Indian LAN Gaming, a competitive eSports tournament, has announced the launch of its fourth edition in the country. While the dates, prize pool and titles have yet to be announced, the tournament’s organisers, the League of Extraordinary Gamers (LXG), have confirmed that the tournament will be played over the coming year, and will involve more than 30 gaming ‘cafes’ in more than 20 Are. Cities all over India.
The tournament will focus on Local Area Network (LAN) games only, ie players seated within a ‘cafe’ will only compete with each other. Players participating in the tournament will be pitted against each other in the Esports Arena League, and the winners of the latter will be given a chance to play in the larger esports tournament, LXG said in a media statement.
LXG Managing Director Shravan Reddy said in a statement that the company will “bring back the competitive LAN environment for both gaming enthusiasts and cafes from where we left off in 2020 before the pandemic.”
“We believe ILG Cup Season 4 will reinvigorate the existing ‘cafe LAN culture’ for budding grassroots players looking to make a name for themselves in the community, where they get the chance to face off against professional esports players.” and rise through the ranks,” he said.
Prior to the announcement, LXG organized sponsored gaming tournaments in eight cities across India, including ‘Let’s Go LAN’ and ‘Weekend Brawls’. The tournament attracted more than 2,700 participants, the organizers said in a release. LXG has more to offer 2.75 crore in total prize money, and attracted over 40,000 gamers to play in 13 competitive eSports titles, according to data from the company’s own website.
The tournament comes in a tumultuous period for online gaming tournaments in India, which on Wednesday received taxation related clarifications and amendments in the Union Budget 2023. Under the latest ruling, winnings from online gaming will be taxed at 30% after a gamer withdraws their winnings from a platform. The earnings will also need to be declared under ‘Income from other sources’ during annual income tax return filing.
However, clarification remains to be sought in terms of how taxation will differ between esports and real-money gaming. Industry experts said the new taxation regime would largely apply to the latter, as eSports does not require users to deposit money into a prize pool and later withdraw the winnings.
Meanwhile, Esports has been recognized as a ‘Multi-Sports Event’ under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports starting 2023.
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