ESports
18-year-old Saransh Jain is India's FIFA star who's setting new highs in eSports
While the entire world is gripped by the outbreak the pandemic Covid-19, similar to other spheres, sports have taken a backseat. While almost all sporting action had to bear the brunt, eSport is one particular segment which has the potential to thrive at this moment. One of the most popular games in the e-sport industry is FIFA. FIFA 20, the latest version of the franchise is the 27th instalment in the FIFA series and it is believed that as of February 2020 there are more than 10 million online FIFA 20 gamers around the globe.
The Bridge caught up with Saransh Jain, who in his short career, has gone on to achieve mammoth accomplishment in the game. Aged 18, Saransh hails from Pune and he has played professionally for two-and-a-half years. His interest in FIFA started when he went to a local tournament and he ended up winning it.
Aged 18, Saransh hails from Pune and he has played professionally for two-and-a-half years (Image: Saransh Jain)
According to him one of the major challenges for him in eSports would be consistency and that is where he feels a lot of people go wrong, including him. He also states that parental support is important and he elaborates, "I didn't really face difficulty from my parents as I was lucky to have a good start and they helped me and supported me a lot.’'
Talking about FIFA 20 he stated, "I personally feel the game is a little slow compared to the earlier versions and that reduces the skill gap, the gameplay and movement of the players is slow, if the game is faster - in terms of learning skill set, it's always better," he feels that the faster the game the better it is to play.
Saransh won the international tournament which was held in Maldives (Image: Saransh Jain)
Talking about his major achievements he said he has 3 major achievements where he talks about his Bundesliga experience where he won the national tournament and represented India in Germany. "Virtual Bundesliga held a tournament in India where the player who won the tournament went to Germany. I was fortunate enough to win the tournament and went Germany for two weeks where I represented India and play the tournament and also see a football game live’' The next achievement he states is the ILG tournament ( Indian Lan Gaming corp) which happened in December 2018 and it had the biggest prize pool for FIFA tournaments in India, which he had won."In terms of prize money that was the highest you could go and to do that when I was 17 was a great achievement.’'
Talking about another big achievement, he says it was the International Tournament that was held in Maldives which he had also won. "It was an important milestone for me as not many Indian’s win e-sport tournaments."
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Some advice he would give to FIFA Gamers in the country is ‘'Many people expect to get into it and gain a quick start it's important to understand that with the competition rising day by day and it's really tough as there is only one winner so practice and go to tournaments that will help you get better and improve your game.’'
At 18, Saransh have already won big for India (Image: Saransh Jain)
His favourite team to play within the game would be France and his favourite player would be Neymar. ‘'Right now in the state of the game France has the best team and most people love to play with France as they have a well- balanced team.’'
He concludes by saying, ‘'Globally, FIFA has been a career but in India, a lot of players do want to take it up as there is a huge competition and the consistency has to be there to make money and make it a career as there is only a few winners and not much money in it and your income is not guaranteed.’' But he was also positive and stated that if people had done well and play at a top for a long time they can earn close to 50,000 per month or if any gamer gets signed by a NOG or a Company, then he/she can earn higher.
