iWorld
National Esports Championships 2021 to kickstart on 6 August
Mumbai: The Esports Federation of India (ESFI) is all set to roll out the 2021 edition of the National Esports Championships (NESC), scheduled for 6-22 August.
Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the nationals will be held virtually with top athletes from across the country competing and showcasing their skills and strategies. Popular games DOTA2, Tekken7, PES 2020 will be part of the event alongside CS:GO, said the statement.
The NESC 2021 will be played in a double-elimination format with the last date of registrations being 19 August (PES2020 & Tekken7), 5 August (DOTA2), and the registrations dates for CS:GO will be announced soon. The matches of popular esports titles PES 2020 and Tekken 7 will be played between 21-22 August, while the multiplayer online battle arena video game, DOTA2 is scheduled for 6-15 August.
“For the Indian esports industry, this is our time in the sun. The increasing interest for esports in our country currently is encouraging us to push the envelope and give the athletes and the audience something new and exciting each time,” said the director of ESFI and VP of the Asian Esports Federation, Lokesh Suji. “We are extremely thrilled and excited to announce NESC 2021, it is a great opportunity for gamers to not only showcase their talent, strategies, and skills in competitive gaming but also make the country proud. While esports is now going to be a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games as well as few other Asian championship events and is expected to be included in Olympics in the near future, we are committed to develop, support and grow the esports ecosystem in India.”
The winners of the NESC 2021 will be selected to represent India at the 13th Esports World Championship by IESF; these athletes will progress through the online regional qualifiers scheduled in September-October to the global finals which will take place in Eilat, Israel between 14-19 November. The air travel expenses and accommodation of the athletes traveling to Eilat will be covered, the organisation said.
“As tournaments like these become bigger and grander, we are continuing to see a growing interest among the Indian youth to take up esports professionally,” said IESF secretary-general Boban Totovski. “We’ve got some of the world’s most recognised competitive games in the tournament that is being mastered by highly skilled, motivated, and talented virtual fighters. We can expect an edge-of-the-seat thriller in this season of NESC 2021. This is a very interesting time for esports in India and tournaments like this will fuel their ambition to become the powerhouse of esports.”
With Artsmith – Concepts & Visions as the communication partner, the championships will be streamed live on ESFI’s official YouTube & Twitch channel and Facebook page.
Gaming
MTG gaming chief Benninghoff joins NODWIN board as esports firm primes for IPO
The Gurugram-based esports firm is pursuing a public listing, has returned to profitability and is growing revenues by 42 per cent
GURUGRAM: NODWIN Gaming is moving fast. The Gurugram-based gaming and esports company has launched a pre-IPO fundraising round, appointed UBS as lead adviser for both the round and a subsequent public listing, and landed a heavyweight board director, all in one go.
The new board member is Arnd Benninghoff, executive vice president of gaming at Stockholm-listed Modern Times Group (MTG), who has overseen the group’s strategic investments and portfolio growth since 2014. He is no stranger to building things: Benninghoff has founded and built fifteen companies, served as chief digital officer at ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, managing director of SevenVentures, and chief executive of Holtzbrinck eLAB. He began his career as a journalist at Deutsche Presse Agentur and various TV networks, holds a Diplom-Kaufmann in business and administration from the University of Münster, and previously sat on the board of Edgeware AB.
The numbers back the ambition
NODWIN is not pitching a story without substance. The company has returned to EBITDA profitability and posted a 42 per cent year-on-year revenue surge, reaching $58.5m in the first nine months of FY2026. The pre-IPO round will combine a primary issuance to fund global expansion through organic growth and acquisitions, alongside a secondary sale to give existing shareholders some liquidity.
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, said Benninghoff understands “the entire lifecycle of the gaming and media ecosystem, from the boots-on-the-ground reality of building startups to the strategic complexity of managing multi-billion dollar global portfolios.”
Benninghoff, for his part, said the company “sits at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and technology, making it one of the most exciting players in the global gaming landscape today.”
A portfolio built for the global south
Founded in 2014 by Rathee and Gautam Virk, NODWIN has quietly assembled one of the more compelling esports portfolios outside the Western hemisphere. Its properties include DreamHack India and Comic Con India, and it recently acquired StarLadder, the Ukraine-based tournament organiser behind premier events in CS:GO and Dota 2. The company also serves as a long-term strategic marketing partner for the Evolution Championship Series (EVO), the world’s most prominent fighting game tournament, helping push it into new geographies.
Its geographic focus spans South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Backers include Nazara Technologies, KRAFTON, Sony Group Corporation, JetSynthesys, and the founders’ investment vehicle Good Game Investments.
What comes next
With UBS running the books, a board freshly reinforced with European media and gaming expertise, and revenue heading in the right direction, NODWIN is laying the groundwork deliberately. The esports industry has burned investors before with big promises and thin margins. NODWIN’s return to profitability, combined with a real portfolio of owned intellectual properties across gaming, music and youth culture, gives it a more credible runway than most. The IPO clock is now ticking.
