In April 2018, one of the world's most
recognizable esports organizations
OpTic Gaming announced that they would be
expanding to India.
Their first foray
into the country would be via a local
CS:GO team whose players would be
selected via open tryouts for
everyone to participate in.
Among the chosen elite was a name that has now
forever been etched in the memories of millions.
Nikhil "forsaken" Kumawat
His actions left Indian esports fans in
turmoil and outrage as international
flag bearers of Counter-Strike were left
looking at India with a sour taste in
their mouths.
But what exactly happened
How did a formerly VAC banned player
managed to make it into the ranks of one
of the world's most prestigious esports
organizations.
What led him to cheat on
the main stage of a CS:GO LAN tournament
while representing his country in China
This is the story of the meteoric rise
and fall of forsaken and OpTic India.
After picking up their first CS:GO roster
back in January 2016, OpTic Gaming
announced that it was going to expand
its reach across the globe via OpTic India.
Their global expansion also
included forays into other regions such
as Brazil and Southeast Asia.
The news about OpTic India was received
with equal amounts of shock and surprise.
The indian community celebrated the
arrival of the first foreign gaming
organization on Indian soil while the
reactions from the global CS:GO fans were
mixed.
OpTic came to India with high
hopes from the region and an aim to
create a team that would eventually
compete at an international level.
In
order to identify the best Indian CS:GO
players OpTic announced an open tryout.
The news spread like wildfire as
thousands of aspiring CS:GO players from
all across the country signed up.
This was the first time ever that an open
tryout for an esports team was being
conducted in India.
It was more than just
a gaming tryout for many this was a
chance to have their skills validated by
the best in the business.
The tryout was no joke.
OpTic Gaming partnered with
local companies like so strong and AFK Gaming
in order to help them plan and
communicate the entire exercise
Candidates had to undergo an extensive
evaluation based on psychometric and
theoretical tests.
Those that cleared the
tests were then put through a practical
evaluation where they played multiple
matches on LAN while being monitored by
OpTic Gaming scouts and SoStronk's
coaches and analysts.
At the end of this
process eight players were shortlisted
as the OpTic India top eight but were
not declared as the final lineup for the
organization.
Ultimately after rigorous
practice sessions with those eight
players OpTic India declared its first
final roster on 1st June 2018
Sabyasachi "Antidote" Bose
Rishabh "Formless" Tomar
Vishal "HaiVaan" Sharma
Agneya "Marzil" Koushik
and Nikhil "forsaken" Kumawat
The team was a good mix of new faces and
Indian CS:GO veterans however the
community was concerned about forsakens inclusion in the roster due to his
shady past.
forsaken, while paying at the
ASUS ROG Masters 2017 SEA qualifier
with a team called Semper x had been
accused of being the owner of a VAC
banned Steam account by members of team IYATI.
ESL India reported the same to ESIC
who investigated and found this out to
be true
declaring a two-year ban on forsaken.
He
did not give up though and relentlessly
appeal to the ESIC in order to prove his
innocence.
As a part of a more detailed
investigation AFK Gaming spoke to
Forsaken where he adequately proved that
the steam ID was issued the VAC bans
after he had sold it.
He also gave
evidence that he was not the owner of
the ID as he himself had purchased it
from someone else.
All of these made for a compelling case
against ESIC's verdict raising the
question whether forsaken's ban was
completely justified or not.
Forsaken
approached ESIC with the evidence
mentioned in AFK's article which proved to
be of significant importance as ESIC
realized that they had declared an
incorrect punishment.
Though the matter
had been taken care of many SoStronk
users and professional players still
believe that the player cheated in game
based on a few fishy plays but did not
have any solid evidence to back their
claims.
With the roster in place OpTic
India began their journey by
participating in the ESL India
Premiership 2018 Summer Season.
The squad
quickly rose through the ranks and
qualified for the Master division where
they would fight alongside India's best
CS:GO teams for a chance to make it to
the LAN finale.
OpTic India was far from
perfect and certainly not a top
contender but yet they had shown quick
results and great potential.
To further
grow as a unit a week before the
start of the fall season the team signed
on Lukas "YB" Groaning as their coach
and sixth man
This was an unexpected
move that proved to be very valuable as
YB brought with him a treasure trove
of knowledge and leadership abilities.
