ESFI conducts special meet with IOA to present India”s Esports contingent with training kits for Asiad

In a bid to discuss the growth of Esports in the country and hand over training kits to the Indian Esports contingent that will be participating at the Hangzhou Asian Games, the Esports Federation of India (ESFI) organised a special meet with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), here.

The event was attended by Kalyan Chaubey, Joint secretary & acting CEO of the IOA who presented the training kits to Street Fighter V athlete Mayank Prajapati, League of Legends player Mihir Ranjan and FIFA ace Harman Tikka in the presence of Lokesh Suji, Director of ESFI & Vice President of the Asian Esports Federation (AESF), Yugal Sharma, Vice President of ESFI and Prabhat Kumar, Vice-President of ESFI.

Chaubey also engaged in a discussion with the ESFI representatives and Indian athletes to motivate them for the Asian Games and talk about fostering an ecosystem that enables Esports to thrive in the country.

Addressing the queries of the Esports athletes present, Kalyan Chaubey, the Joint secretary & acting CEO of the IOA said, “We are confident about Esports having a strong future in India where it will generate a significant amount of interest driven by the young demographic of players in the country. Esports is a new-age sport that every country is playing and the upcoming Asian Games will mark the beginning of a marathon where we hope that our talented athletes help India take a giant lead against the other competitors. Just like the USA is synonymous with baseball, Finland is with ice hockey, and Brazil, Spain, and Germany are with football today, the world should be talking about India whenever we talk about Esports. The IOA remains fully committed to supporting our athletes & ESFI in every possible way, standing by them as they strive to achieve remarkable success and bring home medals”

Esports recently gained official recognition as a multi-sport event by the government of India and is set to make its debut as a full-fledged medal sport at the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games. The country will be sending a proficient 15-member contingent to compete in four different titles including DOTA 2, FIFA 22, Street Fighter V, and League of Legends at the prestigious tournament set to take place from September 23 to October 8.

The athletes secured their berth for the tournament by prevailing in the National Esports Championship (NESC 22) organized by the ESFI last year. The rest of the members of the Indian contingent will receive their training kits via courier.