Mumbai: Esports Premier League (ESPL) has partnered with smartphone maker Infinix Mobile as title sponsor for its inaugural edition and is seeking to mainstream the excitement surrounding the 2021 edition and revolutionise the ecosystem of esports in the country through the nationwide tournament. 

The tournament organized by the India Today Group aims to tap into the growing landscape of esports in the country to help the competitive gaming community. This segment has received a significant boost in the last year as an increasing number of users are spending time on smartphones for gaming activities. 

The first season of the league will begin on 16 June, and it will be telecasted live on multiple platforms including OTT giant Disney+ Hotstar as well as the official YouTube and Facebook channels of India Today and Aaj Tak, along with their websites. ESPL will be played as a virtual tournament in its inaugural edition and comprise more than 700 online matches with about 300 plus hours of streaming.

"India Today's gaming and esports platform will provide a thrilling experience to its users through a wide range of games, online tournaments, and an opportunity to win exciting prizes. These are very exciting times as smartphone usage continues to grow exponentially and I believe the partnership with Infinix Mobile will help us intensify our mission of taking esports to the next level in India," said India Today Group vice-chairperson Kallie Purie. 

Infinix Mobile chief executive officer Anish Kapoor said, "The Indian online gaming industry is growing at a rate of almost 27 per cent per annum and is estimated to reach $2.8bn by 2022. The current pandemic situation has further fuelled the growth of the gaming industry in India. At Infinix, we are part of this revolution by making devices for the mid-range segments that is feature-rich and enhances the user gaming experience, to further amplify the gaming capability of a user our research and development (segment) has developed a technology called Darlink which optimizes and improves a device's performance on several parameters. Our partnership with India Today for the Esports Premier League is just another step towards achieving the same goal." 

The tournament, which will be played over a period of two and a half months, will have two initial levels to screen the best eight teams which progress into the grand finale representing eight cities across the country including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Punjab, and Rajasthan.