The team was practicing hard and this
was evident in their performance as they
won every small event
they participated in.
They went on to
create history by going undefeated in
the online stage of ESL India
Premiership Fall season defeating some
of the top Indian teams like
Entity Gaming, Brutality and 2EZ.
Within just four months OpTic India had
established themselves as one of the
best teams in India.
Armed with the
knowledge and confidence of champions
they began trying their hand at
competing in the Southeast Asian circuit.
The first fury was at the MSI Masters
Gaming Arena 2018 but they were knocked
out by Lucid Dream one of Thailand's
best teams.
Despite losing the match it
was a much closer affair than the fans
anticipated which once again reaffirmed
their beliefs in OpTic India's potential
to compete with the world.
Next was the
eXTREMESLAND Indian qualifier.
The winner
of this qualifier would have a chance to
represent the country at an
international LAN tournament.
OpTic India
faced tough competition from Entity
Gaming but made it through nonetheless
thus cementing their position as the
best team from India.
Before the team headed to the main event
of eXTREMESLAND Indian CS fans got to
witness a teaser of what was to come in
China as OpTic India participated in the
SEA qualifier of Toyota Masters Bangkok
The team put up a phenomenal performance
making their way to the semifinals where
they mounted an incredible stand against
the Korean powerhouse MVP PK.
The way the team played at this qualifier was a big
boost to their morale for the upcoming
LAN events
Fans expectations were at an
all-time high as never before had an
Indian Counter-Strike team looked so
formidable and so after claiming the ESL
India Premiership fall season trophy the
team went on to play their first ever
international LAN event.
ZOWIE eXTREMESLAND 2018.
OpTic India was representing not just
their organization but the entire
country at this tournament.
Fans were
passionately supporting the team on
forums and on social media.
The team got
off to a rough start as they hit a huge
speed bump in the form of the top
Malaysian team Frostfire who took them
down quite effortlessly on nuke.
This was
especially disturbing since nuke was the
go-to map for OpTic India whenever they
found themselves in a desperate need of
a win.
Things look grim for the boys in
blue
but hope was rekindled on day two as
OpTic India stormed through the ranks of
Revolution, punishing them hard on
inferno.
They were holding their own on
cache as well when suddenly after the
19th round disaster struck.
Match officials swarmed around forsaken's PC
for what many assumed was just a
technical glitch.
However the reality
that emerged was far from this.
While the
admins were checking his PC they found
the command prompt Windows running in the
background which he immediately tried to
close.
A little later the admins found
three suspicious files on his PC one of
which was named Word.exe.
Forsaken
allegedly deleted those files however in
an official interview he claims that he
only attempted to close the window and
that the files were automatically
deleted by Windows Defender.
After
recovering the deleted files the admins
traced their source back to a well-known
website for obtaining CS:GO cheats.
This was enough evidence for the admins to
disqualify OpTic India from the
tournament.
This was a horrifying moment for the
entire OpTic India organization and a
huge blow to the Indian esport community
Fans were devastated and ashamed that a
representative of Indian CS:GO had let
them down to this degree.
Unsurprisingly
forsaken came under a heavy barrage of
abuses and threats forcing him to
disappear off the grid.
The incident was
followed by OpTic Gaming packing their
bags and getting themselves as far away
from this mess.
The roster disbanded and
along with it many of the glorified
expectations from Indian CS as well.
Shortly after ESL India also conducted
their own investigation where they found
the cheap programmes on the SSD that
forsaken had used at the tournament and
handed over all the evidence to the
esports integrity correlation who
subsequently slapped forsaken with a
five-year ban that prevents him from
participating in all esports related
activities with any ESIC member
organization.
It only takes one person to
spoil the reputation of an entire
country.
His actions were a pain to Indian esports.
OpTic Gaming's arrival in
India could have ushered in a new era
for Indian CS.
The players had a lot of
promise but would dealt with a terrible
blow by the actions of one of their own.
But not all is lost for esports in India
as teams continue to train harder than
ever and tournaments continue to witness
growth in terms of both prize pool and
viewership.
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