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India's esports industry has witnessed monumental growth over the past few years, with various mobile and PC video game titles attracting millions of people from all over the country. As a result, the country's esports ecosystem has given birth to several young talents who have gone on to represent India on the international stage.
One such individual is Ranjit "MambaSR" Patel, an esports caster, presenter, and analyst who has covered various tournaments in titles such as Valorant, PUBG, and Free Fire, to name a few.
MambaSR is a former professional esports player as well, with successful spells in Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 to kick-start his esports career. The 25-year-old caster currently resides in India and is a notable presence at various esports tournaments that take place all over the country.
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MambaSR's journey as a professional esports caster
In an interview with Adarsh J Kumar of Sportskeeda Esports at the TEC Arena, MambaSR detailed his journey as an esports caster, while sharing his thoughts on various trending topics like the ongoing BGMI ban, Valorant's plans for franchising, and more.
Q: You spent much of the last decade building your esports career. What inspired you to choose a career in esports?
MambaSR: I've always loved playing video games. I started off with an old Mitashi console. I got a PS2 because I broke my leg. The shorter story is, I broke my leg and I had nothing to do at home. This was back in 2003 or 2004. That's when I got into gaming, but I never liked FPS games. I used to like racing games a lot more. That's why I've been playing F1 and whatnot recently.
I was introduced to Counter Strike 1.6 in 2007 by my neighbor. I got introduced to that game when I bought it for my brother, who used to play cricket back in the day. He played for Gujarat. He liked FPS games, but I didn't like them. So, I just got it as a gift for him, and I'm not even a person who gets gifts. I installed it on my PC, but he didn't play it at all. I thought of trying it since I had the game and got it installed.
So once I started playing, I started getting hooked to the online community servers. I didn't even know what esports was back in the day. A year later, I was playing with all my friends and I realized that there were tournaments happening. Back in the day, there were things called Clan Wars, CyAC, Asia Esports Cup. I participated in all of those. That was between 2008 and 2012.
Once I realized that you can compete in these, we started playing tournaments. Back then, you would only get servers as the winning prize; twelve slot servers and similar ones, which were like 700-800 INR, and that was for the entire team. That's when I realized that we could compete. I just enjoyed competing and wanted to be the best, so that's how I got hooked on to competing.
What inspired me the most was World Cyber Games, which used to happen back in the day. Players like HeatoN, SpawN, and all of these guys are the ones I used to look up to. I always wanted to participate in WCG, but that stopped happening after a while.
Q: What are some of the popular gaming titles that you’ve played over the years?
MambaSR: I started off with Counter Strike, and then I got hooked on to FPS games. I played Counter Strike 1.6, Battlefield 3 and 4, where I competed for quite a while. In BF3, we were the best team in the country. There was one other team that did beat us eventually and dominated the country, so we became the second best.
I moved to an Indonesian organization called Bindy Geeks, with whom we dominated the Asian scene. There was one team from Japan who would compete with us. But with everyone else, there was a massive skill gap. We used to have ESL Weekly Domination cups. So every weekend, we would have a two-day cup. Either we would win or the Japanese team would win. It was between us and them to be the best team in Asia.
I've played CS 1.6, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, CS: GO, and Valorant. These are my FPS games. Of course, I play casually as well, Call of Duty and whatnot. But the ones I mentioned first are the games where I have actually competed.
Q: As a streamer, caster, and presenter, you’ve invested your whole career into esports. How would you describe the growth of the esports industry in India?
MambaSR: The growth has been phenomenal. It gives me goosebumps to even think of it right now. The last three to four years have been insane. Before 2017, there was very little money, no recognition, nothing. Mobile gaming changed it all.
In 2016, Jio became free and smartphones became very cheap. PUBG Mobile was something that popped off. There was Mini Militia before that, which was popping off in college. It reached out to the masses about something that wasn't popular back in the day.
Only people with good PCs and good internet were able to play back then. Back in 2010, not a lot of people had computers. As for the internet, you can forget about it. A connection of 1 mbps or 2 mbps was the best you could get, and that too, only in tier-1 cities. You had to be very well off and have good internet. Only people from metro or tier-2 cities would have access to gaming and the culture, so it was a niche.
Since mobiles became cheaper, the internet became cheaper, and the mobile boom happened. By then, the esports culture across the globe had developed quite a bit; even in India. However, since there was no audience, there was no money. But with the boom of mobile gaming, it has generated audiences and good revenue, and here we are at this stage.
Right now, the tournament that is happening (TEC Challenger Series 8) has a 15,00,000 INR prize pool, which is currently considered a "small" prize pool. Back in the day, 15 lakh INR was crazy. Even a year-long tournament wouldn't have that sort of money.
Q: Considering the progress India has made so far in esports, how far away are we from achieving the level of appreciation for esports that countries like Japan and Korea have?
MambaSR: So, the growth has been phenomenal. As for how far we are, not even five percent. There's so much untapped potential. Think about the number of people who are connected to the internet in India right now. Just 800 million people out of 1.5 billion. There's still half the country left. Out of everyone in the country that is connected to the internet, probably only two to five percent know about esports.
