Introduction
Hey, Hi, Hola, Namaste, Salut, Annyeong, welcome to Gamer Gazette from around the world! This is the “founder” Rahul BS (Yes I’m missing a Gamertag middle name because it was "Sktt1fakerrrrrr" for the most part but I promise to decide to one soon), I hope we as viewers and journalist of the gaming world embark on this new and wonderful journey I have come to call Gamer Gazette and I am excited to experience with you the fans of gaming and esports, the rich culture and heritage of gaming and esports we all love and involve ourselves in.
The philosophy behind Gamer Gazette
With platitudes aside, I would love to share with you the limited few who indeed decide to continue reading, the story of a nobody like myself starting out in this huge world known as gaming and esports not just as a fan which I have been for years now but as someone that would help bridge and connect the world together through the universal language known as gaming. Ironically I use a multitude of languages to greet you and here I am claiming to connect with every one of you through the common language known as gaming. Which is something that amazes me, You do not need to know English to know Pogchamp or PogU or any of the slangs we share in Gaming. I don’t know Korean (I will one day conquer Rosetta Stone (Shout out to FilthyFrank (oh so I am a man of culture?))) as I was saying, I don’t know Korean but I can feel the weight of the title of Bonjwa, similarly, the latest phenomenon that conquered League of Legends Twitter for a day “Polska Gurom” brought people together all the way from North America to Europe and finally to myself and many of us banded together with great fervour to get behind the swole Puki Style on the eve of his finals against LDLC in which LDLC came out on top while having a band of loyal supporters of YellowStar banding together. It was a great feeling irrespective of the outcome, one which transcended geography or demographics. This is the story of myself and my involvement in gaming and esports, I would suggest you to buckle up not for a fast ride unfortunately but a long and a slow one ironically.
The Puki Style meme that took over Twitter
My Story as an Indian Gamer
Aged 3, my mum literally threw me into the pool to learn swimming (I hyperbole a lot and no my mum probably, maybe most definitely did not do that) and that was the earliest I got a taste of sports. Soon after I would join Lawn Tennis and it would go on to become my professional career until the age of 16. I fared pretty well in my country that is India, reached top 10 multiple times in different age categories, and a solitary career-high rank of 48 in Asia in the under-14 category. As you can guess where I’m going with this one, I was always competitive or rather it was beaten into me and moulded me into what I am today. During these tournaments, I would visit pc cafes to game because I didn’t own a console, and my first console was the GameBoy Color which I remember receiving it like it was yesterday. My cousin used to give me her consoles when new ones launched and I was really grateful for it. My first game was Pokemon Crystal that too in French but I didn’t care I finished the game thrice. Soon I upgraded to a ripoff of Nintendo Gameboy advance by Mitashi which was compatible with all the games and also had video and music player, it was a bargain. Fell in love with Metal Gear Solid and Drivers 3 for some reason and oh, of course, the mandatory Pokemon games but with a catch, I couldn’t save any of it so I had to play in one sitting. I used to game on my way to the different cities I had to go to for national-level tournaments and it would be by train which was the cheapest but it takes a minimum of a day and a half to 2 but I didn’t care I had a companion in video games and also, of course, a Hardy Boys book. Apart from that I wouldn’t have time for these things and so I didn’t get to explore the internet, But I had few friends who would play Dota and would talk about Dendi, Dendi the first esports player I was exposed to, I used to watch their interviews in 2011 and he was always famously charming and his character was just amazing. I also loved reading about Puppey and would hear about the ELO god RTZ/Arteezy. Unfortunately due to being too pre-occupied, I would only be able to see Youtube clips of their exploits and despite not knowing what the heck unfolded, the commentators always made it so hype and invigorating. Sometime before Navi won their first TI, I was also introduced to football (Soccer for the Americans, The Blasphemy! I’m kidding, only half). Same as Dota, I only ever saw a glimpse of Ronaldo and Manchester United or Gerrard and Liverpool on Youtube or when my uncle used to come over (an ardent United fan who is disgruntled at the very moment due to Liverpool being on the cusp of glory) But soon I fell in love with the game and would stay up at night, the solitary room lit in the neighbourhood at 12:30 am to watch Ronaldo and Real Madrid play, So I had even lesser time for gaming and esports when I got around to being introduced to it but nonetheless I was a budding Indian Gamer. As I take a step back to review my script, I realize hardly anyone would still be reading right now but on the off chance someone made it this far, I would gank your lane 24/7 or give you the blue buff or buy you an AWP in CSGO, I am grateful and will wrap it up soon for your sake.
Years later when I make it to undergrad college in 2015 I would find all the time to watch and follow the gaming industry. Fell in love with the then SKT, say the Faker-Ryu clip a thousand times, support the esports scene of a game called Paladins (Yeah right THAT Overwatch clone (p.s it’s not)) by Hirez Studios which back in the glorious days the league and competitive scene was so amazing with incredible storylines and narratives, it further sealed my love for esports. Along with this, the god was finally defeated, Faker head in his hands, weeping after SKT lost to SSG. It was such a momentous occasion, I have it as my Gamer Gazette Twitter profile banner.
Fast forward to 2020, here I am, finally decided to start Gamer Gazette which has a pretty interesting etymology or so I would like to think, but I’ll let you decide. It was based on Hicky’s Bengal Gazette, the first English printed newspaper in Asia. As I was contemplating a name for my journalistic endeavour, something in me wanted Gazette for news because let's be real, I wouldn’t be able to rank for “Times” or “Herald” or “Chronicle” and I also needed to have the core of my industry in the name i.e Gaming/Gamer and incidentally what lead me to finalize with Gamer Gazette is when abbreviated, it is GG or Good Game or when you say it with EZ becomes more condescending but lets conveniently forget about that and focus on the positive GG. It was brilliant or so I thought in my head thinking I can add GGWP or GG at the end of a long and cumbersome article just as the one you are STILL reading, damn you are tenacious. GG (Hah, Goteem!)
As of now, Gamer Gazette is managed by only a couple of people comprising of my friends and I (let's be real, Its mostly only me but I like to give credit to whatever they bring to this project be it emotional support or producing and managing content :P) One of the few inspiration has been Ashley Kang of Korizon.net (I would like to claim the .net domain was an ode to Korizon but it was also because .com wasn’t available but lets again conveniently gloss over some facts to fit the narrative) Ashley was a major part of pushing me over to taking action than just dreaming about bridging Esports around the world to Indian Esports fans and the other way around. India has been isolated for the most part of the last decade in Esports despite 300 million gamers in the country, there have been solitary instances of interest in Indian esports in the likes of Optic Gaming and more but never a sustained presence in the Indian subcontinent until Fnatic and Sam Mathews dipped their toes into PubG mobile Esports by acquiring team Xspark lead by star player Tanmay Singh best known to many Indians by the gamer tag Sc0utOP, the latest gaming sensation in India, I have also dedicated a blog as Gamer Gazette Blogspot for minor blog articles targetting FAQs and Info for local gamers in India. Watching Ashley bridge the gap between Korea ( LCK ) with the rest of the world has been ever so inspiring for me who looks to do the same for India and the rest of the world. I hope I can realize that goal of mine through Gamer Gazette and further solidify the gaming culture in India and the world.
GG.