Asian Games 2023: India name 15-member esports team - full squad
Indian gamers will only take part in four of the seven titles: Dota 2, FIFA Online 4, League of Legends and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition.
India have named a 15-member esports team to compete at the Asian Games 2023, to be held in Hangzhou, the People's Republic of China later this year.
Esports will be making its debut at the Asian Games as a medal event. Medals won by competitors will count towards the final medal tally.
Gamers will be competing in seven events; Arena of Valor Asian Games Version, Dota 2, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, FIFA Online 4, League of Legends, PUBG Mobile Asian Games Version and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition.
India, however, will be participating in only four events: Dota 2, FIFA Online 4, League of Legends and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition.
India were scheduled to compete in Hearthstone as well but the event was removed from the Asian Games esports program in March. Shikhar Choudhary and Karthik Varma were to represent India in Hearthstone.
Arena of Valor and PUBG Mobile Asian Games Version are banned in India while Dream Three Kingdoms 2 is not available in the country.
The Indian Dota 2 team won the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Esports Championship 2022 in Birmingham last year. The team was captained by Moin Ejaz, who was originally included in the Asian Games team but has now been dropped. The rest of the Dota 2 team has been retained for the Hangzhou meet.
The Asian Games 2023 will be held from September 23 to October 8. The Games were to be held in 2022 but postponed due to COVID-19.
Asian Games 2023 esports: India team
FIFA Online 4: Charanjot Singh and Karman Singh Tikka
Street Fighter V: Champion Edition: Mayank Prajapati and Ayan Biswas
League of Legends: Akshaj Shenoy (captain), Samarth Arvind Trivedi, Mihir Ranjan, Aditya Selvaraj, Aakash Shandilya and Sanindhya Malik
DOTA 2: Darshan Bata (captain), Krish Gupta, Abhishek Yadav, Ketan Goyal and Shubham Goli