Picture Credit: Twitter
India’s CS: GO team won the South Asian Regional Qualifiers of the 14th World Esports Championships as they took Pakistan and Bangladesh in the semi-finals and finals, respectively. The team of IGL and captain Ritesh Sarda (Defaulter), Shuvajyoti Chakraborty (Mcg1LLzZz), Anshul Adardkar (KiiLSwitCh), Hrishikesh Shenoy (Crazy_Gamer) and Harsh Jain (lynX), recorded identical 2-0 victories to clinch qualification for the World Esports Championships.
Along with the Indian CS: GO team, Tekken 7 star Hitesh Khorwal (rcool) and eFootball player Hemanth Kommu (peshemak7) will also compete in the World Esports Championships, which is scheduled from 29 November to 12 December 2022 in Bali. Hitesh and Hemanth qualified for WEC by winning the National Esports Championships (NESC) 2022, conducted by the Esports Federation of India (ESFI) in early 2022.
Reacting to the win, the captain of the Indian CS: GO team, Ritesh Sarda expressed excitement and elation with the opportunity to play for the country at WEC. He then praised the team for a stunning overall performance. He said, “It feels amazing to represent India again at the World Esports Championships in back-to-back years. We definitely want to improve on our performances from last year and have been working very hard to do so.
The team has done very well in showcasing its qualities in-game while prevailing in all these qualifiers but the WEC final will be a stern test on a much higher level and we want to match that. I have high hopes from the tournament and we want to bring some glory from it back home,” he continued.
Director of Esports Federation of India and Vice President of the Asian Esports Federation, Lokesh Suj also talked about the efforts of the team and wished them the best of luck for the WEC in Bali. He said, “The team was simply too good for the opposition in terms of their skills, strategies and coordination.”
“They won comfortably against Pakistan and Bangladesh shows the confidence they have in their gameplay. We are extremely proud of their performances and are now looking forward to seeing them compete with the best teams from all over the world in Bali. Everyone at ESFI wishes them the best of luck for the grand tournament.”