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Nodwin Gaming opened the year with a bang with the finals for ESL 2025, the first LAN tournament for BGMI of the year. ESL Snapdragon Pro Series 2025 just wrapped up and proved to be a success. The event saw a massive footfall in a span of three days and was organised in Noida Indoor Stadium, Uttar Pradesh.
During all the excitement and chaos of the BGMI event, I got to interview the Co-founder of Nodwin Gaming, Gautam Virk, who is also one of the key figures responsible for the success of Nodwin Gaming and BGMI in India. During this insightful conversation with Gautam, he opened up about what inspired him to start Nodwin Gaming and enter the world of eSports.
Co-founder Gautam Virk on his stance about the future of BGMI eSports in India, and the future of Nodwin Gaming
Q) So Nodwin gaming has played a pivotal role in the rise of eSports in India. Can you share how the journey began and what has been the most rewarding part of this growth for you?
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Gautam: Ah, Nodwin's journey began many, many years ago. In 2012 me and my co founder used to play games online together in the early days, and we met online, then became friends, and then met each other in person in Delhi. We started working together before you know stepped foot in gaming, we were doing another venture together.
Eventually, when the Indian Gaming carnival happened in 2012 looking at the bad state of Indian esports and gaming. At that time, we decided to do something about it. So we started this journey. We incorporated the company in 2014 but since 2012 we started behind the scenes, working on gaming. We worked on improving the eSports infrastructure, doing payment gateways for gaming, building servers in the country, then eventually getting to where we wanted to be was to do eSports.
Now, since the day of the incorporation, now more than 10 years, we've come to a point where we can host these large scale eSports events, so being able to see the crowd cheer for their favorite teams and be so passionate, and you know, come down to fill up these stadiums is, I think, the biggest reward.
Being able to make a dream that we had in 2012 of what we thought the Indian eSports scene was going to be and, you know, 12 years later now to be able to finally say that, hey, you know, we are here, we can fill up stadiums. We can have a fan following, millions people are, you know, watching these large scale tournaments from like in hundreds and lakhs.
To make this happen is our biggest reward. And I'm glad that we were able to accomplish this over the last 10-12 years.
Q) So you mentioned facing problems like poor infrastructure, continuing on that same question, I believe eSports and BGMI is growing rapidly, but there are still some hurdles, including infrastructure and funding and even recognition for that matter. How do you think we can overcome these challenges?
Gautam: I think as gamers are getting older, you know, gaming has been.. it's more acceptable, right? And the government also has started to take notice, the policies that are coming out..now do include the word eSports. So from the government side, I feel that they've started to notice it's getting big enough that they've started to notice poor infra.
I think it's this industry is quite new, so we don't have a lot of options, a lot of venues, but we're able to do a lot with the indoor stadiums that we have in the country, and luckily, we have good indoor stadiums that we're able to repurpose for these guys. Otherwise, I believe over the last 10 years, the mobile internet, data prices and the mobile device prices have really helped to bring gaming to the masses.
All this happened because data prices came down, phone prices came down, and everything became more and more accessible. So, I believe now, more than ever we are more than..we are in a much better position as..as a gaming company to, you know, promote gaming and BGMI in India because it's very widespread and it's quite normal now people playing games on their mobile versus how it was working.
Q) BGMI has gained immense popularity in India, especially in the competitive gaming space. What do you think has contributed most to the game, to the success of BGMI compared to other mobile titles?
Gautam: I think BGMI..One thing is that the game is specifically made for India, so it caters to the Indian audience. They've done a really good job at making, you know, like "India ka battle ground". So to say...and there would be a couple of good points.
I think the Indian influencers ecosystem getting behind BGMI, just the general love for the genre of the shooting genre that India has, I think, kind of came together to give it the boost that it needed, right? A game which is easily accessible for people on the mobile phones has in game voice communication has the ability of bringing that people together, to play and make those bonds. I think there was not really, it wasn't really existing before this.
So BGMI gave that opportunity to people to not only play, but to socialize as well, and make friendships and bond with even strangers over the internet. So being able to group up, even random teams coming together, people coming together, it just gave it that edge above any other title in this time. And I think no other game has been able to kind of match that. So yeah, that's it.
