E-sports at the Asian Games: It's More Than Just FIFA Online

It's not only the constant clatter of keys. In 2023, gaming appears to have abandoned that age-old stereotype. E-sports has been included as a medal event to the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, a first for a major multi-sport event. Arena of Valour Asian Games Version, Dota 2, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, FIFA Online 4, League of Legends, PUBG Mobile Asian Games Version, and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition are among the seven competing events. India, on the other hand, has only announced a 15-member roster for four of the seven games: League of Legends, Dota 2, FIFA, and Street Fighter. The Indian Express decodes the games, their goals, and what distinguishes them:

Dota 2 

MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games are the speedier and more attractive relatives of RTS (Real-Time Strategy) games like Age of Empires, without the effort of gathering resources and painfully slow army construction. Defence of the Ancients (Dota) is a legendary game in the genre. What is the goal? "Dota is a 5 v 5 game in which you must destroy your opponent's home base (Ancient) while defending your own." It's similar to chess in that each side has five pieces with varying powers. "And your main goal would be to defeat the opposing king," says Darshan Bata, leader of India's Dota 2 squad for the Asian Games.

However, before attacking the other team's Ancient, there are several other places marked on the game map to explore: from the six towers and barracks that must be dealt with - evenly split between the two teams - to the shop near your base where you can buy utilities that will aid you in your main objective.

Is it as simple as it sounds? "In my opinion, it isn't because it takes 5-6 months to understand." With the monthly upgrades, the game also changes. You know, the meta is always shifting. "It's not always the same," Darshan says. The presence of over 120 playable heroes/chess pieces, as well as over 200 in-game equipment, necessitates distinct matchups in every defensive. While the longest recorded game in Dota 2 history lasted three hours and twenty minutes, it may terminate in as little as ten minutes.

Darshan Bata (captain), Krish Gupta, Abhishek Yadav, Shubham Goli, and Ketan Goyal comprise the Indian team at the Asian Games.

League of Legends

Another MOBA game that is extremely similar to Dota 2. Another five-on-five match in which the main goal is to destroy the opposing Nexus. There are over 163 playable Champions available. Is there a distinction to be made between LOL and Dota? "League is faster paced than Dota," Darshan says. "You won't know when your game is over (in League)." It's like one fight and that's it. However, in Dota, you must strategize. The league is more reliant on reflexes."

Akshaj Shenoy, captain of India's League of Legends team at the Asian Games, discusses the game's tactical aspects and how he thinks about it even when he isn't logged in. "(I think about it all the time.)" We play league as a game even when we aren't there. Drafting is the initial stage. Choose your champions/agents to participate in the game. You must choose them while predicting what your opponent would choose. You both strive to balance each other out."

Akshaj Shenoy (captain), Aditya Selvaraj, Aakash Shandilya, Mihir Ranjan, Sanindhya Malik, and Samarth Trivedi comprise the Indian squad for the Asian Games.

Street Fighter V

Street Fighter (1987) came before Mortal Kombat (1992) and Tekken (1994). A single-player oriented arcade combat game developed in Japan. "Two skilled martial arts experts, Ryu and Ken, go out to fight against other fighters held on the streets in five countries and must also face off against two undisputed Muay Thai fighters from Thailand to become street fighter champion," according to the IMDb description of the late 1980s classic, the series' first installment. But let humorist Roy Wood Jr. strip the brand down to its bare bones.

That straightforward framework has endured all the way through Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, which features all of the playable characters from the previous four editions of the game and will be played in Hangzhou 2023. Unlike the previous two games, where the goal was to win the best of three rounds, the goal here is to win the best of three rounds. Each character has an own set of abilities - some are skilled with punches, others with kicks, in addition to the combinations that come in helpful against other characters. It's essentially a fighting game that covers combat techniques ranging from boxing to kickboxing, ninjutsu to muay thai, jiu-jitsu to krav maga.

Even for Ayan Biswas, one of two Indians competing in the Asian Games event, polishing his skills required time. "Because I was unfamiliar with the game's mechanics when I first started, I was losing almost all of my online games." As a result, I began researching skilled players and how they played the game. "I have to admit, it was difficult to learn, and at times, I played the game for more than five hours a day," he admits.

FIFA Online 4

EA Sports' FIFA has been the biggest selling sports game franchise since 1994, symbolising football's prominence as the most popular sport on the planet.

Over the last 30 years, the series has been an annual thrill for an enthusiastic fan base, and while the newest version (FIFA 23) will be the final in the franchise, FIFA's monopoly at major esports championships does not appear to be ending anytime soon. The 2018 online edition will be contested as a medals event in Hangzhou 2023.

Charanjot Singh, 20,'s passion for the sport exemplifies why its gaming representation has struck a chord with people all around the world. "When I'm not playing FIFA on my console, I'm either watching it on TV or out on the pitch playing football," he adds.

The ability to mimic the drama of a 90-minute sport in as little as eight minutes on console and select from over 650 playable clubs and national teams to compete with, or design your own, contributes to the ridiculous login hours that FIFA fans brag.

Charanjot Singh and Karman Singh Tikka have been named to India's Asian Games team.

Call of Duty may still be the most popular single-player shooting and battle royale games in the world, but PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) has surpassed one billion cumulative downloads in just four years. The most popular variant of the game has over 100 players spawning on an island - individually or in teams - storing ammunition and supplies, then gunning each other down until only one man/team remains. For the Asian Games, however, the producers have invented a new genre in which 16 participants in each game will be separated into groups of four and compete in a shooting mission before driving their way to a finish line to decide the final victor.

Arena of Valor Asian Games Version

Arena of Valour is a 5V5 multiplayer online battle arena game similar to Dota and League of Legends. Each player on both sides controls a champion and is aided by relatively weak non-playable characters known as minions that assist in doing damage to the opponent with the ultimate goal of destroying each other's base. While the franchise's initial beta release was in 2016, the makers Tencent created a special version for the Asian Games.

Dream Three Kingdoms 2

A fourth MOBA game will be included at the next Hangzhou multi-sports event. The main distinction here is that the game may be played as a 10 against 10 event rather than the regular five vs five games.