GodLike’s Learn on CoD Mobile World Championship: “Will go all in next time”

While Wolves Esports emerged as the champions of the CoD Mobile World Championship 2023, the talk of the town was GodLike Esports. A contender from the supposedly “weaker” Eastern Region, the Indian team put up a very surprising performance, leaving their naysayers in the dust, to take second place.

For comparison, the team placed last in the 2022 edition, bowing out in the first round itself. With a dearth of international events, people expected GodLike to fare similarly. From the get-go, the team looked like a much more refined squad, placing fourth in the Swiss Stage to make it to the Playoffs.

In the Playoffs, they dominated over SPG to make it to the semifinals. Here, they faced heavy favorites, Luminosity Gaming, the champions of North America. However, they took the team down 3-2 in an intense series to set up a finals bout with China’s Wolves Esports.

GodLike fell short of completing a dream run, though, falling to Wolves 4-2 in the CoD Mobile World Championship 2023 Finals. However, their story from last place to second in just one year is an impressive one. We sat down with GodLike Esports’ captain, Jash “Learn” Shah, to learn more about the team’s performance and what they have in store next year.

From a group stage exit last year, GodLike Esports made it to second place this time at the CoD Mobile World Championship. What changed over the past year to reflect this performance?

Learn: We at Godlike have been rigorously working towards competing at the World Championships for the past three years. We have been dominating the Indian CoD Mobile scene for quite a while but the first LAN post-Covid [2022 World Championship] helped us realize that we need to put in a lot more in order to conquer the world.

Learning from our experience we made changes to the roster and onboarded a new coach in order to upskill ourselves and make our gameplay better. We made sure to consistently work on our shortcomings and be focused in terms of preparations which has led to this performance at the championship.

Coming into the tournament, GodLike Esports were an overlooked team and most people didn’t expect you to go so far. What was the mentality and energy in the team’s boot camp, though?

Looking at our previous performance at the World Championship, no one was sure about our journey this time around.

But we never let that get to us. We tried to maintain the atmosphere of the team as positively as we could. We believed in ourselves and were confident about our preparation. All of us specifically worked on our mindsets, kept the external noise away and channeled all our energy towards every single game. With every game won, we could feel our confidence boosting and also the fans’ support increasing.

After a scoreline of 2-1, Wolves came from behind to win the Grand Finals 4-2. What went wrong for GodLike in the finals?

We started off on a great note, being 2-1 up was an advantage. But the absence of our coach and manager was felt as we couldn’t hold the crucial discussions during breaks in order to adapt to the ongoing situation. We feel the Wolves were better in terms of adapting to the situation.

Regardless, it was a good experience to learn from and we now know a few more sets of points that we need to focus on to get an even better result at the next Championship.

Many people are calling your second-place finish, the best-ever performance in a global tournament by an Indian team in esports. How does that make you feel?

Putting India on the global esports map is something that we truly believe in at GodLike. To deliver the best-ever performance by an Indian team feels great! Had we won the cup it would have been a perfect finish to this dream run, but these lessons are crucial for us. We will go back and get the unfinished business done the next time.

Having said that, I would definitely want other esports aspirants to take inspiration from our journey and compete on the world stage as India definitely has the potential to be the best at the global stage.

Over the past few years, GodLike has dominated the local Indian scene, where talent is obviously scarce and not that developed. Despite this, how did you practice for the World Championship against global teams?

We at GodLike Esports have been dominating the Indian CoD Mobile scene for quite some time. This is why, to compete at the highest level, we started playing in international tournaments and against international teams.

We played against teams from GARENA, China, Europe, and LATAM and worked on ourselves. There was a subsequent change in the mindset and tactics which helped us upskill ourselves overall.

What do you have to say about the CoD Mobile esports scene in India and a message towards Activision on how they can build it now?

The current CoD Mobile scene in India is still developing a lot but we are definitely noticing an increase in the number of players and people wanting to become professional players. It has been better as compared to the past. The players I see now in the lobby are of a little higher caliber and many approach me asking how to become a pro.

As a message, I would like to request Activision to provide all these content creators in India with some monetary benefits. This will help improve content output and also encourage more to join the game. For any game, it is important to increase the base viewership as that is what will lift the game to the next level. Lastly, I would also like to thank Activision for their continuous support of us.

Heading into 2024, I am sure that your aim with GodLike is nothing less than first place in the CoD Mobile World Championship. How are you preparing for the next year and what expectations do you have?

Yes, we only have winning the championship on our minds. With this year’s experience, we will go all in at the upcoming championships. We are aware of the minute details that we have to focus on to get that result. The focus will now be towards constantly practicing and working on our mistakes.