GodLike Esports: What Is It and Who's Playing?

Esports in India

The esports industry in India has experienced a huge boom over the past decade and with its current trajectory in growth, it looks like it will only continue to become more popular with time. According to The Times of India, 19% of the population in India spends between 1 and 7 hours playing mobile games a week, and 11% spend between 7 and 14 hours! With the volume of India’s population as well, is it really a surprise that they are now the largest, most in demand markets for mobile gaming?

As such, the rise in popularity has also led to increased participation of India on the international playing field for esports. This means more young players are gaining recognition and making careers out of esports, and an increase in official, competitive tournaments and organizations throughout the country. 

Let’s take a quick look at some of the well-known esports organizations, like GodLike Esports and Velocity Gaming, in India!

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Esports Organizations

In the world of esports, the structure is pretty much divided into individual players, teams, and organizations. Players, of course, are those who play under their own banner – they can also be part of a larger team and organization, depending on the game they’re playing and the event they’re joining.

Teams are composed of several players that represent them in local and international tournaments. In India, there are many teams now for some of the most popular games in the country, like Brawl Stars, Battlegrounds Mobile India, and Garena Free Fire! There are some teams with members who are well-known individual players as well, who have perhaps made a name for themselves as soloists before joining their current team.

Organizations are the largest umbrella, as an esports organization like GodLike Esports will encompass not just several teams, but also other related aspects of esports and the specific games they endorse. Some of these aspects include merchandise and licensing, fan clubs, sponsorships, property like gaming centers, and social media for their various teams.

GodLike Esports is one such organization that has made a splash in the Indian esports community and is now arguably one of the biggest in the country. Read on to find out more about what GodLike Esports does, the tournaments they’ve joined and awards they’ve received, their team, and the current team roster!

GodLike Esports

GodLike Esports prides itself on being one of the leading esports organizations in India and to be fair, they’ve got quite a track record to back their claim. On top of that, part of their mission is to make a name for themselves in the entertainment business as well, which they’re on track to accomplish with their wide social media presence (roughly 321k followers on Instagram and 370k subscribers on YouTube!).

They have undergone many changes within the organization since it was founded in 2018, particularly when it comes to the team roster. Before we get to the players, however, let’s dig into the GodLike Esports history!

History

Before becoming one of the biggest esports organizations in India, GodLike Esports had pretty humble beginnings. The organization took its name from their previous team name; they had used “Godlike” as their team name when playing Mini Militia (another online, multiplayer battle game) and had carried it over when they began playing PUBG as well. 

Its founder, Chetan Chandgude (also known as Kronten), created the organization soon after the very first PUBG tournament was announced, perhaps in the hopes to get his team and country on the map. After all, he himself was an already well-known streamer and player of both PUBG and Battlegrounds Mobile India (or BGMI). Naturally, he would take his love for the games and not only become a player on their first official roster, but develop a whole company around it!

If the goal of creating GodLike Esports was to put India on the map of esports, they certainly succeeded – and perhaps even went above and beyond. In just 4 years since inception, they have bagged multiple trophies in BGMI, many of them in 2021 and 2022 alone, and signs are only pointing to things getting better from here.

Recent Events and Awards 

To date, GodLike Esports’ estimated net worth from prize pool winnings is at about $184,000. In retrospect and in comparison with larger international organizations it may not seem like much, but GodLike Esports is still in its toddler years and has great potential!

In 2022, they have participated in almost 20 esports tournaments thus far and have taken home 2 second place trophies and 3 fourth place trophies. While these wins brought it roughly $26,000 in prize money, their biggest rake – not just in 2022 but ever! – came with their 13th place win at the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2021: Grand Finals: a whopping $57,000!

Now, these trophies are just for their team and major placement awards. In these esports tournaments, there are also individual awards as well as secondary minor awards for the teams! For example, GodLike Esports player JONATHAN took home awards such as Finals MVP and Finals Damager (among a few others) during the BGMI Master Series in July 2022. During the Battlegrounds Mobile India Series 2021 in January this year, Neyoo took home the MVP award while ZGOD was given the The Redeemer award.

