think is the future of eSports in India? Tell us in the comments below!