BGMI ban leads to delay of big eSports tournament

BGMI ban has shocked the gaming community in India, mainly due to its heavy use for eSports competitions. One such competition that was lined up for the first week of August has been postponed almost indefinitely, in view of the BGMI ban in the country. Krafton, the creator of the BGMI faces a ban in the form of delisting from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The BGMI game ban comes at a time when a series of eSports events were scheduled.

The Esports Premier League (ESPL) Season 2 was scheduled on the BGMI platform from August 1 to August 5. Now the organizers have put the event on hold in view of the BGMI ban. The eSports title was being organized with a prize pool of Rs 1 crore.

“As we understand, the entities concerned will evaluate/pursue the matter in accordance with the directions issued by the government of India,” ESPL said in a statement.

“We are, therefore, constrained to put the ESPL Season 2, on hold, in light of the government’s directions and the prevailing circumstances,” the company said.

Another gaming tournament on BGMI called Rooter commenced prior to the ban and will continue till August 3. The platform hosted a BGMI invitational esports tournament with a prize pool of Rs 15 lakh. The event was to be held from July 25-August 3 and those who downloaded the BGMI game before the ban could still play it. Thirty-two Indian teams, including 24 invited teams and eight underdog teams were to face off in the 10-day tournament.

The game is still available to play on devices that have the game downloaded on their phones and tablets. BGMI had also provided users with a side-load option. The APK was listed on the company’s official website.

Reports suggested that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to the IT Ministry (MeitY) took the action to ban BGMI due to a “China connection” where the BGMI was allegedly “communicating to servers in China”.

The Indian government had ordered Google and Apple to block the BGMI gaming app from their respective online stores under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The game developer Krafton said last month that BGMI had surpassed 100 million registered users in India. The game had also completed its first year since launch in early July with a series of events lined up.

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