Ignite your Fire feat. PVS Gaming Esports

From nowhere to the top of the world, PVS Gaming Esports have probably had the greatest underdog run in the history of Indian Free Fire. Most players only dream of qualifying for the FFIC. PVS Gaming dared to do something bigger than that. Most teams that make it to the FFIC, struggle to do well in their first major tournament like this. But PVS not only outperformed everyone’s expectations, they also almost won the tournament. Nobody has been able to dominate the field this well since the inception of FFIC tournaments, and now they stand on the edge of the world. The Free Fire Asia Championship is right around the corner. This team has had greatness thrust upon them, let’s see how well they handle the pressure. We spoke to them before their debut international tournament to see what they have been doing to prepare for the FFAC.

Q. Hello PVS Gaming, first of all, congratulations on making it to the FFAC. You are the first team from India to qualify for a global event, while they were participating in their first national championship. 

Thank you. We have worked really hard for this. I have been in the gaming space for a long time and it was always my dream to play competitively. I have done everything one can do with Free Fire. I have been a content creator and a caster too, but my goal was to win the FFIC. When I made this team, that was our goal. Nothing else at all. We tried our luck in the FFIC 2021 Spring as well as FFPL, but we did not get enough points in the open qualifier via FFC mode. We did participate in the India Today League, but that was not a major tournament like the FFIC. We finally made it through to the FFIC 2021 Fall. The moment we moved in, we knew what we needed to do. We have been studying our local teams, and we know that we need to destroy every single opponent. Of course, we knew that we had what it takes to get to the FFIC Finals, and maybe even make it to the top 6, but we were a little surprised when we were on top of the score table for the first four games of the finals. We could have won it too, but were just one point shy against Team Elite. Of course, it hurt, knowing that the trophy was within our grasp. But once again, like you said, no other team has done this before, so we feel proud of our achievements. 

Q. How did you meet your teammates? How was this team formed?

I really wanted to promote the game in my region. We hail from Tamil Nadu, and it was challenging to assemble a team that spoke our language. However, I consider myself blessed that I had the opportunities to find such talented players. Since I was a caster and content creator, I used to host custom matches myself and cast them on my channel. Over there, I found quite a lot of talented players. EcoEco and Rohit came from there. I met Yogi in another game, but at that he was already playing for another team. I convinced him to join me, I even helped him out with some of the problems he was facing, for example convincing his parents that it was a good idea to let him pursue esports, and acquiring a better device for him to play on. Shiv was recommended to me by Yogi. And thus, the team was formed. 

Q. What was your practice schedule like for FFIC 2021 Fall? What is it now?

We were pretty much prepared for FFIC, and did not need to do much research. We already knew which team drops in what part of the map and what their rotation routes are like. Since we had all this information, we knew that we could go hunt anyone we wanted at any time. Obviously, this cannot be used in FFAC, we will have to do our research. But even after finding out where the other teams prefer to play, we will need to figure out how to tackle them. So our practice process remains the same, we just need to do our research and go into Asia Championship with a solid game plan. 

Q. FFAC can prove to be a lot more challenging than FFIC. Are you prepared for that?

Of course, the lobby is tougher. Our opponents are better and sharper. Winning fights against them will still be a challenge. But we don’t have any other choice. We can probably try to avoid fights and pick up only the ones where we think we have an advantage, but at the end of the day, we can only rely on our kill points. The placement points we net on the back of those fight wins are just bonuses. We certainly are worried that rushing our opponents won’t be as rewarding as it was in FFIC, but we will do our research and target the teams that we think we have a good chance of winning against. 

Q. What’s your biggest concern going forward in FFAC?

My biggest concern is our landing spot. If we can get decent weapons at the start of the game, then we will be pretty sorted. In FFIC, our drop locations did not get contested so we had no problems whatsoever. In Bermuda, Galaxy Racer used to drop at Peak and fight with us sometimes, but we often found ways to deal with them. In all the other maps, we did not face any such problems. We know that the drop locations of the opponent teams will be different in FFAC, so if we can win our early game fights, we should be safe. That’s my only concern. 

Our default drop location of Peak in Bermuda will be heavily contested by a lot of teams, so we are not sure if we can indeed go towards Peak. If that doesn’t work, we will most likely go to Clock Tower, where team EVOS also likes to drop. 

Q. EVOS Phoenix / Phoenix Force were one of the best teams of the Free Fire Continental Series last year. Are you sure you want to enter the lion’s den and contest the strongest team in the lobby right at the drop points?

Why not? Even if we go out, we’ll go out in style. Don’t worry, Phoenix is one of the teams we have already done our research about. 2 of their players go to the main house, the others go to the black one. We can contest them pretty easily. If we have any difficulties with that, we will take control of the underground tunnel. We will only fall back if we lose a player with no chance of trading back. If we do get a knock however, we will try our best to wipe out the entire enemy squad. Camping and holding won’t work, but fighting will surely do so. We know ourselves and our strengths and weaknesses. Now we just need to find the same information about our enemies. 

Thank you so much for speaking with us PVS Gaming. We wish you the best of luck for the Free Fire Asia Championship. We hope you do well! 

To cheer for PVS Gaming, tune in to our official Free Fire Esports India YouTube Channels on 20th and 21st November 2021.