Orangutan Gaming Expresses Disappointment Towards Skyesports Championship Series BGMI 2023

The recent announcement of the Skyesports Championship Series 2023 (SCS) for BGMI has led to Orangutan Gaming’s co-founders calling out the selection criteria for the invited teams. SCS will be an online invite-only BGMI event, where 19 teams have been invited to participate in the quarterfinals, out of which the top six will join another 18 teams who received direct invites to the semi-finals. Teams are competing for a total prize pool of INR 25,00,000. Orangutan Gaming (OG), a prominent Indian esports organization, expressed disappointment over being invited to the quarterfinals instead of the semifinals, claiming that the selection process was based on viewership rather than team achievements.

Conflict Erupts Between Orangutan Gaming and Skyesports over BGMI Tournament Invitations

Orangutan Gaming's founder, Yash Bhanushali, took to Twitter to voice his disappointment with Skyesports' invitation selection for the BGMI tournament. Yash accused Skyesports of allotting invites based on viewership numbers rather than considering the team's actual achievements. He argued that OG's BGMI squad had consistently performed well, finishing second and third in the last two major events, Battlegrounds Mobile India Showdown 2022 and BGMI Masters Series, respectively, and that these accomplishments warranted a direct invitation to the semifinals. OG’s BGMI squad also successfully stuck together through the BGMI ban phase.

In response to the allegations, Hex Vijay, Talent Management Head at Skyesports, stated that they do not consider performances at any other tournament organizers’ events for SCS 2023’s invitation selection process. Vijay expressed confidence that OG would qualify for the semifinals and assured Bhanushali that the top 16 teams from the finals would be invited to Skyesports’ future events. However, Bhanushali retorted that OG might reconsider participating in Skyesports' upcoming tournaments.

Countering Vijay’s comments, OG's BGMI coach, Vedang Chavan, highlighted the team’s top three finish in Skyesports' tournament, Skyesports Pro League.

Skyesports’ founder, Shiva Nandy, argued that if viewership were the sole concern, Skyesports would not host events for other games such as Pokémon Unite, Counter Strike Global Offensive, Real Cricket, or Call of Duty. He mentioned Skyesports' regular tournaments with substantial prize pools for these games, including the recently announced Skyesports Masters for Counter Strike Global Offensive with a prize pool of INR 2,00,00,000.

Nandy further clarified that he had personally spoken to Jai Shah, co-founder of Orangutan Gaming, and suggested that direct communication could have resolved any issues before the conflict was publicly shared.  According to Shah and Vansh Chouhan, who handles partnerships at OG, the team had initially received an invite and form for the semi-finals, which was later withdrawn, and the team was given a slot at the quarter-finals.. Vinay “Hadesplay” Rao, Head of esports at OG, shared a screenshot of a communication between him and Shiva where he could not get a proper response from the TOs.

Shah stated that the industry's perception of Skyesports appears to have been affected while asking for an explanation as to how the invited slots for SCS 2023 were allocated to teams.  Nandy clapped back at Shah, stating that they aren’t concerned about industry chatter behind their backs and that Skyesports has no obligation to explain its process.

The Skyesports Championship Series 2023 is all set to begin on 7th June  with a total prizepool of INR 25,00,000.