Karan Pathak AD of Esports at Krafton talks BGMI and PUBG Mobile – Exclusive Interview

Karan Pathak, the Associate Director of Esports for Krafton sat down with me to discuss BGMI and the Korea Invitational.

Mr. Pathak has been instrumental in setting up the recent BGIS tournament last week. In this interview, was discuss how the event came to be, and the roadmap for India’s BGMI Tier 1 and 2 scenes. I also had a chance to inquire about the Korea Invitational event and filling a stadium with over 6000+ fans for an esports event.

How come Mumbai was selected as the host city for the BGIS LAN event?

Karan Pathak: The BGIS campaign began with the idea of a city of dreams. Before the introduction of the tournament, there had not been any grassroots-level tournaments in the country, and the top teams and the so-called “rich” were becoming increasingly wealthy. However, Mumbai was the ideal location for the campaign, as it was the first thought that no one had ever entered mobile or done anything in the city.

Furthermore, the massive fan following of the players was a testament to the city’s success. When traveling to a city, it is important to take the time to listen to the opinions of the people who are there. This is why Mumbai has the aura to do something extraordinary within people.  To create beliefs within people to push them to go beyond what is expected of them, and to reach out to those goals which they once felt were not reachable.

Bryan Francis: So talking about the fans, during the first day of the event we were surrounded by 300+ fans.

How did you manage to handle the logistics and make sure that the event went smooth?

KP: The event was made much more successful due to the involvement of the fans. We invited audiences to sit in the stadium and be comfortable, as they wanted to partake in the experience. We did not invite any content creators. Instead, they decided to come by themselves and we just provided them with the space to enjoy the event.

The fans understood that these 11 grassroots-level teams, who are not as well-known as the other five, are the ones that we want to be working with in the future. These teams have been taking advantage of the support in Mumbai, whether it be for a cricket or a kabaddi match.

It’s crazy how the fans love to get to know their BGMI players and teams, and they wanted to see that, so we decided to accommodate up to 6,000+ people per day.

Bryan Francis: We can see players from various parts of the nation qualifying and being able to play in Mumbai itself..

How does it feel to see your roadmap for players to get to Tier 1 being successful?

KP: It makes us proud. It was a concept we had in mind when we were sitting at the drawing table, sketching out the format. We hoped that we would be able to shift the mindset within the community that anyone can be at the top, and that this mentality is becoming a reality. Out of the 11 teams, 11 have a chance to win the trophy on the 15th.

We are personally very pleased about this, as it makes us feel very proud to have so many teams that are the next generation of rising stars and are revolutionizing the ecosystem. It’s been an incredibly enjoyable experience.

Bryan Francis: From the 26th to the 28th of October, Krafton has announced the Korea-India Invitational which is said to take place in Delhi.

How does providing an opportunity for players from Tier 2 teams to play with the best teams from Korea in PUBGM feel?

It was delightful to offer this first-time experience, and always plan our events based on data and feedback from the audience. We do not know if it will be successful, but it is an experiment we have attempted between our homeland for crafting, which is South Korea, and BGMI, which is India. We have 8 teams from South Korea and 8 from India, and we will see how it goes.

To be honest, the crowd in Delhi is more excited than ever, as it will be the first event with an audience in Delhi after three years. We anticipate a large audience to be present.

This is only the start of a larger plan for the esports ecosystem of this game. Once we have achieved success, we will continue to progress step by step.

Read also: BGIS initiates the revival of BGMI Esports in India