ESPORTS
‘PEXXER’ STRIKE WORDS BY SAMEER BAIG
F
rom being the youngest professional esports player from India in 2005 to holding the World No. 2 rank for best headshot percentage in Counter Strike (CS), Kunal ‘Pexxer’ Bhatia has done it all! Now retired, he tells us about what it takes to win the crown, and keep it too. How did you get into professional gaming? I started playing CS in 2005. My cousin brother from UAE introduced me to CS in a cafe and I instantly liked the game. I used to play on my brother’s computer for which I had to beg him. Finally, one day I got my own PC and started playing 32
GUTSHOT
MARCH
online with my brothers for fun and we decided to form a team to take part in online tournaments. Soon, our team (D5 – Destructive) started defeating everyone in online tournaments at that time. People actually thought that we are hackers and banned us from the servers because
2021
we defeated the best team of India. Eventually we made our own clan and started playing on LAN. We were the WCG Mumbai Champions in 2006. Once D5 dissolved, my brother who was an excellent CS player (Wuzz aka Pranay) got an offer from ATE (top CS team of India). I did not make the age criteria for higher level tournaments (international tournaments) at that time. I joined Team Brutality which was the second best team in India and competency level wise, we were at par with ATE (full form). We played against ATE a year after I joined and we gave them the toughest competition ever. Post this
