National qualifiers of PUBG Mobile and AOV 19th Asian Games 2022 remains on hold- ESFI

Author

Noushin

Date

Mar, 13.2022

“As PUBG Mobile and Arena of Valor are banned in India, the national qualifiers for Asian Games 2022 remain on hold”, ESFI made the announcement earlier today  The Ministry of Electronics & information technology and the Ministry of Youth affairs & sports seek clarity on further decisions to be made with regards to this. The National qualifiers for rest of the titles will be announced soon. 

Lately, the Olympic Council of Asia announced eight esports titles that will be at the Asian games 2022 as medal events but what seems to be more confusing for the Indian players is the presence of two titles PUBG Mobile and AOV which are banned in India. Last year, The Indian government banned these two games under section 60A of the information technology act by releasing an explanation of these games being a threat to the integrity and sovereignty of the country. 

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The 19th Asian game 2022 that is going to be held in Hangzhou has made the decision to feature 8 video games which also includes esports as a medal event. Whoever wins the medals in the games conducted, will be added to the total number of medals won by the various countries competing in the games. This is going to be the first-ever participation of esports as an official medal event. Last time in 2018, the Asian Games were held in Indonesia and Jakarta which included five games as a demonstration title whereas this time instead of five, two demonstration events are introduced with a total of eight medal events.
Medal events are as follows:
PUBG Mobile (Asian Games version)
Dota
Hearthstone
League of legends
FIFA
Street fighter V
Arena of Valor (Asian Games version)
Dream of the Three Kingdoms 2

Demonstration events :
AESF Robot Masters
AESF VR Sports

Both PUBG and AOV, titles specify themselves by ‘Asian Games version' so it might be a possible reason that the version is available to play for the banned countries as well.
"We are waiting for the official clarity in terms of what shape and the format this would be," Lokesh Suji, director, Esports Federation of India, told to a media outlet. "This is for PUBG Mobile and AOV because both are banned in India. Let's wait for the official announcement. We will know our stance once that comes. Now, it will be speculation and I don't want to do that." 
 
To get to play in Hangzhou, players first have to qualify just like any other sport and then the national qualifier finally gets the entry ticket to Hangzhou — the Games will be conducted from September 10 - 25.