The esports industry in India has grown exponentially and professional teams in the country can go toe-to-toe against international teams at major events. Founded in 2020, Enigma Gaming currently has 3 top tier teams that compete at the highest level in PUBG, Valorant and Free Fire. In this exclusive interview, Aryaman Wasan, Co-Founder of Enigma Gaming speaks about his motivation to form an esports organisation, expectations from the VCC Main Event, overcoming challenges, business model and his future goals.

Q 1) What motivated you to become co-founder of Enigma Gaming alongside JP Renaud and how has the journey been since its inception until now?

I was always a sports enthusiast and subsequently an esports enthusiast. For too long, I had seen Indian teams struggle on the global stage despite India having such a large population. The reason I wanted to start an esports organisation is to try changing that. I attribute the struggle against international teams to a lack of structure and facilities provided to aspiring talent and that’s the problem I set out to solve with JP’s assistance. 

The journey so far has been truly amazing. As with every start-up, there are always ups and downs, but I have got to learn a lot and grow as a human being during the journey of building this organisation. At the moment, we have two tier 1 teams performing amazingly well, which is truly a great feeling. 

Q 2) Enigma Gaming recently won the VCC India Qualifiers 1 and will now face South Asia’s top teams at the VCC Main Event. What are your expectations from the event, and how do you think Enigma Gaming will fare?

I’m super proud of the team for their fantastic performance in the qualifiers. Since the addition of YB as our coach, the atmosphere in the team has been phenomenal. We’ve made it to the top 4 of the event already, and I’m quite confident that we can go out there and win the event. The boys have certainly been working extremely hard and giving it their all. We’ve got our eyes on the prize! 

Q 3) As co-founder of Enigma Gaming, what are the various challenges you have faced in your role? How did you overcome them?

That’s a great question. It’s quite funny that the biggest challenge I’ve actually faced was right when we started the organisation. We began operation in August 2020, set up our first boot camp in Mumbai, and flew our PUBG team in on the 1st of September; unfortunately, the game got banned on the 2nd of September. I couldn’t imagine a bigger set up right at the onset of the organisation. He continued to support our athletes and worked on onboarding new teams and changing our strategy after that. Just like any other start-up, trying to build a company from the ground up involves learning a lot of new skills and handling aspects of the company that you don’t have any experience or expertise in. The key to overcoming such challenges is primarily three components, in my opinion. 1) A growth driver and positive mindset, 2) To be extremely hardworking 3) To be extremely persistent. There is always light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how long the tunnel may be.

Also read: Our mission is to discover, create and unleash esports heroes: ONE Esports

Q 4) Please share your insights on how the business model of Enigma Gaming works and its sustainability?

The business model at the moment involves three primary components—sponsorship, prize money, and merchandising. Given the industry's growth, these revenue streams are definitely going to be sustainable. Another potential stream that is inevitable sooner or later is broadcasting rights. It’s important to note that most sports teams make about 50% of their revenue from broadcasting rights and this is yet to be introduced to the esports ecosystem. 

Q 5) What are your future goals for Enigma Gaming? How do you plan to accomplish them?

We’re working on some extremely exciting stuff at the moment. In the esports space, we plan on having six teams in the next 12 months; really looking forward to providing more athletes with the opportunity to prove themselves and help them grow and achieve their ambition. Along with that, we have also begun focusing on building an app to help casual gamers compete with one another in various games. Lastly, we’re looking to integrate our ecosystem into the metaverse. In order to achieve this three-fold expansion approach, we’re expanding our top-level management team quite rapidly to have the workforce to execute our vision. Hopefully, we’ll have some exciting announcements for you guys very soon!