UNIV Sportatech hosts India’s First Sports and Esports event Culminating in “BHARAT IN PARIS”

Celebrating Bharat’s Olympic Movement and Adoption of Esports

(L to R): Shivi, Surabhi Tiwari, Vaibhav Dange (Founding Director of FEAI), Shri Manoj Tiwari Ji (Member of Parliament and Guest of Honor), Shri Giriraj Singh Ji (Hon’ble Minister of Textiles), Col. Harmeet Sethi (Senior Director, Dalmia Cement), Abhishek Issar (Founder, UNIV Sportatech), Ishan Verma (Founder, UNIV Sportatech), Siddhartha Upadhyay (Founder, STAIRS).

Khel Today Bureau 

New Delhi: All roads today converged at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to witness the first major convening of traditional sports and Esports, ahead of the Paris Olympics that is scheduled to be held from July 26th to 11th August. The maiden inaugural run, titled “Bharat in Paris” is a celebration of India’s Olympic movement and a prelude to the inclusion of Esports in Olympics. 

The Bharat In Paris event marks the recognition of Esports amongst traditional sports. Inspired by the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi to position India as a global sports power with aspirations of hosting the Olympics in the near future. The run aims to integrate traditional sports with the fast growing Indian Esports segment, which even the Government of India, by the Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi himself, has acknowledged recently. 

The Bharat in Paris Inaugural Run was flagged off Chief Guest Shri Giriraj Singh, Hon’ble Minister of Textiles in the presence of Guest of Honour, Shri Manoj Tiwari, Hon’ble Member of Parliament.

In this inaugural address, Hon’ble Minister of Textiles Shri Giriraj Singhji said, “First of all, I recognise the efforts of Abhishek Issar and Ishan Verma for organising this event. Today India has made big strides in Olympics. India has achieved so much in the global sporting arena, which is unimaginable. India is winning medals in every sports making the country proud”

Sh. Giriraj Singh further stated that: “the growing opportunity of digital India offers great possibilities in leveraging new Olympic medal sports such as ESports. This is a great occasion for India to establish its presence in the ESports industry and win medals along with traditional sports.”

Shri Manoj Tiwari, Hon’ble Member of Parliament said, “Today’s 7-km run is good wishes going to the athletes going to Paris for the Olympics. It is our wish to the Indian contingent to double the medals tally. It is good to see the progress and fillip given to ESports along with traditional sports. The recognition of ESports in Olympics is a big step which will motivate enthusiasts and propel them to do better”.

UNIV Sportatech, a pioneer in the Esports policy adoption, with a vision to cultivate robust Esports ecosystem by advising the State Governments, is also hosting esports tournaments across multiple regions of the country, with the aim to create an enabling policy-led environment to empower the Government and have a trickle down effect for grassroots development of the sector. 

The ‘Bharat In Paris’ event also includes an esports tournament, along with the run, where all winners are being attributed a cumulative prizepool of INR 2,64,000 (INR 1,50,000 for the podium finishers from the run and INR 1,14,000 for esports winners). The event is a representation of Indian citizens getting to participate in the Olympic sports (run, BGMI, Chess, FIFA) and show their skills.

While there are three age-categories for the runners on the race day, the Esports tournament had three titles (BGMI – BattleGrounds Mobile India, E-Chess and EA Sports FC24) over the last 10 days culminating in today’s grand celebrations. The 10-day esports tournament witnessed participation from 1500 applicants from all corners of the country. The winners have been flown in specially from Patna and Mumbai, while there are others from Kolkata and Delhi as well. 

The winners were felicitated by India’s iconic ESports athletes – Tanmay “Scout” Singh, Ammar “Destro” Khan and Lokmanyu Chaturvedi at a special Meet & Greet Session giving an opportunity for ESports aspirants to take  their autographs, take pictures with them, and hear from them their inspiring journey in the world of gaming/ESports.  

Speaking about the initiative, Abhishek Issar, Founder, UNIV Sportatech, said, “With a BHARAT-first approach UNIV Sportatech is committed to creating policy-led interventions and innovations in the sports, esports, media and entertainment industries. The ‘Bharat In Paris’ Olympic awareness run is a celebration of Bharat’s rising force as part of the Olympic movement. Akin to the International Olympic movement of creating the Esports Olympics, today we are proud to have played our part in creating an inclusive approach having to accord winners of the run and esports at the same event. We are proud to be taking esports ground up having to have advised the central Government for recognising esports as a sport and now empowering the state governments, like the Bihar Government, to create state esports policies. Given India’s fantastic digital infrastructure, and the central Government’s positive outlook, Esports may well be Bharat’s moment to take a podium finish at the Olympics.”

Ishan Verma, Founder, UNIV Sportatech, added, “Bharat in Paris’, an Olympic awareness run also aims to draw attention towards inclusion of esports at the Olympics. India’s esports market is growing rapidly, expected to reach USD 919 million by 2032. Interestingly, India currently holds a very small player pool, and recognising this anomaly UNIV Sportatech is committed towards building talent identification and incubation programs to support emerging talent nationwide. The Bharat In Paris Esports event is one small step in that direction. We hope a consistent build up of this approach will soon position India as a global esports leader and inspire future esports athletes.”

About ESports in India: 

As of 2022, the number of eSports players in India was recorded at around 600 thousand. This was a leap by 300 percent from the previous year. Continuing on this path of growth the figure was further expect to exceed one million players over the next five years.

About India’s iconic ESports athletes: 

• • Tanmay “Scout” Singh: Scout, often referred to as one of the best Indian BGMI players and an acclaimed international player and has represented India on multiple occasions gave away prices to BGMI Winners. 
  • Ammar “Destro” Khan: Destro, one of the most recognized BGMI players and an athlete of Mogo Esports, was also present to give away prizes to the winners of the Bharat In Paris ESports Championship.

• Lokmanyu Chaturvedi: Lokmanyu, who is an EA sports FC Athlete has represented India on global stage on numerous occasions was also present at the event and gave away prizes of the winners of Bharat in Paris ESports Championship.

Winners of the Tournament: 

BGMI:  Team Hail India, comprised of Prakul Singh Fertyal (HailxPolar), Ketan Singh (HaiLxDEVILIGL), Dev Kumar (HailxNodii), and Abhijeet Das (HailxGALAXYYY), emerged as the winners of the tournament.

Chess: Piyush Kumar Mishra (MrBeast0708) from Patna, Bihar secured victory in the tournament. He has also represented Bihar in various national events.

EA Sports FC 24: Vanshaj Sharma (ISAGI YOIISAGI) from Mumbai, Maharashtra claimed the championship title. He currently holds the 2nd rank in India and the 5th rank in the South Asian region.

About UNIV Sportatech:

UNIV Sportatech is a policy-first professional firm, with a focus on technology led interventions. dedicated to providing the highest level of service bringing strategic, commercial, financial, innovative, investible and general business knowledge to the Sports, Media & Entertainment and Gaming ecosystems. Technology and Knowledge are the two pillars of our service operations and we work with a specialised global business outlook. It aims to cultivate a robust esports ecosystem by involving India’s grassroots. With esports now included in Olympic initiatives like Bharat in Paris, it fosters youth participation in competitive gaming and supports the vision of Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji to make India a global leader in esports.