Akshaj Shenoy: Indian League of Legends captain faces tough Asian Games

Akshay Shenoy has been playing against the odds all his life.

At 24, he will captain Team India at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. But the real fight began long before this tournament. It started when he was a kid in Kochi with a shared PC and a game that nobody cared about in India. It continued when he had to hop between foreign servers because India didn’t have one. It persisted when his relatives scoffed at what he was doing, when society said it wasn’t a real career, and when the infrastructure wasn’t there.

Now they face the odds again. India’s group in the Asian Games is brutal. The hardest draw possible. South Korea will be there. Chinese Taipei will be there. Teams that have been building professional ecosystems for 15 years while India is just starting to believe that esports was real.

But here’s the kicker: if India wins, it will be the country’s first esports medal at the Asian Games. That’s what it’s all about.

“I wanted to prove something,” Akshaj said in an exclusive interview with India Today.

He always had.

KOCHI, PC, GAME

Akshay grew up fighting with his cousins ​​for time on a shared computer. When they left, the machine was his. Most 90s kids would say that most high end games wouldn’t run on it. Too challenging. League of Legends yes. He downloaded it after seeing some videos on YouTube, started playing for fun, and it was for a decade.

Just a hobby for a kid with time to kill.

As he built his skills in the game, he hopped servers looking for competition. North America. Europe. Japan. The ping made everything unplayable. The connection was terrible. The equipment was bad. But he kept playing anyway.

One day, while playing on a Japanese server, he found a colleague from India.

“Why are you playing here?” asked the stranger. India’s League of Legends team finished fifth at the 2022 Asian Games. (Image: Special Arrangement)

That one conversation introduced him to the Indian League of Legends community. It was small. Real tournaments existed, but barely. Real players existed, but they were scattered across the country. In 11th grade, Akshay had a plan. He identified the best player in each role. Then he approached everyone.

Stop playing alone. Create a super team. See where it goes.

They said yes. His experience there gave him leadership insight. Not because there is a way or a system. Simply because he liked the game and wanted to build something out of it.

THE PATTERN REPEATS

The team competing at this year’s Asian Games has been together for many years.

Three players from India’s 2022 team, which finished fifth in Hangzhou, remain with him. Ahmed Shahid joined them. They won domestic tournaments. They have beaten Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern teams on several occasions.

Rahul Bisht and Sanindhya Malik then joined the qualifiers.

This isn’t a pickup truck. They’ve faced the odds their entire career, as most players do when trying to make it into a professional setting. Playing on Malaysian servers as India doesn’t have one. Training at night because the server is 2.5 hours ahead. They are trying to compete with countries that have professional infrastructure when India hardly has any.

They did well in the Southeastern tournaments.

But none of that will prepare you for South Korea. None of this will prepare you for the infrastructure gap. None of that will prepare you for teams that have been doing it professionally for 15 years while you were still learning the game.

But they know how to play against the odds. They’ve been doing it all their lives.

CAPTAIN

In cricket, the captain decides the field. In League of Legends, the captain calls. Literally.

Akshay plays mid lane, mid map. Tempo is decisive during matches. He tells others what to do. His voice takes precedence over all others.

But that only works if they trust him. Akshay is not one to shy away from conflict. He will face it. If feelings get hurt or egos clash, and in a competitive game they do, he makes sure everyone says it out loud.

“We’re really good teammates because we’re really good friends,” he said.

The team is spread across India. Akshay in Kochi. The rest in the north. They barely see each other. At night they train on Malaysian servers. He sleeps at 2 or 3 in the morning because the server is before Indian time.

But they know their routines. Aakash goes to the gym. Rahul is reading. Ahmed and Akshaj play single player games. They look out for each other. They look out for each other.

What they don’t have is time together in the same room before the biggest tournament of their lives. What they don’t have are the fundamentals that the South Korean teams have.

What they do have is each other and a stubborn sense of belief that they will make it anyway.

WEIGHT OF REPRESENTATION

When he was not in the Indian setup for the Asian Games, he was playing for himself. For his team. For sponsors.

Then it changed.

“We used to play for ourselves, for our rank,” he said. “There is something really at stake now. Our integrity is at stake and we also have to promote the image of our country. It just feels good to represent the country.”

His relatives scoffed at it for years.

“What’s your boy doing? He’s still playing,” they asked his parents.

They don’t say anything now. It is Team India. He is the captain. It is part of India’s bid for its first medal in esports.

