Indian gaming sensations Animesh “Thug” Agarwal and Tanmay “Scout” Singh were recently 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 delved into their journey, revealing how they became two of the most prominent names in the Indian gaming landscape. Thug also opened up about the backlash he has faced from the community due to his focus on building teams and nurturing talents from the back end.
Thug shares how he was cursed for Team SouL’s disbandments and failures
At the start of the podcast, Raj asked Thug why he was receiving hatred from the community, despite the fact he was developing talent, whether for future prospects, business ventures, or any other purpose, as ultimately, he was nurturing talent. Responding to this, Thug mentioned that when popular Indian content creator Naman “MortaL” Mathur came into the limelight, Thug was the one who told him to play with three players in Team SouL - Mohammed “Owais” Lakhani, Harpreet “RonaK” Janjuha, Yash “Viper” Soni. Although MortaL did not want to play with them and instead wanted to play with his streaming team, Thug convinced him. The team went on to become India’s most successful team.
Thug shared that he got cursed for the first time when he separated MortaL from his streaming team and asked him to play with the other three players. People cursed him, called him a scammer, and accused him of breaking MortaL’s team. This happened as MortaL was already a popular YouTuber back then.
“Two months following this, the same team lifted the trophy of India's first tournament. After it won the tournament, fans started praising, but praising who? The four players. No one is remembering Thug now. The team went on to lift another trophy and got a chance to represent India in a global tournament. Till now, everything is great, and no one is cursing Thug or appreciating him. After this, the team had an internal feud, so the team broke. There were five members in the team, and everyone was involved, but all the blame was put on me. They said I broke the team for money,” he said.
Thug noted that following the disbandment, Team SouL was lacking an assaulter, so he gave a player from his other team 8bit - Vivek “ClutchGod” Horo. Thug added that MortaL’s team finished second in the following tournament and got the opportunity to represent India at a global level again. Thug stated that everyone started praising the team’s success, but no one knew that he was the one who sent ClutchGod to the team.
Thug revealed that Mortal wanted to take over and build a new team by himself, without any input from him. Unfortunately, that team didn’t perform well and faced several issues. Despite giving no input to the team, Thug revealed that he received hatred from the gaming community, along with the players on the team.
Thug discusses the criticism he faces as a talent manager
Thug shared that MortaL started getting brand deals, and he was helping MortaL in uplifting his lifestyle. He added that as a talent manager, it was his job to bring in brands for creators, but since he was also a public figure, he faced criticism for it. He added MortaL’s busy schedule, which included brand shoots, was often blamed on him, who was accused of not allowing him to stream or play matches. “Whatever industry move I make now, if I sign a talent or do something, people start saying I'm doing it for money. My point is money has been attached to my name, and I'm very happy with it,” he added.
Thug stated that he had moved on from his negative experiences in the Indian gaming community. He also expressed his belief that the audience has become more mature over time and that many things have become normal over the past year and a half.
Thug shared his learning that people who work behind the scenes and try to do good are often not appreciated. Thug shared an example of sports, mentioning that he looks up to Virat Kohli as a role model. However, if Kohli faced an injury and struggled to recover, the fans would criticize the Indian cricket board.