Q) How do you see the eSports ecosystem growing in the next three to five years in India?
Gautam: I continue to see a positive outlook for the eSports ecosystem. As I said earlier, that government has also started to take notice. I think more and more, eSports will become more and more legitimized in the country and Esports athletes are going to be more and more treated like sports athletes.
I feel, with government support, with the legitimacy of the sport, and us doing more and more of these events, it'll have more, you know, people looking at it, watching it, being aware of it, and I think it will continue to grow. And as India continues to grow, with the youngest population in the world, more and more young people will get into gaming. So I think eSports growth is already showing great numbers and will continue to grow.
Q) For someone starting out in eSports and BGMI, especially in India, what do you think like will be the best advice for them? And do you think there's enough support for the young aspiring players at grassroot level?
Gautam: Currently, I feel you will need to be quite good to be noticed in the country. It's a massive country, right? Immense population. It's similar to how you're trying to get into IITs and how people are going through crazy examination, because there's only, like, let's say, 32 top salary teams in the country, right? That means 32 times four, right? We're looking at like, 140 people or something at best, are currently in that place where they're making money and being part of a professional the rest, like millions and millions of people have to just do it themselves.
But the opportunity is always there, because if you look at BGMI teams like Just Jelly...they kind of came from open qualifiers. Every tournament that happens has open qualifiers. So anyone who's good enough can compete and make it to the top events, whether it be the SPS events or whether it be BGIS, BGMS and everything.
So main thing is, unlike other sports here, even the most like grassroot level person can come and qualify if he's good enough, he can make a team and qualify for it because the doors are always open. Unlike other sports, where you have to go through states and districts or whatever, here you can start from the comfort of your home.
Q) Okay, so earlier I was talking to ViPER from Reckoning eSports. When I asked him this same question, but from a player's perspective, like, what do you think are the challenges that an aspiring BGMI player might have, and what are your tips for them? What are your advices for it? He mentioned that even if you were excelling in the world of eSports and BGMI, education is something that you should not miss on. Just wanted to know your views on that.
Gautam: 100%! Um, eSports is a, it's a young man's sport, like any other sport, to be honest, in life, you know, there's this prime years that you have, like, even if you're in cricket, there is a like, a start to your career and the end of your career. So similar to eSports, they also have this like, prime age after the reactions become slower and more younger players come on the field, and you see very few, even in the Indian cricket like older players eventually retire.
Similarly in the eSports front, the same dilemma the players have to face while they're in their prime, let's say they're 18 to 24 they're playing well, but after 24 then you have the younger players coming in. What are you going to do? Because you put your life into focusing completely on eSports.
But I completely agree with what ViPER said that one should not be completely kind of focused on, like, making his future on just playing the game, unless there's multiple options also, like, it's not like, you're completely stuck to, like, Okay, I'm a player now. I'm finished. Stop playing. I'm finished. There are opportunities in the eSports world as well. Like, you can be a commentator, you can be the analyst, you can be a coach, you can be whatever you've done in life, like if you've done law, You can be, you know, eSports lawyer, or you can be a creative guy. You can be a video editor.
But the main thing is, because you have the main concern that he brought up is the fact that if he's completely focused on gaming, he has put his education on hold. So yes, if you are a really good player, education should not be the hindrance in your life. For you to stop you from becoming a good player, you should continue education as well, so that you have a fallback plan in case you don't make it then you don't have any backup plan.
Q) And what are your next plans for Nodwin?
Gautam: Currently we..I mean we have big plans events across the world, last year we did Brazil, Uzbekistan, we did them Indonesia as well, so we continue our global services and global eSports events that we do in India, will continue to do the same thing as well. Uh we're looking forward to the season four of BGMS, this is going to be coming in the middle of the year. So yeah, exciting times ahead. And hopefully we'll get some new IPs out there this year as well.
Also read:
- "You should have hunger to win": BGMI star Destro answers how someone can take esports professionally
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- "Let the game return first": Snax Gaming on joining BGMI competitive scene
- “Participating in LAN event after 2.5 years was a great experience”: BGMI team Hyderabad Hydras on latest invitational [Exclusive]
- "I wanted to play and win a LAN tournament": BGMI pro NinjaJOD on winning All Stars Invitational LAN event
