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Red Bull's ongoing Good Game Show has created a massive buzz in the Indian gaming community. It sees top BGMI, Valorant, and DOTA streamers, content creators, and esports personalities going up against each other in exciting rounds.
Ankit "V3nom" Panth recently appeared in one of the Good Game Show episodes. He is a popular Valorant streamer with over 118K subscribers on his YouTube channel. The former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player is also a fitness freak who regularly hits the gym and motivates others to keep themselves healthy.
In an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda after the Good Game Show shoot, Ankit spoke about his team's future and his Valorant switch while providing tips to young gamers.
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Valorant pro V3nom comments on his experience of cosplaying as Harbor and working with Red Bull
Q. Red Bull has been helping streamers and esports players get more recognition. Any views on the impact of their work behind the scenes?
Ankit: When I wanted to get signed by Red Bull, one of the main reasons was their power to grow the scene. I have seen them do it in various other genres, and I know together, we can do something good for gaming in our country.
With events like Red Bull Campus Clutch and Red Bull M.E.O., we are trying to get the next gen ready for esports.
Q. You are a part of Red Bull's Good Game Show. Can you tell us more about the show and your role in it?
Ankit: I really enjoyed the show. It brought out my fun side, and I also got to learn a lot from other content creators. I loved the concept of the show where we bring esports athletes and streamers/content creators together in a fun setting. Everyone on the show was just smiling throughout.
Through the Good Game Show, we want to bring out the fun element of esports players so that fans can learn from content creators. Overall, the idea is to learn from each other and grow the gaming community.
We are trying to keep the balance and grow the esports side of gaming as well as the streaming and content side. Surely check out the episodes of Good Game Show on the official Red Bull Game On YouTube channel.
Q. Besides being an esports athlete, you are also a successful content creator and even managed Team Brutality. How did you manage all the roles at the same time?
Ankit: Being disciplined has helped a lot, I would say, in managing all these roles. I follow my schedule religiously and work damn hard, to be honest. I know how to balance it out, and also multitasking is something that gaming taught me.
I knew you couldn’t rely on just one thing in gaming when I started, so I had to keep doing different things to survive. Back then, we didn’t have such good salaries or tournament prize pools, but today, things have improved. However, I still feel you have to keep hustling every day because you never know when things could change.
Q. What are your plans for Team Brutality in the future?
Ankit: If we get the right kind of investment and players, I will restart it or else I will let it rest. Team Brutality’s basically my baby without any bad habits, and I want to keep it that way.
Q. You made a swift switch from CS: GO to Valorant. Tell us more about how you managed to make the switch so easily.
Ankit: I started playing Valorant from bets, and that helped me a lot as a player. We used to play on European servers initially.
There was very high ping, but I got to learn a lot from that region. To be honest, shooting is not that difficult in Valorant, so being a CS player, I found it easy to switch. The only thing that took time to learn was the players' abilities and maps.
Q. Valorant has seen a massive rise in popularity in the last few months. What are your expectations from the mobile variant of the game that is expected to launch in the upcoming months?
Ankit: Huge props to Riot for believing in our region and putting in so much money and effort. I feel like Riot know how to make their game work. I have seen them working with athletes, streamers, influencers, etc., to market their game. Now we even have a franchise team. I feel if they replicate the same in mobiles, it could be huge.
Q. You pulled off an exceptional cosplay for the new Valorant Agent Harbor. Can you share your experience with us?
Ankit: The Harbor experience is out of this world. I really enjoyed cosplaying as Valorant Agent Harbor. I didn’t know if I could do it initially, but then the confidence Riot showed in me was immense.
The moment I saw the sketch, I could see myself there. There were so many similarities, and that’s when I found out why they chose me. I had to do it because it was our own Indian Agent.
Q. Gamers are often tagged as lazy and unfit, but you defy that in all senses. Any words of motivation that will encourage youngsters to get fitter?
Ankit: As an athlete, being fit has helped me in my career. I am 33, and I am still playing without any injuries to my body. I mostly see gamers complaining that they are feeling pain in their wrists, necks, etc.
It’s pretty simple if you want a long gaming career; start taking your fitness seriously. Also, looking at yourself in the mirror with a Greek God body definitely motivates you, trust me on this (laughs).
