US video game developer Riot Games to debut international esports tournament in India

“The ‘Convergence’ IP was created specifically with the Indian audience in mind. We wanted the Indian VALORANT fan to experience the thrill of an international tournament and it is, in reality, a thank you message to the Indian gaming community,” Sukamal Pegu, esports lead – India and South Asia at Riot Games told ET.

“Since the launch of VALORANT in 2020, India has become one the biggest regions for the game in the APAC region. And to further accelerate our momentum here, we have a busy roster for experiences and events planned in 2024 as well as a couple of exciting announcements,” he added.

Convergence will be held between 14-17 December at the Manpho Convention Centre, Bengaluru. The event will be co-sponsored by Lenovo and Intel, and it will have a prize pool of $50,000 for the winners. The event, for the first time, would witness participation from teams from South Korea, Europe, Brazil, and Turkey, including a couple of popular Indian teams.

This is one among the many high-profile LAN (local area network) events for video games organised by the likes of Krafton, Nodwin Gaming, Skyesports and many others, becoming a phenomenon in India.

In terms of investing in India, Pegu said Riot shall work towards “elevating VALORANT’s ecosystem enabling more accessibility to the game, better experience with infrastructure and more hyper local experiences just for the Indian fan.”“It will also have a special focus around the esport ecosystem and build collaboration with esport organisations, tournament organisers, brands and athletes to work towards a common goal of profitability and sustainability,” he added.VALORANT is among the top 10 PC online video games in India which gained popularity during the nine months after the banning of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) in India in 2021.

Riot has since installed its servers in India for better gaming experience, launched an Indian in-game character called ‘Harbour’, and also featured an Indian map in the game. However, given that it is a PC game, it is an expensive affair for an average gamer in India.

Riot had also announced that the mobile version of the game is under development, which many industry insiders believe may be launched towards the end of 2024.

As per industry estimates, the game has close to 300,000-500,000 players in India and makes revenue from in-app purchases. Global Esports (GE) is the only Indian organisation which has an official VALORANT team in partnership with Riot for their VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT).

“Globally, Riot Games has shared $33 million from sale of digital assets to its partner teams and we are proud to say that the Indian team has been a beneficiary of $1 million,” said Rushindra Sinha, CEO and founder of GE. “This is over and above the $50,000 base salaries that we pay to our players annually.”

On the other side, Riot has been constantly criticized by the esports industry for its poor treatment of third-party organisations and their whole ecosystem being unprofitable.

On Wednesday, Jai Shah, founder of Orangutan Gaming posted on X that the organisation is quitting the Valorant SA roster as the PC ecosystem is not sustainable in India.

“High salaries, lack of LAN tournaments, most of the big orgs disbanding, low social media numbers of the athletes, and most importantly viewership at an all-time low which makes it really difficult to provide value to everyone investing in the scene,” he said in the post.

Kartik Sabherwal, founder, and CEO of Upthrust Esports also posted about the publisher limiting the ecosystem by putting licensing restrictions on third party organisers.

However, Riot’s Pegu said, “As a publisher, we have an important role to play in the ecosystem’s efforts towards sustainability and we will always accept that responsibility. In the end, we are answerable to our Indian fans and as Riot, we shall never compromise in the quality of experience that we bring to the fans”.