E-sports athlete finds his metier

In an age when children are herded into pursuing only the noble professions, one family has broken this stereotype. They let their child gallop free into the web, embrace what he desired and find his true calling. Now, he is one of the first professional esports athletes in Chennai and his parents are jubilant.

Shree Dev Panneerselvam (23), a.k.a ‘Truth’, is a part of Chennai’s first professional esports team for the game ‘Overwatch’. Sponsored by hardware majors Asus and Corsair, the entire roster gets a salary to play games competitively and win.

His mother Chandrabhanu and father Panneerselvam spotted his flair for gaming at a young age. “He showed a passion for it wholeheartedly” says his mother beaming. “His cousins realised it too. Soon, they would pick him up every day when school ended and take him to a gaming café.”

For Shree, whose blood oozes with gaming, a café is essentially second home. “I spent many hours together watching my cousins play,” he says. “I was not up to their level, so I could only watch them play and try to learn.”

Shree admits that he was lucky to have parents who understood his passion. However, not every aspiring gamer is as lucky as Shree is.

What parents don’t realise is, like becoming a top-level cricketer or footballer, becoming a professional esports athlete requires years of hard work, unwavering dedication, and tens and thousands of hours of practice.

Shree’s mother says that he would finish his homework as quickly as possible so he could start playing. “When he told us he wanted to be a professional gamer, we accepted his choice. We never forced him to do deviate and do something he didn’t like.”

Becoming an esport athlete is not easy. Shree was initially pursuing a B.E in Computer Engineering. Slowly, gaming took centre stage and his attendance took a beating. His parents were shocked when they received a call saying he wouldn’t be allowed to write his exams because of his low attendance.

“We sat him down and spoke to him about it. He revealed he didn’t like engineering and wanted to be a game developer. So, we enrolled him in joined ICAT Design & Media College in Mylapore.”

Flash forward to four years later and the 23-year-old prodigy is excelling at both. His parents couldn’t be happier. “When we let him drop out, relatives remained sceptical and told us we were making a mistake. We however, were confident in our son. Now the relatives admit that we took the right decision.” As an esports athlete, Shree earns twice what an engineering graduate earns.

“Neither parents nor teachers should decide a child’s future or what he/she should study,” says his father. “They should let the children choose their area of interest and guide them to excel in it,” he adds. Chandrabhanu also echoes a similar view. “Parents should not force anything upon their children,” she adds. Shree is now preparing to face his next challenge. Team Arknemisis’s next tournament is on the June 16 and 17, where they compete in the Chennai leg of the Indian LAN Gaming (ILG)
Season-2.