Esports
It’s unclear if he plays PUBG, but Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah went out of his way – even away from home – to support a Nepali esports team competing at the PUBG Mobile Global Championship in Jakarta.
He was all over the place – for PUBG players. From cheering on the Nepali team from the stands at the Jakarta International Expo last week to welcoming the DRS team players upon their arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday evening.
Social media posts show Mayor Balen cheering on the team outside the TIA. It is unclear if the KMC has officially supported DRS Gaming members. Mayor Shah has, however, done everything in his power to bolster the spirit of Nepali PUBG players.
DRS Gaming finished runner-up to the Turkish side S2G in the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2022. It won $292,000 (over Rs38 million) – the highest prize money a Nepali esports team has achieved in an international arena yet.
The KMC mayor was among the first people to congratulate the team. “Welcome Home Champions!!! This is the country’s victory,” he wrote on his Facebook wall.
A popular social media account called Routine of Nepal Banda, or RONB, followed suit, giving regular updates on the Nepali gamers' performance in Jakarta.
RONB connection
As the DRS gamers were busy competing with their rivals at the Jakarta International Expo hall, Mayor Balen was on a ‘private vacation’ in the transcontinental country. He also took the opportunity to visit Bali, where he was spotted enjoying beaches with his spouse, Sabeena Kafle.
Balen’s close friend, Victor Poudel, a co-founder of DRS Gaming and the brain behind the popular social media page Routine of Nepal Banda, or RONB, was also in Jakarta for the event.
Critics have linked Balen's victory in the mayoral race to the roles played by RONB and Poudel.
Besides DRS Gaming, two other Nepali teams – Trained to Kill (T2K) and SkyLightz Gaming – also qualified for the PMGC. The group stage competition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where 48 teams fought for 14 places in the Grand Finals. DRS Gaming and T2K made it to the finals, but Skylightz Gaming missed the cut. T2K, who finished 13th in the standings, returned home with $132,000.
