The excitement of eSports seen in Kathmandu University

Kathmandu. 17-year-old Nimesh Wagle was with his teammates at the multipurpose hall of Kathmandu University in Dhulikhel on Saturday. They were anxiously waiting for their turn to compete with Valorant Gaming in the e-gaming tournament organized by the university.

Inside the hall, two other games, Dota 2 and Royal Clash, had just started. PUBG gaming was completed a while back and gamers were ‘cheerleading’ other gamers.

There were about 20 powerful PCs in the center of the hall. One gamer on each PC was wearing a headset and playing games with enthusiasm. Crowds of spectators and supporters were cheering behind them. From time to time, the sound of joy and anger coming out of the mouths of gamers and spectators made the hall resound.

The multipurpose hall, which is otherwise deserted, was full of excitement on Saturday and Sunday. The atmosphere of online gaming was overshadowed. The eSports movement that is growing around the world was also seen there.

Lately, the eSports craze has increased greatly in Nepal. Not only among the eSports players, but also the viewers are excited, says Rosen Sahani, the manager of the PUBG Gaming organizer.

For the last two years, eSports has also been included in the ‘IT Meet’, which is being organized annually by the students of Computer Science and Engineering Faculty of Kathmandu University.

In the IT meet which will be organized for two days, programs of three segments have been kept. Which includes technical, non-technical and other gaming.

Under technical, code camp, googling, mobile juice, AI camp, graphics designing competition, IT quiz were organized. Idea pitching session, career fair and product exhibition were held under non-technical. Likewise, gaming i.e. eSports was organized as a separate segment. In which a tournament of five games was held namely PUBG, Clash Royale, FIFA, Valorant and Dota 2.

Around 160 gamers came to the hall to compete in this gaming tournament. In one day, more than 500 spectators came to the KU hall to watch the game.

‘When we were organizing the IT meet, we put various products and programs related to technology. But we keep forgetting that eSports, which has the interest of such a large population, is also an important part of technology. That’s why we have started keeping eSports as a special segment since last year’s meet. .’ Siza Adhikari, one of the organizers and a student studying in the fourth year of computer engineering in the university, said.

According to him, most of the total number of visitors to the IT meet are more attracted to the gaming segment than the technical and non-technical segments.

‘We have included this segment as a center of attraction because many visitors can be drawn for the meet.’ Siza said.

The program included the most talked about game, PUBG, the online game Clash Royale, FIFA etc.
FIFA is an online strategic game about football. It is played by two gamers against each other. FIFA is not so popular among gamers like PUBG and Free Fire which are installed on everyone’s mobile. But this game is very popular at the international level. Fifa manager Suman Pokharel says that this game is discussed a lot in the gaming house and there are also many international tournaments.

Because PUBG and Free Fire are mobile games, their hype is very high. But FIFA, Valorant and Dota 2 are PC games. As these games require a powerful PC device to play, not everyone plays them.

In the event, a prize pool of 11 thousand rupees was kept in the FIFA segment.

Similarly, another game like FIFA, Clash Royale is also a game that is not much hyped in Nepal. But its big tournaments are held in countries including India and Hong Kong. According to Clash Royale manager Anurag Karki, this game has not received much priority in Nepal, but organizations like Sports Nepal are organizing its tournaments from time to time.

Currently, there are very few professional teams of Clash Royale in Nepal, one of which is Cody Ninety Nine whose clan name is Clash Nepal.

Until some time ago, the game Counter Strike Go Offensive i.e. CSGO was at the forefront of the strategic FPS game in the PC segment. But after this, now Valorant is popular all over the world.

‘Valorant gaming requires a very good and powerful PC, which is why it has not become as popular as PUBG,’ says Valorant manager Virat Shrestha. CSGO players have all come to Valorant now.’

Currently, as the number of Valorant gamers has started to increase, international tournaments have also started to increase. The company has already brought its server to Mumbai.

The program organized a Valorant Gaming Tournament in both the pre-event and the main session. In which 16 teams participated.

Even though the strategic game Dota isn’t quite as hyped, it is an eSport with the largest prize pool in international tournaments.
Due to the difficult nature of the game, there are not many gamers in it.

Prasun Sapkota whose endgame name is Minus has recently entered Dota 2 gaming. He is associated with Chaman Sports, which is considered the best among the few teams representing Dota 2 from Nepal.

Prasun also came to KU for Dota 2 on Sunday.

He was very happy that the game was completed in a very cordial atmosphere. Prasun, a student of KU, says that although he cannot devote time to gaming, he gathers with other gamers of Chaman when there is a tournament somewhere.

“It is a great thing that so many games are organized on the same platform. We are very happy that the game was completed so cordially.”

Similarly, 12 teams participated in the very popular PUBG game included in the program. Due to the craze of Pubg, the title sponsor of IT Meet 2022, Efwan Soft, has sponsored Pubg, said the manager of Pubg, Rosen Sahani.

But due to the understanding of the importance of eSports, many companies, game developers and IT accessories companies have come forward for spontaneous sponsorship in this year’s gaming segment, said Siza.

In the program, gamers were competing in foreign games. Along with this, the AR treasure hunt created by the students of KU using Augmented Reality was released in a pre-event last July.

‘Our society and family’s opinion has changed to a large extent to see online gaming as a bad addiction. If you can show interest, attachment and patience in it, its scope is very big.’ Siza says,
There is a lot of demand in the market of game developers, but there is a lack of developers in the market. At such a time, gamers say that gaming can create value in that area as well.

Suman, event manager of FIFA, says, ‘While gaming, gamers like the UI or character of a game, at such a time they are not only gaming, they are also moving towards better development by imitating the game they are influenced by.’

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