"It's not just a challenge for us but also is a big role": Sukamal Pegu talks about Valorant Mobile, Premier, and Global Esports (Exclusive)

Valorant has been out for over four years now and has accomplished quite a lot in its esports scene by giving rise to many new talents from all across the globe. When it comes to the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, Valorant has been a pivotal gateway for sub-regions like South Asia to showcase its skills on the big stage.

During the final days of the VCT Ascension Pacific 2024 event, Sportskeeda's Angshuman Dutta had the opportunity to interview Sukamal Pegu, Valorant's Head and Executive for India and the South Asian region.

Sukamal Pegu discusses the success of Premier in South Asia, Valorant Mobile, and Global Esports

Q) A system like Premier presents a lot of opportunities to a region like South Asia that hasn't been known for its FPS skills in the past. According to you, how helpful and successful has Premier been for the SA region so far?

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Sukamal: First of all, for everyone who is tuning in, my name is Sukamal. I basically lead esports for India and South Asia. We are primarily focused on Valorant for South Asia because this is the game that has the most amount of resonance in terms of the genre as well as the need in the region as of now. So when we looked at esports, we realized that there was no concrete way for talent to be discovered in such a big country like India. And yes, there is only so much you can do with tournaments or grassroots activities because it's huge, not just the player base but region-wise, it's really big right, South Asia itself.

So Premier fits into that whole perspective of the solution for how we enable the maximum number of people to see if they have the potential to be a better competitive gamer at Valorant. So this is why Premier has been designed to be the path to pro that leads to our Tier 2 ecosystem, which is the Challengers ecosystem. Then finally, through Ascension, they can make it to Tier 1, which is our VCT Pacific and global events.

So that was the whole goal of Premier. So far, if you look at pure participation and adoption of Premier within South Asia, it is one of the biggest markets for the game mode in the region. So I am super happy to see it be adopted. But also we have been able to see a lot of new talent coming up.

So whenever we see a promo/relo in Premier, we see the teams that have come not only do well but also go into the main Tier 2 ecosystem as well, especially this season. And I'm hopeful that more new talent will be discovered, especially for people who lack the resources in terms of support from established organizations or be discovered organically through playing ranked games all the time. We want our players to not just enjoy but also see if they can potentially make it to esports through Premier.

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In that sense, TLDR, I know I said a lot but from what we see from adoption, it's one of the best-performing products for South Asia, as far as competition is concerned. We have already seen teams come up from Premier through promo/relo and make it to the Challengers League in South Asia. Hopefully, we see them not just make it to the Challengers League but maybe even reach the top three or four in the next season.

Q) Mobile Gaming has been a huge phenomenon in South Asia. Given the PC version's success in the region, do you think gamers here will embrace Valorant's mobile version in the same way?

Sukamal: Yeah it is not a very easy answer because intuitively you feel that this game is popular in PC and this region is primarily known for mobile gaming. And there are a couple of games in that genre that do exceedingly well. So it seems like a very logical transition saying, hey if you launch a mobile version of Valorant IP, it would potentially be the biggest game in the region. Yes, that is what we aim for, but we also have to be cognizant of the fact that it is not as simple as just picking up a gun and shooting.

It's new, it's tactical and it involves a different set of abilities that need to be unlocked from somebody who is playing the current set of FPS games on mobile. In that sense, we are mindful of the fact that this is going to be a big market for us to enter and the chances of being adopted in the first wave are going to be super big.

But to deliver a sustainable hit like Valorant PC is going to require a lot more effort. Not just in terms of the game but also in the way that we are servicing our players by making sure they have things to do in the game like have objectives in terms of competitive, in terms of community activations, in terms of tournaments, events etc. So it's not just a challenge for us but also a big role for us, and like I said, we can't wait to get started.

Q) Global Esports' entry into the franchise was in a way meant to be the gateway for South Asia and its viewers into VCT Pacific. How successful would you say has that been so far as the league heads into its third year of Valorant franchising?

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Sukamal: It was a very clear decision from us in terms of how we onboard the South Asian fans around Valorant into the Pacific ecosystem and global events. We still believe that Global Esports is the best representative of South Asia in terms of those stages and the numbers speak for themselves. So when you look at the viewership that comes from the region, we are not just one of the biggest player bases in APAC but also our Pacific viewership as well as our global events viewership.

We are delivering a large number of viewers to those tiers. Global Esports might not be playing in Masters or Champions for the last two years but the viewership that comes from South Asia in those tells us that this is an extremely healthy viewer base that is excited and interested to see Valorant esports.

Yes, of course, we all want Global Esports to do more than what they have done in the last two seasons. And with the third season coming up literally three months from now, we hope that it is going to not just deliver excitement for Masters events but also excitement in terms of Global Esports playing in those events as well. So I would say that the decision to include Global Esports as our representative has been extremely positive.

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We have huge growth in our viewership for all our Tier 1 events as well as our leagues and can't be more happy and excited for 2025. I can see that we are going to rewrite the script in the coming year.

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Edited by Adarsh J Kumar