India in eSports at Asian Games 2023: Schedule, squad, events

India will participate in four events: DOTA 2, FIFAe, League of Legends (LoL), and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition (SFV).

Asian Games in 2023 is set to mark the competitive debut of esports as an official event, following its demonstration in the previous edition. Participating nations will compete for seven different esports titles. India is set to participate in four of these events: DOTA 2, FIFA Online 4 (FIFAe), League of Legends (LoL), and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition (SFV).

Indian esports squad:

FIFAe – Charanjot Singh, Karman Tikka

Street Fighter V – Mayank Prajapati and Ayan Biswas

League of Legends – Akshaj Shenoy, Aditya Selvaraj, Aakash Shandilya, Mihir Ranjan, Sanindhya Malik, and Samarth Trivedi

DOTA 2 – Darshan Bata (captain), Krish Gupta, Abhishek Yadav, Shubham Goli, and Ketan Goyal

FIFAe appears to offer India its best chance at winning gold, with South Asian top-seed Charanjot Singh, and Karman Tikka in action. Charanjot recently helped India achieve its highest-ever FIFAe ranking of World No. 6 after participating in the FIFAe Nations Cup 2023.

Read our other stories on Asian Games - HERE

India’s DOTA team, bronze medallist at the Commonwealth Championship the previous year, is also aiming for a podium finish. Abhishek Yadav, Ketan Goyal, and Shubham Goli, members of that successful team, are now part of the Asian Games line-up.

However, in League of Legends and Street Fighter, India faces stiff competition from South Korea, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and China. These countries are considered favourites in their respective events.

The tournament will feature different formats, with group stage games in DOTA and LoL being best-of-one (BO1), while knockouts will be best-of-three (BO3). Street Fighter V matches will be played exclusively in the BO3 format.

eSports - India schedule

FIFA Online 4

Game Type: Single-player

Dates: September 24 to 27

League of Legends

Game Type: Team-Based

Dates: September 25 to 29

Street Fighter V: Champion Edition

Game Type: Single-player

Dates: September 26 to 28

DOTA 2

Game Type: Team-Based

Dates: September 29 to October 2