Sanjay Shrestha, better known by his gaming alias 3c.Y, is one of the most skilled DOTA (Defence of the Ancients) 2 players in Nepal. A member of the successful local DOTA 2 team 3c4sr, Shrestha started playing the game about seven years ago and has never looked back. After years of countless hours spent practicing with his team, Shrestha is now well recognised in the local gaming community. Team 3c4sr have won almost every local tournament they have participated in, and other teams describe them as a nightmare. Shrestha quit his formal education to dedicate his career to gaming, and although he was once on the Top 200 list of Best DOTA 2 players in Southeast Asia, he later had to sell his gaming account for $45. 

Electronic sports, or e-sports as it is popularly known, is organised competitive gaming among professional players. Although labelling competitive gaming as a ‘sport’ invites much controversy, there is no doubt that gamers have to maintain the best of their mental and physical health. Competitive gamers have heightened reflexes and quite impossible clicking and typing speeds—reflexes that will put the average person to shame. Such gamers are known to spend 12 to 15 hours a day practicing, and fortunately, envisioning a career in gaming is not a pipe-dream today. Videogames such as League of Legends, SMITE, and DOTA 2 have become popular worldwide: when the sports channel ESPN recently broadcast The International 5, a world gaming championship event, it was watched by an estimated 71.5 million viewers from all over the world. With such viewership and events sponsored by companies such as Razer, Logitech, Red Bull, and Nissan, professional gamers around the world can today command dollar salaries that run in the seven figures. The local gaming scene in Nepal, however, is years awy from catching up with the rest of the world. 

Another homegrown talent who is turning into something of a local legend is Shrestha’s teammate, Ajay “Junk” Tamang. Tamang has a reputation for outshining competitors at every game he plays. And this despite the fact that Tamang grew up playing in cyber cafes, never having owned a personal computer, nor a reliable Internet connection. To this day, he perseveres as a gamer with some help from his supportive friends, his tournament winnings, and barely any support from his family. 

Although the global competitive gaming scene goes back three decades, it has only been a few years since the Nepali scene has started coming alive. The seeds were sown half a decade ago, when local gaming tournaments were held in cyber cafes, with a minimal entrance fee and equally minimal winnings at stake—just to keep up the gamers’ spirits up. These events were not publicised, and the teams that participated were not professional gamers—they were merely gaming enthusiasts. In the last three years the gaming scene has slowly started getting better, but there is still very little incentive for Nepali gamers to keep working at their gaming skills. Shrestha says that through online gaming and his tournament winnings, he has barely made Rs 100,000 in the entirety of his career; and he has plowed back almost all of that money into upgrading his gaming computer, to keep up with system requirements of newer games. And many gamers, such as Tamang, do not own even peripherals as basic as a gaming mouse, which significantly influences performance. 

This year, team 3c4sr intend to own the title at the Colors E-sports Carnival, organised by Ngamersclub.com, currently being held at Civil Mall in Kathmandu. With over 50 DOTA 2 teams and a total of 500 competitors—including mobile gaming and FIFA 2015—the carnival is the biggest-ever gaming event to be held in Nepal. And although it is far cry from Korean or Chinese gaming events, it marks at least a new starting point for Nepal’s gaming scene. 

If there were many more such tournaments, Nepali gamers would perhaps be able to make a dent internationally. A group of some the best in town will soon be representing the country at the Counter Strike: Global Offensive World Cup. The team consists of manager Dipesh Tuladhar, Pranjal “c” Ghimire, Sauhard “cake” Bhandari, Sanjay Raj “liar” Gurung, Prajun “ghost” Maharjan, and Krijan “invictus” Maharjan. Team Nepal is going to face stiff competition from the toughest Southeast Asian gamers. Nevertheless the team has garnered an enormous amount of support, and whatever be the outcome for this valiant bunch, this event will certainly not be the last one to see Nepali participation. 

After seven years of perseverance and determination, says Sanjay Shrestha, he still has the strength and the drive to be a gamer for at least three more years. But if things stay the same in Nepal—if serious gamers are not able to afford a decent gaming rig, even from their tournament winnings; if a ‘gamer’ is regarded with indifference and lack of professional respect—he says he will have to rethink his passion.