The whole team also took home the Most Finishes By a Squad award in both the VE Winter Masters 2022 and Battlegrounds Mobile India Series 2021 in February and January this year, respectively!

Clearly, there’s a lot of individual talent on the current roster, so let’s take a quick look at the players who make up the GodLike Esports team below.

Player Roster

Like any team, there have been changes in the lineup over the years. Currently, there are 7 active players on the squad, who we’ll give a quick overview of below! As mentioned, GodLike Esports owner Kronten was originally part of the squad, but he has now relegated himself to the role of owner and streamer, leaving the active roles to the players below. Let’s take a look!

Vivek Aabhas Horo a.k.a. ClutchGod

Vivek Horo, a.k.a. ClutchGod, is a 19-year-old prodigy in the esports industry as one of the top players of PUBG. He joined GodLike Esports in August 2021 and is the active squad’s IGL, or in-game leader, which essentially means he’s the one who calls all the shots while their team is in-play. To date, ClutchGod has made roughly $85k in total cash winnings since becoming active in 2019. 

Throughout his participation in tournaments, ClutchGod has also received the MVP award several times! On top of that, very soon after joining GodLike Esports, their team won first place in three consecutive tournaments: Skyesports Championship 3.0, Ranbhoomi Season 1, and LOCO: War of Glory Grand Finals, which really proves his worth as an IGL.

Abhijeet Harishchandra Andhare a.k.a GHATAK

We all know that age is just a number when it comes to literally anything, especially online gaming! Abhijeet Andhare a.k.a. GHATAK is one of the older players in the Indian esports community at 31 years old as of writing, and this maturity comes with the reputation of being one of the most respected as well - especially since his gaming journey began all the way back in 2008. With GodLike Esports, GHATAK is also an IGL as well as their coach! 

Apart from playing PUBG, GHATAK is the founder of Team ORB, is a married man, and owns his own photography studio in his hometown.

Jonathan Jude Amaral a.k.a JONATHAN

20-year-old Jonathan Amaral or JONATHAN has been active in the esports world since 2019 where he was first with Team SKuLL. However, in August 2021, we officially became an active member of the GodLike Esports squad! His reputation precedes him, as he is known for his long-range shots and combat skills – a reputation that is backed by his track record of topping the kill leaderboards across various tournaments.

Suraj Nityanand Majumdar a.k.a Neyoo

Suraj Majumdar’s gamer tag is Neyoo and like we mentioned above, he has taken home individual MVP trophies several times in his career as a pro gamer – twice with GodLike Esports as well as a Grand Finals Top Fragger #2 award with the organization! Before PUBG, however, Neyoo was more into Counter Strike but made the shift when his friends introduced him to the mobile game in around 2018.

Abhishek Choudhary a.k.a ZGOD

ZGOD (or Abhishek Choudhary as his real name) is no stranger to working with ClutchGod, as they were also teammates in TSM Entity before being recruited into GodLike Esports. He is known to be one of the best supporting players in BGMI gaming in India! This notoriety is backed by his previous awards: The Redeemer and The Annihilator in 2022 and 2020, respectively.

Arshpreet Singh a.k.a. GiLL

GiLL has been active in esports since 2019 but is one of the newer members of GodLike Esports’ active squad, having just joined this February 2022. He is a consistent, mid-range player known for his sniper and assault skills. Prior to GodLike, GiLL played with OREsports, where their team performed phenomenally in 2020 and 2021, bagging 2nd and 1st prize trophies, respectively.

Arjun Mandhalkar a.k.a. SHADOW

Like GiLL, Arjun Mandhalkar a.k.a. SHADOW is one of the 2022 additions to the GodLike team, actually being the newest as he joined in June 2022. However, he has had extensive experience in various tournaments across his previous teams (like TSM and Mayhem) and to date, has earned over $40k in prize money! He’s definitely an asset to the team.

Esports is truly taking off in India and it’s high time for all you enthusiasts out there to ride on the wave of esports betting! With teams in India gaining recognition with nationwide tournaments, betting on teams and players is gaining traction as well. Oppa888 can help you take that first step into esports betting! You can choose between Pinnacle and TF Gaming as providers for all possible games and markets to bet on, so you know you’ll never run out of options. Register on Oppa888 today!