While he plays for 12 hours a day during weekends, he plays for four to five hours on weekdays.
Chennai :
Born and raised in Qatar, 21-year-old Monish Kumar was introduced to gaming in 2011 by his friends who asked him to casually play Counter Strike 1.6, a first-person shooter video game. He was instantly attracted to it, and today, he has played over 20 tournaments professionally and is part of Arknemesis gaming group.
“I loved the game and started gaming in Dubai servers. However, I did not know the local tongue, so I could not develop connections. In 2012, I came to Chennai for a vacation and realised gaming was a profession and people earned money through it. That day I decided to take it up professionally,” he says.
In 2016, Monish shifted back to Chennai to pursue Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering, and also take forward his interest in gaming. “I started with League of Legends and one of my gaming friends introduced me to Overwatch, a team-based shooter game. I joined Arknemesis in 2017,” says Monish.
Though his parents were initially hesitant about him spending hours on gaming, when they realised Monish was being paid a salary and he was getting sponsors, they began supporting him.
Since 2017, Monish has been part of many tournaments. “My first was the Skirmish Tournament by Coolermaster where two Indian teams and one Malaysian team were battling against each other, and we bet both of them. At that point winning over an international team was a big deal. We came second in Indian Cyber Gaming Championship (ICGC), first in LXG Indian Land Gaming First Minor and second in LXG Indian Land Gaming Second Minor,” says the avid gamer.
While he plays for 12 hours a day during weekends, he plays for four to five hours on weekdays. After his graduation, he plans to pursue sports management. “E-sports is starting to get recognised as a sport. Getting into the management side might help organise and manage e-sports events,” he says.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by K.V. Navya / Express News Service / April 20th, 2019