Mumbai: On Saturday, 1st June, the Summer Season Finale of OMEN by HP ESL India Premiership 2017 had begun on a high note. As the day progressed, several high-intensity e-sports matches were played in games such as Clash Royale, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and DOTA 2. These matches decided the which contestant proceeded towards the next round of the event or which one had to go back to their drawing board and re-strategize their upcoming campaigns. Apart from competitive gaming, a whole gamut of other exciting activities was conducted.
ESL India Premiership is the flagship e-sports tournament in India. The 2017 edition boasts of a whopping $100,000* prize pool, which is shared between three competitive games, namely, Clash Royale, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and DOTA 2. Building upon last year’s edition, ESL India Premiership 2017 is a year-long tournament divided into three seasons – Summer, Fall and Winter. Along with a multi-tier league format, the Premiership is one of the most competitive and exciting competitive gaming events in the country. This year, OMEN by HP enters the tournament as the Title Sponsor. This partnership will allow gamers access to HP’s state-of-the-art gaming product range – the OMEN by HP, which in turn will propel the Indian e-sports scene to new heights. High-performance gaming peripherals manufacturer, HyperX joins the journey again as a partner. Red Bull also joins the journey this year. Also on board is Zowie a brand by BenQ, who dons the role of the Monitor Partner. Finally, SoStronk will function as the Server Partner of the tournament.
The Summer Season finale carries an INR 15.37 Lacs prize pool, which has been sourced from the main prize money. As mentioned before, the highlight of day one was the various e-sports matches played for the different games in a double elimination format. Beginning with the MOBA e-sports title, DOTA 2 - Entity Gaming, GoFigure and an international team from Cambodia, IQ duked it out. These teams had already endured the initial levels of the playoffs, which were held a day prior to the event. In the upper brackets finale, Entity Gaming got the better of the Cambodian team, IQ and pushed them into the lower bracket. Entity Gaming progressed to the Grand Finale. Now with only the consolidation finale remaining, team IQ managed to pull its socks in time and convincingly defeated Bangalorean team, GoFigure to lock their spot in the grand finale.
In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, top teams Dare2Dream, Risky Gaming and Entity Gaming edged out their opponents in the qualifying playoffs to attend the main event. Once, here, Entity Gaming was cut short by UAE CS:GO team, Risky Gaming. The Mumbai team were pushed into the lower bracket and faced Dare2Dream there. After a very tough fight, Entity Gaming managed to get better of their fellow Mumbaikars and booked their spot in the Grand Finale on Sunday.
Finally, moving to the competitive card game, Clash Royale, the game followed a single-elimination format. The top 8 players of the Master League - Arpan Christian, Dipakk Mehta, Haseeb Nazir, Jimit Bhatt, Mrinmoy Lahkar, Reuben Dcunha, Tahir Shariff and Vivek Gore graced the event. However, as the day progressed, only Arpan, Mrinmoy and Vivek managed to endure the competition, in order to play at the main playoffs.
However, fans, e-sports enthusiasts and visitors had more to look forward to apart from e-sports. The event sponsors - Omen by HP, HyperX and Zowie a brand by BenQ had erected exclusive experience booths. Here, the latest technology from the different gaming brands was on display and the visiting crowds could interact with the same. The “Players’ Signing Session” was another highlight activity. Fans got a chance to get to know their favourite pro-gamers better as well as acquire their autographs on T-shirts. A Cosplay Competition, commemorating the Summer Season is underway. Here the best cosplayers stand to win cash prizes worth INR 46,000. For dance enthusiasts, there was a special Just Dance stage setup, which also offered cash prizes to the best participants; a total of INR 33,000 was up for grabs.
The victorious participants will now proceed to the Grand Finale on Sunday, which will, in turn, decide, who are the top contestants of the Summer Season of OMEN by HP ESL India Premiership. The Summer Season Finale also commemorates the successful completion of the Summer Season of ESL India Premiership 2017. The event was being held in Dublin Square, Phoenix MarketCity, Kurla, Mumbai from July 1-2, 2017. E-sports enthusiasts and the public visited the arena from 10 AM to 8 PM on July 2nd, to witness the grand finale of the Summer Season Finale of ESL India Premiership 2017.
