Are we heading towards the golden age of eSports in Pakistan?

It’s the early 2000s and you are vying with your brothers and sisters who will play Atari, PC or PS2 first. Your mother ordered you to play together. When your mother walked away you laughed frantically, thinking she had resolved the argument, and your smart guy gave your brother a disconnected joystick.

Almost every child must have thought about what kind of life it would be like if you could play games without interruption. We just don’t know that this is actually possible. Fast forward a few decades later, and we have dozens of extraordinary e-sports players making money by playing games.

As long as you play video games, the idea of ​​e-sports as a career path has always existed. In fact, the earliest known video game competition was held at Stanford University in 1972, where gamers played the “Space War!” game. In the “Interstellar Space War Olympics”, the winner will receive a one-year subscription to Rolling Stone Magazine.

However, in Pakistan, e-sports has only become a possible career choice in the past ten years or so.

Before Lahore’s Tekken player Arslan Ash shocked the world and won the EVO Japan and the United States championships in 2019, and then went on to be announced as ESPN’s best e-sports player of the year, not many people saw Pakistan as a place where e-sports flourished. But then Xiao Zhi emerged from obscurity and defeated the best (looking at you, Korea) and seized the throne.

His rise as the undisputed King of Iron Fist not only created miracles for the young gamer himself, but also brought light to Pakistan’s hidden but skilled e-sports community. One can think of Ash’s victory as pure luck, but since then, his performance in dozens of games has supported the hype and has won almost all of them. Not only that, since then, more Pakistani electronic players have received attention and officially put Pakistan on the e-sports map.

Although Pakistan surprised the world, it was not too shocking for Pakistani players. When everyone is busy swimming in the golden water, they are waiting for time, every game is improving, ready to face anyone, show off and win.

As local e-players became famous all over the world, not only in Tekken, but also in PUBG, Valorant and CS:GO, the government began to recognize e-sports and give it a “regular sports” status. This is undoubtedly the first step to build a complete e-sports industry. But how much is this industry or an industry (if we can call it that)? For example, how much money does an electronic player make every month? Is it enough to encourage more players to engage in e-sports career? What needs to be done to develop Pakistan’s e-sports scene?

Money can make ghosts grind

In a game, the average income of a Pakistani player ranges from 10,000 Pakistani rupees to 60,000 Pakistani rupees. Since revenue comes from winning championships, brand sponsorships, and several other routes, it is difficult to measure revenue. It is also affected by what games you play and whether you play alone or as part of a team. Many players even turn to streaming and coaching to maintain a stable income.

Local eSports commentator Mamoon Sabri agreed. He said: “The dynamics of all bonuses in these games are more complicated than I said, because it also depends on the player’s international success and qualifications, paths, etc.”

Aliyan Khan from the Only Titan team plays PUBG, and the average income of players sharing PUBG is about PKR 30-35,000. “The winning prize for the mini-tournament is 100k on the weekend,” he said. “Some tournaments will be held for one to two months. Local tournaments can be held for up to 45 days and are held several times a year.”

Of course, in games like PUBG, the prize money is divided equally among the team members, so the more tournaments you win, the higher the trophy. The popularity of the game is an important factor. Tekken and PUBG have some of the highest prize pools. CS:GO is very popular, but since Valorant came out last year, many CS:GO players have turned to the new first-person shooter game on the market. Valorant players now earn more than CS:GO players.

“CSGO and DOTA are the most dynamic competitive games in Pakistan’s history, but in the past year, they have hardly existed,” Sabri said.

Ibrahim from Flex Esports (CS:GO and Valorant) pointed out that PUBG Mobile is the highest paid game in Pakistan. “They are worth thousands of dollars in local tournaments. The top teams earn 30-40,000 PKR, so with their tournament bonuses, they can easily earn more than 50,000 PKR.”

Of course, the above players are talking about the average player’s bonus per game. Taken together, the profit is huge. Some top electronic athletes earn thousands or even millions of dollars. For example, four years ago, Sumail Hassan, a 17-year-old DOTA player at the time, won a tournament and accumulated US$2.4 million, making him the third highest paid player in the world.

He continued, “Fortnite players also have a good income. They also have a good community and good sponsors. Most Valorant sponsorships are provided by the Fortnite organization. There are some other games, but they are not promoted in our country. Currently only “Valorant”, “PUBG Mobile” and some other games are being promoted.” In addition, Rainbow 6, League of Legends and Rocket League also have niche communities.

Valorant player Hashir Abdullah said that PUBG Mobile is definitely the highest paid mobile game in Pakistan, but Valorant is the highest among PC games. He and more Valorant players agree that the prize pool of the tournament can range from 70,000 PKR to as high as 1 million.

According to Sabri, the total prize pool for the 2020 Pakistan PUBG Mobile Championship is 20 million Pakistani rupees, and this year’s figure also seems to remain the same. The way that funds are distributed among team sponsors, team players, and the entire hierarchy is a completely different and complex game.

Although several factors need to be considered in this conversation about the value of the new industry, the positive side is that more and more organizations are emerging and benefiting from the boom in e-sports in Pakistan. Players get a monthly salary and can earn income by winning local and international tournaments. Some smaller teams are made up of friends. If they attract the attention of sponsors after participating in or winning notable competitions, they will be sponsored, resulting in higher income and more facilities and resources.

Ash followed the same path and slowly became famous in the game until he became the first Pakistani athlete to be signed by Red Bull. Another team, VRNoobz, recently participated in the Red Bull Campus Clutch, which is the first and most famous global college student Valorant Championship. The weak team won the national finals and defeated India in the South Asian regional finals to enter the world finals to be held in Spain in July. When they won the victory from left to right, they got a sponsor and renamed their team MaxD Esports.

Sponsorship is what enhances the ubiquitous scene in every sport. As more organizations and brands sponsor game players, it will inevitably experience a huge boom and help develop the infrastructure for e-sports to flourish in Pakistan.

As e-sports is a $1 billion industry, Pakistan is slowly proving itself to be a major player with a huge talent pool in various games.

The author is a writer and film producer. He founded Film N’Chips Media Productions