PUBG Mobile is currently one of the most hyped mobile games.
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of industries have been severely affected, what is the impact on the gaming sector? “Apart from tournaments, the video game industry has not been affected much by the coronavirus Pandemic,” said Naman Mathur a PUBG Mobile e-sports player and a YouTuber, in an exclusive interaction with indiatvnews.com. Here are his thoughts on the e-sports scene in India and the growth of PUBG Mobile.
Even with the ongoing pandemic, professional PUBG Mobile players like MortaL have been practising with their teams inside “Bootcamps,” a term used for gaming houses where the team can assemble and practice together. The teams have been streaming their games online and they are even participating in online tournaments.
But, major PUBG Mobile tournaments, which are organized by Tencent Games, the studio behind PUBG Mobile are being affected due to the pandemic. One of its major tournaments has had to be cancelled right after two matches took place. To keep the shown going, Tencent did try to arrange an online-only tournament, which also got postponed as the company was not able to make arrangements for casters and producers at one place said, Mathur.
As far as practising goes, Team SouL practices for at least 5 hours a day. However, on the day of a tournament, they do not play even a single match to keep their heads clear. While MortaL used only sniper rifles before, he told us that he has now shifted to using DP for the most part and practices using the same.
Team SouL has been practising a lot these days and are even playing scrims with both Tier 1 and Tier 2 level teams. The team is perfecting its strategies and shooting capabilities.
Mathur claims that the COVID-19 lockdown has not affected his viewership as it has been more or less the same. Fans are still tuning in at the right time just to watch him play.
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Upon being asked about the future of PUBG Mobile in India, Mathur said that there is still a lot of scope for the game to grow. He said, “Even though Call of Duty: Mobile has its own set of community and it has been growing at a rapid pace, it is still going to lack behind.” “PUBG Mobile will manage to remain on top as right now it is the only game seen in the e-sports scene,” he added.
MortaL's live streaming setup.
Being a professional gamer, MortaL plays other games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Clash Royale as a part of stress buster. During the lockdown, he even played a game called, Banate Raho. He has also played Mini Militia back in his graduation days.
Naman prefers to play on his iPhone XR as it is cheaper compared to other iPhones and iOS makes streaming much easier for him. He uses an Elgato for his daily livestream, which works way better with an iPhone. Mathur said that he had tried playing on the OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren Edition. Even though the device is great, he said that he faced issues while streaming his matches on YouTube.
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Higher refresh rate/high-resolution screens do not matter to MortaL as PUBG Mobile is still locked at 60 fps and he plays on the ‘Smooth’ setting to achieve as high frame rates as possible.
The story behind being MortaL and YouTube’s role in it
Naman never thought he could one day be a professional player. Gaming is his passion and he was just following his passion and it eventually turned into becoming a career for him. He also believes it has done something with his luck as the timing was just right. He did the right thing at the right time.
One of his PUBG Mobile Tips and Tricks videos went viral and that is where he received his major viewership. With this, Mortal has crossed the 4 million subscriber mark on YouTube.
Eventually, he became a part of Team Soul and he aims to grow it. Naman said, “If you are in a team, you cannot grow by yourself”. The popularity has been lacking due to the lack of knowledge among people in India when it comes to e-sports. MortaL is credited with making casual players understand the competitive scene in the country.
