Gamer Saloni Pawar on making her mark and being a girl in a boy’s game

Saloni Pawar. Pic Courtesy/Instagram

You shoot like a girl can be a disconcerting jibe heard on gaming platforms around the world. A rare few are turning that jibe into a compliment. Saloni Pawar is among the rare Indian woman gamers breaking through the ranks of men dominating the nascent field of Esports in India.

Pawar reveals that she was hooked onto online gaming because of her brother, an ardent fan. "My brother used to play Counter Strike 1.6 (CS 1.6), I used to watch him play every day," she recalls. Pawar tried her hand at it, and discovered she had a talent for it.

It was a defining moment when sibling rivalry reflected the larger social picture. "My brother refused to believe it, and said "Girls don't play these games. It is not possible that you've scored well." That was when I decided to prove him and everyone wrong," she remarks.

Since starting out at the age of 14, Pawar has spent close to a decade among the gaming community. Her specialisation, is tactical first-person shooter games. A professional Counter Strike Global Offensive (CSGO player), she also won the Central Asia qualifiers for Legion in 2020. Yet, the gamer has her eyes set on the big prize for Valorant. "I love CSGO but Valorant is something I want to be the best at," she reveals.

While the last decade has seen more female gamers enter the arena, Pawar admits that acceptance is not universal. "[It is] very difficult, but not impossible. I have done it over the years. But since gaming is a male dominated field, women are always thought of as a gender," she points out.

To change this perception, the gamer took to streaming her content and game-playing tactics for other female gamers through social media. This, however, brought on the attention of online trolls. But Pawar has no intention of backing down. "Initially, the incessant trolling would affect me. Now, nothing and no one bothers me. I know what I'm doing and I don't care how people react to it," she states laying down the gauntlet.

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