Gaming

Beginnings

Videogames were my first love. When I was a kid, every vacation meant that my family and I would visit my grandparents. That’s where my uncle introduced me to what an Xbox 360 was, and it was no going back from there. It started with Battlefield 1942, Viva Pinata and Top Spin. I was around 7 years old at the time, so I understand my mother’s frustration at me being obsessed with a World War II shooter, but oh well. After many months of annoying my parents, they finally got me my first gaming console, an Xbox One. A milestone.

I was 11 at the time, got started with some kiddie games like LEGO Marvel Superheroes, Forza Horizon 2 and Assassin’s Creed. It was around this time that I set up my YouTube channel. I have a video with almost 170,000 views and that is one of my proudest achievements. YouTube did pay me around 2500 INR for helping them generate ad revenue. A phase of life in which I truly felt like the coolest kid in town, an actual ‘Youtuber’. It was crazy fun boasting about this to my classmates.

Levelling up

Fast forward two years, I discover PC Gaming. Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Grand Theft Auto V were suddenly my whole life. Steam was the magical website which had a ton of games, from free titles to dirt cheap ones. I got hooked instantly. I would rush back from school and play for hours. Unfortunately, at the time I had a laptop which was not so powerful, so playing GTA V was an immense challenge. The graphics settings I had to apply made it look like mush. Most of my time went in playing Rocket League and CSGO.

PlayerUnknowns: Battlegrounds and Overwatch became favourites too around when I was in the 9th grade, way before PUBG released on mobile and became an international sensation. My friends and I would play all day. Oh, I must add. I have made amazing friends through gaming, every boring evening was turned into one overflowing with fun and shouting and a lot of swearing. It was around this time that I went to my first gaming tournament, the Rocket League Minor conducted by LXG Bangalore during ILG Cup Season 2. We secured a solid 2nd place! The three of us won a cash prize of 35,000 INR (which was absolutely crazy for a 14 year old kid by the way) and that was again, stuff that put me on top of the world.

During lockdown, there was one game that I think we all spent most of our day with. Valorant. This was basically a CSGO and Overwatch mashup which had caught the gaming world by storm. All of a sudden, CSGO was not the #1 FPS shooter anymore, something many thought would never change. My friends and I would easily spend 3+ hours on this game daily, which was obviously something you shouldn’t do. Especially when you have JEE in less than a year. But ah. We won a college level tournament in this as well and had some insane fun along the way.

Low on HP

Unfortunately, I do not get much time to game now. I still do play a bit here and there though. Props to you for reading till here, and check out my Steam if you’re interested. I have 1000+ hours in CSGO, Valorant and Rocket League, and a humble 600 in GTA V. Special mention to two of my favorite single player games - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Red Dead Redemption 2.