Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, two Indian teams that qualified for the Free Fire World Series (FFWS) 2021 Singapore would be unable to participate, according to a Garena announcement. This is as a result of the Singaporean government’s announcement that beginning at 11:59 p.m. on April 23, no long-term pass holders and short-term tourists having a history of travel to India will be permitted to enter or transit through the nation. The business announced this in a Facebook post.
This implies that the two Indian teams, Galaxy Racer and Team Elite, who were supposed to compete after exhausting local tournaments, won’t be competing.
Despite this, Garena has said that it will nonetheless split the $2 million prize fund with the teams “to acknowledge their efforts and achievement in qualifying for the World Series.”
What Does This Mean for The International Goals of Indian Esports?
To Garena’s credit, the company has handled the situation fairly throughout, especially now that India is experiencing its worst pandemic response week. Despite this, it’s one of the few multinational corporations with a significant India concentration.
We won’t be shocked if the business changes its strategy while keeping these constraints in mind. And while having Indian teams compete in person is desirable, it could be a good idea to review more effective remote anti-cheat techniques and prioritize online play in the meanwhile. especially given the increase in engagement in recent online initiatives.
Garena claims to be the most downloaded mobile game globally in 2020 across both the iOS and Google Play stores, citing analytics firm App Annie in support of this claim even though it does not provide India-specific information on its own website.
Additionally, according to a recent financial report from Garena’s parent company Sea, Free Fire remained the top-grossing mobile game in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and India for the fourth quarter.
In addition, Sea reported that the number of quarterly active users (QAUs) worldwide increased by 72.1 percent year over year to 610.6 million in the same study. Quarterly paying users increased by 119.5 percent year over year to 73.1 million, with the second quarter accounting for 12 percent of QAUs.
