T3 India

esports

Western Digital hosts second edition of the WD_BLACK Cup Esports Tournament for gamers across South Asia

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Earlier this year, Western Digital (WD) hosted the first edition of the WD_Black Cup in India, and now, WD is ack with Season 2 of the esports tournament, in association with AMD Ryzen. This 19-day long gaming marathon – WD_Black Cup Season 2.

This season, the tournament will have a prize pool of $20,000, a longer duration, and there is one more game added to the tournament. The WD_Black Cup S2 will feature some of the most seasoned gaming influencers and esports players as they battle for top honours across 3 tracks:

  • WD_Black Cup Open Qualifiers featuring Valorant and League of Legends, and
  • The Invitational track featuring Battlegrounds Mobile India

This tournament will be held across India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives, with an expected viewership of over 8 million. The tournament began on November 20th with the first track, WD_Black Cup S2 Valorant Qualifiers, open to 200 teams. This track was spread across 9 days and will be broadcasted live with single elimination open qualifiers filtered down to top 8 teams, with the total prize pool being $10,000.

The second track, WD_Black Cup S2 League of Legends open commenced from 6th December with qualifiers, and the play-offs started from 10th December with the final being held tomorrow, December 15th, which will also be streamed live on the Skyesports WD Black Cup S2 streaming channel. This track featured 32 teams.

The third track, BGMI Invitational track, was a 4-day long marathon that ran from 6-9th December, and it hosted 18 teams, featuring a few top influencers from India, including Soul Esports and Godlike, with the prize pool being of $7,000.

“The inclusion of esports in the medals category at the Asian games is attracting a lot of young talent to gaming in India. Western Digital is enabling gamers to be battle-ready with or by using our innovative WD_BLACK range of gaming SSDs. The WD_BLACK Cup is our flagship gaming tournament designed to motivate, recognize and reward these budding gamers in India and South Asia, and we are thrilled to have AMD as our partner in this exciting initiative”, said Mr. Jaganathan Chelliah, Senior Director, India, ME &Africa, Western Digital.

For more information, please visit this page.

HP is offering Indians an Esports Scholarship at the OMEN FanFest 2020

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The world of Esports has taken its own time to build up into the platform it is today within India. It’s still nascent, but opportunities, communities and the appreciation for it as a way of life is definitely on the rise, thanks to the advancements made in the tech sphere. To promote the growth of the PC Gaming industry, HP India has announced a fascinating scholarship at the Omen FanFest 2020 which offers a range of exciting opportunities for the winner.  

The ‘esports Gold Quest’ scholarship is open to Indian applicants aged between 16-20 and will begin in January 2021 with the final selections in June 2021. Three Indian talents will be selected and will be offered an annual scholarship of Rs. 12 lakhs each, which will also include a full esports kit from Omen, a monthly salary of Rs. 50,000 each and the opportunity to train abroad.

The winners will also gain an invaluable interaction with prominent esports athletes, pioneers, and more. Expert mentoring will surely lead the selected gamers in becoming much more acquainted with the knowledge to not only further their skills and potential but also how to traverse the business and other aspects of the industry.

Ketan Patel – Managing Director, HP India Market said, “Indian talent has the potential to compete with the best in the globe. As a market leader, we are working towards making the gaming ecosystem more inclusive for everyone, fuelling the passion in gaming, and providing a launch pad for budding esports talent in the country. The scholarship program announced today in is in line with our philosophy of ‘Play to Progress’ and we hope to see champions at the world stage from India soon.”

This is a great opportunity for the young gamers and also, a wonderful initiative by HP India. Such scholarships are needed to diversify and promote talent in gaming.