Midfail Relives His Journey From Content Creation to BGMI Commentary

One of the most fulfilling moments in life is when you reap the rewards of your hard work and continued efforts. Prabhakaran "Midfail" P’s journey from being an ardent gamer to becoming a renowned content creator and esports commentator is one such sweet story. Midfail recently signed as a content creator for Gods Reign, an esports organization that just picked up teams in Valorant, Pokemon Unite, and New State Mobile. Fans also saw Midfail on live TV as one of the Tamil commentators for the BGMI Master Series for Star Sports earlier this year. AFK Gaming had the opportunity to chat with Midfail and relive his esports journey thus far at the TEC 'The Arena LAN.'

Midfail’s love for strategy games and the start of his content creation journey

Midfail is one of the biggest regional Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) content creators today but he started out his esports journey by streaming Dota 2. Recollecting his memories, Midfail stated that his love for gaming blossomed at a very young age and that he took a liking to strategy-based games growing up. He immediately fell in love with Age of Empires, a game he still holds dear. Midfail said he found Dota 2 also very strategic and wanted to do something unique and started a YouTube channel where he posted Dota 2 content. “But I was not getting any viewers from India since the PC game audience was minuscule. I eventually stopped making videos and took a job at Amazon,” Midfail said.

Midfail worked at Amazon as a 3D artist for five years. He added that he settled down and got married and around this time he noticed the sudden surge of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile. “I used to play PUBG on an emulator with my office colleagues. At that time I wondered ‘Why shouldn't I post these videos on my YouTube?’” Midfail wanted to give his YouTube channel another shot, even if he had to risk people not wanting to watch this content.

Midfail talks about his wife’s perennial support

Midfail’s YouTube channel saw a revival after PUBG Mobile’s growth in India. Talking about this, Midfail recalled the unconditional support his wife showered on him and attributed his success to her. He said she asked him to continue uploading videos at the beginning. “The only viewer I had at the start was my wife. While she commuted to her office, she would comment on my YouTube videos. We used to have full-on conversations in the comment section. After this, viewers slowly started to trickle in,” recalled Midfail.

Midfail said viewers were keen on watching him commentate on room matches and that he eventually started doing it regularly. “I started doing commentary for these room matches every day. Like two-and-a-half hours in the morning,” he added.

Midfail noted that the support he received from fans and viewers was immense and wanted to take on YouTube as a full-time career. He said he asked his wife if they would be able to sustain with the Rs. 15,000 INR income from YouTube. “She said, ‘No problem. Do whatever you like and I’ll support you’” added Midfail. Following this, he bid farewell to his well-paying Amazon job to pursue his YouTube dreams.

However, things started to fall into place for Midfail as he partnered with big brands like JBL, LG, and AMD. Notably, Midfail also began commentating in various PUBG Mobile tournaments, eventually becoming an official Tamil commentator for BGMI and PUBG Mobile’s biggest tournaments. 

He even made his debut on television earlier this year and became one of the Tamil commentators for the BGMI Master Series (BGMS) 2022 which was televised on Star Sports Tamil. This tournament was one of the biggest Indian esports tournaments of the year and saw a lot of love and support from the fans.

Moving on from BGMI

It is fair to say that every BGMI content creator was thrown off the course with the ban levied on the game. But Midfail said he started to divert his attention to other games even before the ban of BGMI. “The reason was I was also starting to get bored playing the same game over and over again. So if I played BGMI in the morning, I would play other games like Dead By Daylight in the evening. I moved my audience by BGMI to full-on entertainment,” stated Midfail. 

Midfail said that he realized that his audience liked entertaining games and were not big fans of action-packed ones that demanded gameplay knowledge. This is one of the reasons why he avoids games like Warzone or Valorant since there are chances of him going silent while playing the game without interacting with the viewers.

“I am a hardcore Dota 2 fan,” said Midfail

While we asked Midfail what other esports titles he followed regularly, he immediately replied “Dota 2” with bubbling enthusiasm. He said he often finds himself watching Dota 2 streams on Twitch when he finds the time. “I have been a hardcore fan of Dendi [Danil "Dendi" Ishutin] since TI1 days. I like his streams a lot,” explained Midfail. He also disclosed that he has a habit of spectating pros in-game on the client and was appreciative of the feature that Dota 2 has. 

While discussing the prospects of the upcoming Skyesports Championship 4.0 Dota 2 tournament, Midfail said, “If you need the viewers, be it Valorant, CS: GO, or Dota 2, you need PUBG or BGMI quite frankly.” He noted that tournament organizers must make it a point to include a fan-favorite game in their schedules while organizing tournaments so that at least a portion of the audience migrates to the PC game ecosystem.

Talking about his future plans, Midfail stated that he is keen on testing new games on stream and that he is working out a way to retain his viewers without them losing interest. Beyond streaming, Midfail hopes to create a name and a niche for himself in esports commentating and casting. As a sign-off note, Midfail told his fans, “Don’t be dependent on just one game. Watch all types of games and only when you watch and support different esports tournaments, you will see more career opportunities getting created. Everything in esports is based on viewership.”

Addressing BGMI fans, in particular, Midfail said, “India’s mobile market is huge when compared to other countries. Be it BGMI or any other banned game, they will not let it go just like that. Wait for it. BGMI will definitely make a comeback.”