Our team (Team India) did win a bronze medal in Dota 2 (Commonwealth Games 2022). Hopefully, that will create more awareness. But we're not even five percent there.
Q: Last month, you hosted the Battlegrounds Mobile India Showdown 2022. A few days after the tournament ended, BGMI was removed from the Play Store. What was your initial reaction to that?
MambaSR: If I'm being honest, I was joking around with it. I remember doing the PUBG Mobile Club Open (PMCO) and PMAS back in 2019. I couldn't do any other tournaments due to college clashing with the schedule. I did PUBG Mobile, which later got banned. I moved on to Free Fire, which also got banned. And then I came back to BGMI thinking that I'll have a good time. So, I did the event, which was a wonderful show. But two days later, that also got banned. So I'm starting to wonder if I am the problem. (*laughs*)
Jokes apart, it was really shocking, to say the least. The entire point of BGMI coming to India was to comply with all that was required from the government. To see that even then there were certain caveats that were not addressed was very shocking.
It was unfortunate as well. It's not about me or you, because I'm still privileged enough to do other games and I've been in the circuit for quite a while. Where my heart reaches out to the most is the grassroots players. Even now, it gives me goosebumps every time I think about it.
Think about somebody who is from a tier-3 city or a village, someone who looks up to these players. They look at these tournaments, they look at the prize pools. 1 to 1.5 crores is a life-changing amount for them, as it is for the majority of the country.
To be able to dream when you don't have that privilege, and then convincing your parents to tell them you want to get into esports, they put in all their savings to get a device. I've heard these stories, it's so heartbreaking. The parents then get these devices and then the game gets banned, and it is the government who is banning it.
While esports is not widely accepted, there is also a taboo around it. So, it's very difficult to convince your parents. And then this happens. It takes us back. It makes the child's life really difficult as well. He had to convince his parents, and the parents have put in a lot of money while they're struggling to make ends meet. This is an unfortunate situation because even a child who is trying to get their phone ready is feeling guilty. That's what I'm worried about.
I'm not worried about the ecosystem on the whole because, I'll be honest, whatever people might say about esports, whatever their perception is and no matter how many bans come and go, esports as a whole will thrive as long as there's an audience. I'm just really worried for people who are dreaming that big. I remember back in 2007 when I started playing, I used to look up to all these players.
Even my entire idea of even starting a YouTube channel was to supplement my gaming interests. I would pay my own internet bills and maybe buy a mouse for myself. When you look back and remember all those struggles, you resonate with the people who are trying to make it big in the esports industry. That's what I'm worried about, that's where my heart breaks.
Q: What are your thoughts on the current BGMI ban? Do you think the Indian audience will have restricted access to the game similar to PUBG and Free Fire?
MambaSR: I genuinely do not know. I haven't read the papers or the details that have been published around why exactly BGMI has been banned. But India is too big of a market for any publisher to ignore. The amount of people we have, the amount of audience, the kind of revenue we generate is insane. You can look up the numbers. Most downloads are from India a lot of times for a lot of these gaming titles.
As for the restricted access, we'll figure that out as we go. I think for now, all that's required from the community is to be patient. Just hang in there. Krafton's been communicating really well with the playerbase and the audience. I'm sure they will find a solution since India is too big of a market to ignore.
Q: You’ve been a member of the YouTube community for close to 9 years now. How has content creation on the platform helped shape your esports career?
MambaSR: It's actually been 13 years. Nine years is how long my current YouTube channel has been up. My first video on YouTube was in 2009. Now, that channel is called MamBOT and I've made all those videos private. It was called Ranjit4197 before. It was called MamBOT because I used to use that account on TV and I had a chat bot connected to that account.
My first video was in 2009, which was a magic trick by David Blaine. As I mentioned earlier, the idea of starting a YouTube channel was to supplement my gaming aspirations. We were not a very well off family; we were okay. We couldn't spend money on those extra things like a 6000 INR gaming mouse or anything.
Even my name Mamba comes from this product by Razer, which was a gift from my dad's friend. I made a bet with him, saying "If I win this game, you need to buy me this mouse", because I obviously couldn't buy it. So, the Razer Mamba is where i get my name Mamba from.
So, the idea was to supplement my gaming dreams. But then I just got hooked to it. I was thinking, "You know what, I'm enjoying this!". I did that on my first channel until 2012. In 2013, I took a break, and then later, I started this new channel. I was also competing on the side, so there was not a lot of time to balance between college/school, creating content, and practicing as well. I always chose to practice over making content.
In 2016, I started casting, so the content creation slowly got fazed out and now I just do it for fun. But it has definitely had quite a bit of an impact in terms of making me understand how the ecosystem works. I was very young when I figured out how revenue is generated for these things. It's the audience. If you have an audience, you can generate revenue with anything. That's how I understand how the industry works, and it's impacted me quite a bit.
Q: We’ve seen you play a variety of gaming titles for your YouTube audience. Which one out of the lot would you consider your favorite, at the moment? And which game have you enjoyed playing the most over the years?
