The Esports Federation of India (ESFI) has announced the dates of the National Esports Championships (NESC) 2023 to pick the Indian contingent for the upcoming 15th World Esports Championships (WEC) in Iasi, Romania.
The preliminary rounds of the national qualifiers are scheduled to take place online from 14 to 19 March with the Grand Finals set to begin on 24 March.
ESFI will be conducting the qualifiers for the country’s top female athletes in the CS:GO title. Overall, India’s proficient athletes will be competing in four different esports titles including CS:GO, DOTA 2, Tekken and eFootball.
“This is set to be the biggest ever year for Indian esports where the country will be competing for glory at the Asian Games, Olympic Esports Week, Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, and the 15th World Esports Championships,” said Esports Federation of India president Vinod Tiwari.
After the conclusion of NESC 2023, the Indian athletes will be taking part in the regional qualifiers where they will take on competitors from other countries of the Asia and Oceania region. The dates for the regional qualifiers will be announced soon.
Organised by the International Esports Federation, the WEC 2023 will have a whopping prize pool of $500,000 and is set to be the largest edition of the tournament to date with at least 130 countries participating in it. The global finals of the tournament will take place from 24 August to 4 September 2023.
The registrations for NESC 2023 will begin on Wednesday, 1 March with the last date being 10 March.
“ESFI is excited to not only witness the high pulsating action of the qualifiers but to also conduct these qualifiers for the country’s talented female athletes for the very first time and see them represent the country at the biggest esports tournament on the globe. The official recognition of esports as a multi-sport event has brought about a paradigm shift that has kickstarted the golden era of video-gaming in the country. We wish all the athletes competing in the qualifiers the very best and are confident that they will make the country proud at the WEC 2023,” Tiwari added.
The NESC’23 will be played in a double-elimination format. The exciting action from the Championships will be streamed live on ESFI’s official YouTube and Facebook pages.