S8UL is an organization that every Indian esports fan recognizes. Globally, they’ve earned recognition as well, particularly through their back-to-back victories for the esports content group of the year at the Esports Awards. While the organization invests significantly in esports in the region, they don’t have a team in VALORANT, one of the biggest PC esports titles in India.
VALORANT is perhaps the most-played PC FPS title in India. Additionally, its popularity can be credited to mobile gaming players like Scout and Mortal from S8UL, who streamed the game during the PUBG Mobile ban period. However, they never fielded an esports roster in VALORANT. Recently, 8Bit Thug stated the reasons for this. Let us take a look at it in depth.
Image Credits: Nodwin Gaming
S8UL has no plans for a VALORANT team, here’s why
Since the launch of the VCT Partnership League, many wondered why S8UL didn’t take part in the registration process. Many believed that they would be planning to field a roster in the upcoming VCL South Asia Split 1, a tournament which took place in Delhi NCR, India. They didn’t field a roster during that tournament either and have instead focused on other games such as Pokémon UNITE and BGMI.
Recently, in India, there has been a lot of talk concerning the Indian VALORANT Ecosystem sinking in size. This is due to multiple teams who were present in the VCL SA Challengers Split 1 leaving the game entirely. Most surprisingly, Orangutan Esports who qualified from India for the Ascension Pacific announced their departure from the scene as well.
In a recent tweet, the co-owner of S8UL, Animesh ‘Thug’ Agarwal stated the reasons for this, even blaming local org owners and Riot Games:
“More than players, a lot of org owners are supposed to be blamed [for bringing] the ecosystem to the state it is in today. When I used to talk, I was hurdled with abuses. Also, any esports ecosystem needs to have at least $500,000 in prize pool to survive on an annual basis. So, Riot equally needs to have a local understanding of the Indian market and act accordingly.”
Additionally, he explained that the minimum monthly expenditure for a VALORANT team in India is Rs 5 lakhs which is about $6000. Most of this expense is on player salaries, which, according to Thug, are highly inflated. This is a sentiment that the owner of the only VCT Partnered team in India, Global Esports’ Rushindra Sinha agrees on. He said that there needs to be a hard cap on Indian VALORANT salaries of Rs 50,000 ($600) per month to balance the ecosystem.
What are the other reasons for the decline of the VALORANT esports ecosystem in India?
VALORANT currently has been experiencing a fall in esports interest in the country, something that can be clearly indicated through the viewership. The VCL Challengers SA Split 1 averaged 2,100 viewers on the Nodwin Gaming YouTube Channel, per Esports Charts. Split 2, on the other hand, averaged a mere 800 viewers.
In the conversation about the Indian VALORANT Ecosystem, many prominent local tournament organizers have also pointed out that it’s very tough to get licensing from Riot India. This has resulted in tournament organizers not being able to host grassroots-level events across the nation.
Additionally, in a country where partnerships are comparatively scarce, the added taxation laws lead to significantly lower revenue through the primary source of income – Prize Pools. There is about a 30 percent tax deducted from source (TDS) on all esports tournament winnings. This means that of a $1,000 tournament, only $700 will be paid out by the tournament organizer to orgs with the remaining contributing to taxes. Furthermore, esports organizations have to pay a substantial amount of the prize pool to the players.
It must be stated that for a VALORANT team to break even in India right now, they will need to generate at least $72,000 annually – an exorbitant amount. Orangutan Esports, who won both VCL South Asia Splits 1 and 2, could only win $49,000 in winnings before taxes (after taxes $34,300).
Image Credits: Riot Games
This situation as a whole now puts pressure on the upcoming OFF//SEASON Event, the VALORANT Convergence, which is taking place in Bangalore between Nov. 14 and 17. Many hope that this event can reignite the game’s popularity in India. If not, it won’t be a hot take to state that the future of Indian VALORANT looks bleak.
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