MambaSR: Over the years, it would definitely be CS 1.6. It could probably be so because of my nostalgia. I have so many memories of that game. There were a lot of factors: we could mod that game, we could play competitive, fun maps and so on.
I've made a lot of friends who are still in the industry. I met them 12 to 15 years ago. In fact, I just met a friend of mine who I've known for 11 years, but have never met ever in my life. I met him in Battlefield 3 and I met him today, just a while ago. So, I would definitely include CS 1.6, because that's what shaped my early days.
Maybe then Battlefield 3, because that's where I got my first taste of victory and of just being out there. It's all related to the memories I have. Of course, CS: GO and Valorant are fun to play. But 1.6 has to take the top place.
Q: As you might know, Valorant has plans to set up a franchise league next year, which might affect the game’s tier-2 scene, especially in a region like India. What are your thoughts on the situation?
MambaSR: I haven't been able to read about this as much as I would've wanted to, to have a solid opinion, since I've been traveling a lot lately. But I do have faith in a company like Riot Games, because we've seen what they've done with League of Legends. They do have the experience.
We've seen other concepts like the Overwatch League not work out that well. I do believe that Riot has the right vision in mind, and it really comes down to how they execute it. I'm not questioning either, because League of Legends is the most pristine example you could give. Hopefully, it works out well for an ecosystem like India.
I'm not too worried about the west because esports has found its footing over there. Over here, it's still very fragile. I genuinely don't know how it's going to pan out in India, but I'm hoping for the best.
Q: You have an elaborate career in esports, and you’re one of the most popular names in the industry, at present. But you’re still young and have a long way to go. What would you consider as your end goal?
MambaSR: I love being part of the community. If I am given a choice to make the same amount of money that I make right now and choose between all the roles available in the esports industry, I would choose to become a player. The competitive spirit never dies.
I became a caster by sheer accident. In short, I bunked a class and was helping a friend of mine who was from Indonesia. He noticed me. So, the IEM Taipei Qualifiers were happening. He said, "Your English is decent, and an Indian team is playing tomorrow, so why don't you cast the game?"
He couldn't show up because Jakarta was under lockdown due to a bomb blast that happened on January 14, 2016. So, since he couldn't show up to the studio, I did all the matches, and that's how people started to know me.
Only 10 people were watching at the time. Right now, there are over 10,000 people watching (TEC Arena). During the World Series, there were 1.9 million concurrent viewers, but I only had 10 concurrent viewers back then.
Realistically, with the sort of experience I would have by the time I'm 30, I would ideally want to end up on the business side of things. But I hope I can remain in front of the camera and still make the same progress as I would make on the business side of things.
I love what I do. I wouldn't leave this for anything in the world because this just doesn't feel like work. Every time I come to an event, it just feels like I'm here to do my own thing, have fun, and meet people. It genuinely does not feel like work. This is something I would not want to trade. I'm trying to make this last as long as possible.
If there is ever a time where my life demands something else, I'll maybe change roles and then maybe end up on the business side of esports. But I'll be in front of the camera for as long as I can make it last.
Q: You talked about moving on to the business side of esports later in your career. Do you see yourself owning or being part of an esports organization sometime in the future?
MambaSR: There are multiple ways you can do this. There's something like 100 Thieves, which is heavily invested in the content creation space. To get experience, you can join something locally. You can join a tournament organizer or you can have your own esports organization. An organization is an option, but then again, that's something I'm not really keen on doing.
I can do it, but I don't want to. So, it could either be a organization or maybe in the esports organizer side of things, but on the business development side and not the production side. That is something I can never do. The hours they pull off are insane. I know it's possible, but I don't want to. I have massive respect for the folks who do it. The sort of sacrifices you have you make. It's not easy, trust me.
People think my job is hard, but it's a walk in the park. It's a piece of cake. The backend team that involves league operations, production and everything else that is needed to make this happen, that's where all the grunt work is.
Q: What piece of advice would you give to the budding esports enthusiasts who aspire to be as successful as you in this field?
MambaSR: Put your heart and soul into it. You will have to make sacrifices. As a matter of fact, I can name a few. Raksha Bandhan was just a few days ago. But we were all here and my sisters were back in Surat, so I missed it. I've missed countless family dinners and vacations, but that's the price I chose to pay.
I'm not asking for sympathy or pity because that's a choice I made. If there's anybody to blame, that's me. But I don't feel bad about it. Sometimes, I do feel like I want to spend time with my family. Even this entire month, I'll be away from them. I've taken 30 flights in the last 4 months. By the end of this month, that would probably be 40. But those are just the sacrifices that you have to make.
Think about moments like when you walk into the arena, or when you have people walking up to you for a picture or an autograph, or when you walk up on the stage and you get to do your own thing, or when you feel the energy and the crowd goes wild.
You need to make sacrifices. The only thing that is going to get you here is hard work, dedication, and perseverance. There will be times when you feel like quitting. So did I. In 2019, I almost appeared for the GMAT and left the country to move on to bigger things, but I persevered, got opportunities, and here I am!
If you do feel like slacking off, just know this, there is always going to be someone else who will outwork you. It's a very competitive field. It's going to expand and get better for sure, but you will have to make sacrifices.
