Hangzhou Asian Games | Biswas — postman by day, Esports player by night

Two weeks before Esports player Ayan Biswas boarded his flight to Hangzhou to represent India at the Asian Games, he recalls a moment back home, which comically sums up the turnaround in his life.

“When I started playing this game, my mom constantly scolded me, saying I was wasting my time and that there was no future in this. But now, before I came here, if they see me going outside or even if I am taking rest, she goes, ‘What are you doing? Why aren’t you playing?” chuckles the 24-year-old Ayan.

Ayan, who also goes by his Gamertag, Ayan01, comes from the small town of Birnagar in West Bengal and is the son of a retired railway worker father and a nurse mother. He was among India’s two competitors in the Streetfighter: V event at the Hangzhou Esports Center on Tuesday.

While Esports players in India and across Asia were busy training for hours on in a day to prepare for the continental games, Ayan would train only for three to four hours a day after his day job of being a postman or Gramin Daak Sevak as he puts it. This is a job he has held on since he was just aged 16.

“Since I got good marks in Class 10, I took up that job since the key eligibility criteria for that post was 10th pass,” explains Ayan.

Every day, Ayan leaves his home to take a train at 9.30 a.m. and reaches the office at Bethuadehri in Nadia district an hour later. His job involves carrying mail from the sub-office to the branch office. Then from the branch office, he has to return the mail bag back to the original place before returning home before 6 p.m.

“The job involves carrying normal letters that come to the post office, sometimes people send money too. I have kept a bike there [at the office], so I ride around 7-8 km to the sub-office and then back to the branch office,” he says. He admits Streetfighter: V, which is played with a joystick and a computer screen, is not the kind of game you can practice while on the move. So he uses his waiting time in his office to learn from YouTube videos and strategise plays.

“I have to sit for one or two hours at the branch office as my colleagues sort out the mail and money. During that time, I strategise and visualise. In the last month, I was watching the games of my competitors here on online streaming platforms,” he says.

Ayan only makes a nominal amount of Rs. 15000 from his job at the post office but earns more playing Esports. But he still doesn’t see it as one or the other.

“I like my job [postman], and am dedicated to it. If you do something with full dedication, nothing can stop you. Look at me, I think no one plays Streetfighter in the whole of West Bengal. But I am here, in Hangzhou. It’s a huge deal,” says Ayan, who is a Bachelor of Science student at the Netaji Subhash Open University.

It was not too long ago when Ayan had started playing Streetfighter: V out of his bedroom with no outline of what he wanted to do. Now, he has played his first offline game in an arena in what was his first-ever overseas trip.

“I haven’t played in arenas. It’s either my bedroom or some other lowkey place in Mumbai and Delhi,” he says. The experience of being part of the athletes’ village is ‘surreal’ for him. “The atmosphere is unique, I have been talking to different athletes,” he says.

Streetfighter, a Japanese fighting video game, is among the oldest and the best games of its genre.

“I started playing this game at my home, on my computer. I used to play the game in video games as a kid so I wasn’t unaware of the game. But in around 2018, I stumbled upon Streetfighter: V game. So I purchased it and began playing online and picked up the game during the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Ayan, who intends to stream his fights in the future.

“I saw a video on YouTube that tournaments take place in different parts of the country and the world, so I decided to explore that option and take part in those events. I started without any goal in mind but slowly, I started beating my online competitors consistently. That’s when I began to take it seriously and now, here I am,” he adds.

Ayan started with a win in the Round of 32, but ultimately exited the tournament with two defeats. He hopes his presence at the Asian Games can influence more gamers in India to take up Streetfighter: V. “The game I play, Streetfighter, isn’t as popular as DOTA or Tekken or some other games. But I am sure the craze will increase after the Asian Games. But at the moment, the Streetfighter is a small community.”