EISL Season 2: Indian Super League to host second eSports tournament

Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), a company established to operate the Indian Super League, has announced the second edition of its esports tournament eISL. This will be in collaboration with gaming company EA Sports and with Nodwin Gaming. The two will be the company’s strategic partners for the tournament. The company is run as a subsidiary to Reliance Industries Limited and is a commercial partner of All India Football Federation.

The second season’s winner will have the opportunity to play in the qualifiers of the EA Sports‘ Fifa 23 Global Series (FGS).

The event’s second season will have participation of all 11 ISL clubs, represented by 22 esports athletes through retention and club qualifiers. It said in a statement that this season will also have a retention policy, where each club can retain one of their players from the previous season.

This season will have 62 matches played in a 1 vs 1 format with the entire league phase being played online. The playoffs and final will be played as a LAN event with the champions qualifying for the FGS play-in tournament.

An FSDL spokesperson said, “We are extremely excited to announce the second edition. With this, we have created an interactive experience leveraging the evolving football consumption trends in conjunction with the rapidly growing esports industry.”

Sam Turkbas, EA Sports Fifa Esports‘ commissioner said: “We are delighted to welcome eISL back to the global series this season. The tournament embodies the best of Indian football and esports, with incredible competition increasing community engagement at all levels.”

Akshat Rathee, MD & co-founder, Nodwin Gaming added, “Football is passionately loved and followed by fans across the world and organising the esports variant of the game is super exciting for us.”

The company added that the esports industry has been growing at a rapid pace with a continued increase in the number of teams and players.

According to one report, the esports industry in India is set for rapid growth in the country. The size of industry is expected to touch a total of ₹1,100 crore by FY25, said the Federation of Electronic Sports Associations of India (FEAI).