His parents were also concerned. What if the career dried up? What if another player came? What if it was all a bubble? League of Legends Asia Deployment Event – L to R (Aakash Shandilya, Akshaj Shenoy, Mihir Ranjan and Samarth Trivedi. (Image: Special Arrangement)

“After I started representing India, they thought it was a real career opportunity,” Akshaj said. “Even though I was making money from it, it was uncertain for them. But after representing India, they believed it was possible.”

That faith matters. That keeps him going. It also adds weight. Failure is not just his failure. It fails to prove that this career path exists in a country that does not yet believe in it. It’s a failure to push esports into the Indian mainstream. It is a failure to demonstrate that the odds can be beaten.

GRINDING

The week before the Asian Games, he trains for nine to twelve hours a day. But he starts at 7 pm, plays through the night, sleeps at 2 or 3 in the morning

Normally it’s six or seven hours. This is not normal.

To break out of the cycle and blow off steam, he practices yoga. He is trying to do so by his own admission. His mother wants it every day. Sometimes he plays single player games to take a break from the grind.

“When you play competitively for that long, you start to see it differently,” he said. “You might not even enjoy it because it’s too competitive for you.”

He also knows the cost of sitting in front of a screen all day.

“You’re still just sitting, and that’s physically harmful. It’s also bad for the mind because your mind starts to wander, so you have to start physically wandering to fulfill that need.”

But 12 hours a day on a Malaysian server is not the same as 12 hours a day on a proper device without lagging servers. When they land in Japan, they will have to adapt. Top contenders maybe not so much. They have been playing under these conditions for years. That’s just another way the odds are stacked.

CAMPAIGN

Akshay flew to Japan on September 25. It is the first time in the country.

The draw was brutal. India placed among the top two teams in the tournament. On paper, the odds are not in their favor.

In 2022, India finished fifth. They didn’t make it out of the groups.

This time, the lottery assigned them to the gold and silver medalists from the previous tournament. South Korea won gold in 2022. Chinese Taipei won silver. Hong Kong is also there. Teams with more than ten years of professional infrastructure. Teams that have already proven they can win at this stage.

Apart from that, India have beaten every South East Asian and Middle Eastern team they have faced. They ended up on top. They are strongest in South Asia. Left to right – Sanindhya Malik, Aakash Shandilya and Akshaj Shenoy in action at the seeding event for the 2022 Asian Games. (Image: Special Arrangement)

Gold will probably go to Korea again. But silver and bronze?

“I would say yes, there is a belief that we can push for a medal this time. Not for gold though. But I would say silver and bronze are within our reach if the groups allow us,” he said.

They have to beat one of the top three teams in the tournament just to have a chance at a medal.

It’s not impossible. But not easy either.

GAP

There is a real gap between the Indian esports scene and everyone else’s. Akshay knows this. He talks about it straight.

Korea has had a professional League of Legends for 15 years. The infrastructure is there. There are coaches. There are servers. There are salaries that make sense.

India has talent scattered across the country, training on foreign servers and hoping.

Akshay is 24. He is doing MBA. It balances competitive gaming with a future that may not involve gaming at all. Most pro players in Korea don’t have that balance. They can’t afford it.

India’s esports ecosystem is still building. Maybe brave. Other? Eighty to 90 percent of viable careers are in mobile games. Left to right – Sanindhya Malik, Aakash Shandilya, Akshaj Shenoy, Mihir Ranjan and Samarth Trivedi in action at an event for the 2022 Asian Games. (Image: Special Arrangement)

“You can’t really scale it, if you know what I mean,” Akshaj said of the PC esports career in India. “You can only scale it if you scale the game. You have to make it accessible to the Indian people and get a regional audience, and unfortunately India doesn’t have that.”

He doesn’t complain. It states a fact. The same fact that he lives against all his life.

WHAT WOULD THAT MEAN

When he started, there was no way. Just a kid in Kochi at PC. No trainers. No infrastructure. No belief in the potential that esports could bring.

Relatives disputed this. He studied anyway. He won tournaments. He built a team. He represented his country. He balanced it all.

He didn’t sound angry when asked about the doubters.

“Follow your passion and don’t put off people who do. It’s understandable, yes, but times have changed and so should people,” he said. Left to right – Akshaj Shenoy and Mihir Ranjan in action at an event for the 2022 Asian Games. (Image: Special Arrangement)

A medal would mean something crazy. Not just for him or his team. For Indian Esports. For the country’s first gold medal in esports. For every kid in India right now wondering if this career path exists.

At this point, no one believes it exists. No one believes that a kid from Kochi can compete with Korea. No one believes India has a chance.

His family watch from Kochi. His team is spread across India. Japan is unknown. Groups are ruthless.

But he’s been playing against the odds all his life. The Asian Games are just the final test.

That’s what he’s betting on.

– The end