The Indian esports teams for DOTA2 and Rocket League have booked their places in the inaugural edition of the Commonwealth Esports Championships 2022, to be held in Birmingham, UK in August.
Led by captain Hargun Singh, India’s Rocket League team, which included Nirjhar Mehta and Rushil Reddy Yarram, won all three matches at the South Asian regional qualifiers to claim the top spot. The qualifiers happened virtually.
The Indian DOTA2 team, comprising captain Moin Ejaz, Ketan Goyal, Abhishek Yadav, Shubham Goli, and Vishal Vernekar, meanwhile, finished second behind Pakistan to make the cut for the Commonwealth Esports Championships.
India’s Rocket League team started its campaign with a 3-2 win against Pakistan and then recorded 3-1 and 3-0 victories against the Maldives and Sri Lanka, respectively, in their next two games.
On the other hand, the Indian team competing in DOTA2 defeated Sri Lanka in both rounds and managed to win in one round each against Pakistan and Bangladesh.
“We are happy and a bit disappointed as we were expecting a clean sweep. We will continue our grind and have to study good teams,” said Moin Ejaz, captain of the Indian DOTA2 team.
This is the same DOTA2 team that is selected to represent India at the postponed Asian Games 2022, where esports will be making its debut as a medal sport.
Alongside DOTA2 and Rocket League, eFootball series by Konami will also be part of the Commonwealth Esports Championship 2022. All three esports competitions will feature in an open category and a women’s only category at the event.
Though the Commonwealth Esports Championships, to be held from August 1 to 7, will be held on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Games 2022, the esports event will have separate medals and branding.
Esports was included in the Asian Games 2022 programme as a medal event after making an appearance as a demonstration sport in 2018.
