Parents and E-Sports

“Mom! The game can’t be paused!”  is something every gamer has said in fury once in the lifetime. It’s very irksome when we gamers are asked to fetch food in between the game or when we are asked to go to market to bring something that cannot wait. While some choose to forget hunger, others prefer to stay famished for the sake of completing the game. Some gamers, in fact, are multi – talented enough to eat food along with playing and that extremely annoys the parents. None of us has ever obliged the parents while we are in – game because certainly, the game ultimately reaches to the top of our priority list. Market would stay where it had been for years, but no power of God could amend the lost game. Besides, the degradation of grades has always been a major concern for them because according to them, marks build the career. That is just Indian parents’ thing.

Not to forget the bunks that almost every avid Gamer makes just to experience the action, rage and triumph all over again. This fact is so inexplicable to them that at some point we have had received threats from our own parents about the disconnection of internet connection or emotional blackmail over our personal matter but that has not ceased us. We continue to endure our parents’ sharp words, open rage and unprecedented disgustful expressions. I believe that is just worth the feeling of exhilaration which comes out of awesome games. 

Of course, our game is not only a game. There is more to it. The games have evolved over generations to bring it to online platforms and many communities have unified to bring it to competitive level. The beloved Valve cooperation has bestowed lovely games upon us like Counter Strike, Dota, Left 4 Dead, Half Life series and many more. On the other hand, Electronics Arts has basked us with Battlefield and FIFA series. We often find ourselves explaining to our parents that these games are not just games. One just can’t disgrace the toil and sweat the game developers have endured in giving us detailed graphics, unprecedented stories and exhilarating music pack.

If you are liking this article so far, you might also want to have a look at this one: Benefits of playing video-games.

A gamer tends to attach himself/herself with the game character and tries to be invincible like the character itself. That’s where the problem arises for our parents because games give us an escape from reality. We had certainly never desired to live in virtual reality but Gaming feels very much like drug abuse. They are just like marijuana and heroin which can be assumed to have a similar structure called neurotransmitters, which are naturally produced by the brain. Because of this similarity, these drugs are able to “fool” the brain’s receptors and activate nerve cells to send abnormal messages.  This results in the “high” you feel when you take these drugs. But games are not drugs, they are just an over – whelming addiction. On the plus side, we are doing great and our parents should be proud of us. But this sounds surreal. In reality, our parents want us to cease the gaming completely. Their generation considers Doctorates, B Tech, BSc, LLB, B.com, BCA etc. as the only respectable degrees in life and Gaming is far beyond their understanding. Although, studies have a colossal significance, gamers wish to follow a treacherous path of Gaming.

As far as I have known, every gamer’s parents have delivered a speech to the former about the negligible scope of Gaming. However, this is true to some extent. The bothersome of parents don’t just end here. We succumb ourselves so much to the games with our high end Gaming headphones on that we are often not able to listen to our parents’ calls. Once I was so focussed in my game that my mom taunted me saying that I hand not blinked my eyes since ages. But I took it as a complement. The most furious part of our lives is when our family uses WiFi which leads to a tremendous increase in ping whether that be siblings or parents. This is halted only after we have screamed at them at the top of our lungs or when we have died in game. In fact, it is observed that one harbours a raging attitude while playing. Some may have become short – tempered because of continuous losses in game. All these scenarios have given rise to complex relationship between parents and gamers and perhaps, parents and e-sports. In spite of the fact that parents extremely despise e-sports, we love our parents but we don’t agree with the notion that e-sports can’t give employment.

In the wake of highlighting e-sports in India, Dota 2 gamers must have made efforts to explain their parents about this colossal electronic sports Dota 2 championship tournament The International hosted by no one but Valve Cooperation. The International 2015, however, offered an extravagant prize pool of 18.3 million $. This has been the highest prize pool in the history of E-sports tournaments that chilled the bones of every Gamer around the globe. Other Dota2 tournaments like DAC 2015, Frankfurt Major 2015, ESL One Frankfurt 2015, MLG World Finals 2015 have offered a prize pool in the range of 300 thousand $ to 3 million $. League of Legends has given way to LoL World Championship having 2 million $ of prize pool whereas Call of Duty championships and Call of Duty XP offer 1 million $. dreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015, ESL ESEA Pro League Dubai Invitational 2015, ESL ESEA Pro League S1 Finals, ESL One Cologne 2015 for Counter Strike: Global Offensive have given rise to a prize pool of 250,000$. There is an endless list of International tournaments of numerous E-sports games with opulent prizes.

Even if we gamers have managed to spill the beans about these tournaments to our parents, they still must have had the scepticism since these are not National Tournaments. The Indian Gaming scenario doesn’t get the prize pool as big as that of International ones. How can there be a big prize pool when there is no enthusiastic Gamer?  Everyone knows as much as I do that that we can’t make a career purely out of playing in India. There is no enthusiastic Gamer because they don’t get support from parents. Parents don’t support because there is no scope. There is no scope because there is no enthusiastic Gamer. This has been a vicious cycle ever since the emergence of E-sports in India. A grand Dota 2 tournament RageQuit Cup Season 3 was held in Delhi in the August, 2015 that offered a prize pool of 1.5 lakh /-. This was followed by Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup in the very next month in Mumbai with the prize pool of 4 lakh/- which had an unprecedented atmosphere of competition. The Video Gaming Fest was held in Bangalore on 10th and 11th October 2015 that offered 5 Lakh/- of prize pool and many exciting prizes. This tournament showcased Dota2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and FIFA 16 in the e-sports section. These were a huge success and had got a tremendous response from the gamers across India. While some gamers are no longer in the Gaming path, very few have been given financial as well as mental support from their parents.

Archit “ic3Cubes” Pradhan made departure from Surekh Gaming right after giving an outstanding performance in Ragequit Cup season 3 to pursue higher studies in Canada. In fact, it was his decision to bid farewell to professional Gaming scene because he wanted to do well in academics. He also said that there is no scope for gamers in India. Whereas the most prestigious Dota2 shoutcaster of India Nishant “CloudX” Patel has been very prosperous with the blessings of his parents to pursue his casting.

“Yes, my family has been supportive of my efforts for a while now. I was one of the University toppers during my third year of B.Com. Since then they’ve had faith that I know what I’m doing lol” said CloudX.

So the relationship between parents and e-sports can be amended by creating more and more of awareness through newspapers, television, radio, and social media. This is because parents tend to inspire more from these mediums than from us. Before initiating a tournament, the management should bring a media partner in order to cover the subsequent events and matches. YouTube is a great platform to start a community by posting alluring videos related to Gaming and then with the help of subscribers, anyone can form a community. Social media can be utilized by collecting volunteers who are exuberant to build a strong Gaming community in India.

Moreover, unstable interconnection and low grade PCs have always been a major concern for the gamers. Only if there were an outstanding ISP providing at least 2 Mbps with unlimited data and that too working for 24*7 worth 2000/-  below, 80% of the population would have dedicated themselves purely into Gaming. Alas, that would be an ideal situation and a dream which is quite difficult to harvest. Every Gamer has a ‘Will of Fire’ burning inside illuminating the future they have set for themselves surpassing the torment they go through just to feel the triumph over and over. Perhaps, we all wish to see an India where e-sports would be considered as a prestigious sport and not a wastage of time.