With the growing popularity of gaming professionals in India, the esports industry is expanding its wings. Backstage Pass, an institute for game design and development is organising an esports tournament, Proving Grounds 2, featuring FIFA 19 on 17 May 2019 in Bangalore, with a prize pool of Rs 50,000.
Being a game development institution this is the first time Backstage pass is venturing into esports. Speaking on esports market, Backstage Pass founder and president Surya. P expressed, “In next five years, I see esports going to pool in huge investments from big players in the industry.”
According to him the esports market today is leaping big , however few years ago, “esports in the western markets was considered nothing more than a joke, but today, big developers are pouring in on the prize pool, and top broadcasting channels such as ESPN also appreciate the demand for it and subsequently featuring them too,” said he.
Being a game design and development institution, they are in search of talented and passionate gamers, who are keen on having a career in game development. Due to the rising popularity of gaming and esports, Backstage Pass has recently extended their footprint in Bangalore and Pune. According to him most of the passionate gamers are participating in esports these days for better career prospects. On being asked as to why they are organising the tournament in Bangalore he replied, “Bangalore being a gamer hub, and most of the professional players are into E-sports, we wanted to have good visibility.”
The institution is targeting a mixed set of audience for the tournament which will include- pro-gamers (experienced or seasoned), casual-gamers (casual gamers) and non-gamers with a penchant for learning the craft, leveraging their knowledge and brushing up their skills. The average footfall expected by the institution for the tournament is around 150 per day.
The other partners of the tournament are Hyperx, XRIG, Asrock and so on. The offline registration for attending the tournament will start from 8 AM to 10 AM. The qualifier groups will hold at 12 PM to 4 PM and playoffs will start from 8 PM onwards.