Page 52 - BEATS: Secondary School Edition 2020-21

A Collective Dream Come True –

DPSI’S VERY FIRST eSPORTS

There’s anticipation, there’s suspense, and then Planning for the event began on January 27, 2021,
there’s the build-up to February 24, 2021! when the admin team outlined a two-week structure
for the tournament, culminating in a live broadcast
t all started innocently enough two years ago, in the final that would be viewed by the entire secondary
academic year 2018-19. Fresh off their inauguration, school.
Ithe former School President, School Captain, and
Sports Captain lit the spark to an idea that would “When we realised that our final was going to be
prove to burn with the intensity of Hippolyte’s arrow. upscaled to the level that it did eventually reach, we
knew we had to deliver to the stage. Our role was,
The theory was simple: tap into the immense in a way, to represent the eSports industry. So that
talent pool of DPSI gamers and give them a platform immediately posed a challenge of, ‘how do we strike a
to harness that talent into marketable talent. DPSI’s balance between a competitive event and a Cannes-
inaugural eSports tournament was primed to take the level production?’” — Soham Phargade
school, and all of Gurgaon, by storm. Circumstances,
however, prevented the event from occurring under Challenges began manifesting themselves from
the rest of the 2018-19 administration’s tenure, and it the beginning of the process. How many participants
was talked about little in the academic year succeeding would we begin with? Would they squad up, or play
that. This year, School President Simar Bhogal and individually? How would we divide the teams? What
Sports Captain Soham Phargade decided it was time formats would we use? What games? What maps? The
to finally make it happen. nature of esports meant there were endless amounts
of games, modes, rulesets, etc. to pick from and very
So, fast forward to January of this year—when few combinations of the above that could be pulled
eSports was rehashed and the school put the long- off at our production level while striking the delicate
awaited stamp of approval on the event that students balance between player and viewer satisfaction.
had been hungering for years now—and the admin
team of Soham Phargade, Manya Malhotra, Soham “There was some doubt among us to handle what
Patil, Zorawar Desai, and Ansh Aggarwal immediately might happen for certain games if they ended up being
set to work on making the event the biggest smash hit community favorites. We couldn't exactly have Among
in the history of DPSI.

Here’s 2021’s eSports event through
their lens.

“We always had lofty goals with this
tournament and with this production.
We told ourselves, ‘We’re not going to
take this event and turn it into some 1992
Midway Arcade Coin-Op Contest, we're
going to take this event and turn it into
the Super Bowl.” — Manya Malhotra

Soham Phargade (left) & Manya Malhotra (right)

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