Scout Shares How His Gaming Journey Started

Renowned Indian gaming figures Animesh “Thug” Agarwal and Tanmay “Scout” Singh recently got featured in the latest episode of popular entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and content creator Raj Shamani’s podcast named Figuring Out. In this podcast, Thug and Scout discussed a lot of things revolving around the Indian gaming and esports scenario. Scout delved into his gaming journey, revealing how he encountered gaming and eventually became an esports athlete.

Scout shares his humble beginnings in esports and his journey to becoming a pro

In the podcast, Raj asked Scout how his gaming journey started. Responding to this, Scout stated that he had been a gamer since childhood and used to play games like Contra and Mario. He noted that he was fond of football, joined a football academy in Punjab, and entered professional football. However, he added that his escape from everything has always been gaming. He added that he used to ask his mother for ₹20 INR to go to a cafe and play games, but she would often incentivize him by telling him to complete his homework, after which she would take him to the cafe. 

Interestingly, Scout stated that he never thought of gaming as a career option and was unaware that gaming had the potential to become a competitive field. Despite this, he used to play Counter Strike regularly. He added that he returned to Gujarat for college, and during his 11th and 12th grades, he and his friends used to finish their tuition and head to cafes to play games. During this time, he revealed that he learned about esports and started watching videos of international players and learning from them. 

At the same time, the original PUBG was released. However, Scout could not play it as he did not have a PC, and the cafe near his house only supported CS1.6. He revealed that his passion for gaming led him to travel to Mumbai every weekend to play PUBG and Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) from his hometown of Daman without a ticket, which took him two hours. “When I reached Mumbai, I used to tell the owner of the cafe that I’ll stay in the cafe overnight, and he could close the shutter. I stayed there for two days and returned home on Sunday. The owner used to allow me as he trusted me,” he added. 

Scout noted that he injured his hamstring during a football event in Kolkata, which led him to four to five months of bed rest. He added that he used to search for ways to access PUBG PC on mobile but could only play other mobile battle royale games. During this time, PUBG Mobile was announced. He stated that he started playing the game and quickly climbed the leaderboard, becoming the first Indian player to reach the top 100. As the PUBG Mobile community was still nascent at the time, he quickly became known among players from other countries, like Indonesia and Thailand. They told Scout that there were competitive PUBG Mobile tournaments in their countries. 

“I told them I wanted to play and learned the game from them. Luckily, by the end of the same year, a tournament in India was hosted, which we played. I used to play on Moto G4 Plus, which had a cracked screen. I didn’t even get a sponsor device for the event. The event which we played offered us a phone - Samsung Note. I played on that device for a year. I didn’t have money to buy a device or ask for one from my parents,” he said.

Scout revealed that he received his first salary after playing the game for one and a half years. He joined Team IND and was offered a salary of ₹5000 and an iPhone, which he had to return if he left the organization.