‘We want to build a complete esports ecosystem in India’: Aditya Dawar of Nebula Esports | Exclusive Interview

One of India's esports events that made its mark on campuses across the country saw the final leg of its third edition kick off on August 11 in Delhi NCR. This time, OnePlus Campus Dominate 2026 reached 16 universities across ten cities, before concluding with the Grand LAN finale at Bennett University on August 21.

One of the breakout teams from last year's competition was Nebula Esports, which went on to win the last edition, and subsequently finished first in the 2025 Battlegrounds Mobile India Challenger Series (BGCS) with a total of 222 points. With this, they booked themselves a berth in the Battlegrounds Mobile India Masters Series (BGMS) tournament.

It has been one year since Nebula Esports was incorporated, and its current members are: Aditya Dawar 'NebulaAADIII', Rohit Saxena 'NebulaKRATOS', Yash Rajpal Negi 'NebulaKNOWME', Harsh Khandelwal 'NebulaPHOENIX', and Arjun Garg 'NebulaARJUN'.

With India leaning into esports more with initiatives such as WAVES and gaming being recognised as a sport at the Asian Games, we sat down with Nebula Esports' leading gamer, Aditya Dawar. Here are some excerpts:

Q: Did your professional career, specifically at Nebula Esports, begin with winning the OnePlus Campus Dominate tournament in 2025 and top-ranking on the BGCS 2025 leaderboard? Or was it already underway?

Aditya Dawar: Everything started right from OnePlus Campus Dominate 2025, where we were just another college team with big ambitions. The tournament gave us the chance to compete against talented players from across the country on a professionally organised platform, and winning that championship gave us the confidence, visibility, and belief that we could compete at the highest level. Looking back, it marked the transition from college esports to professional competition, becoming the true beginning of our journey. That win led to BGCS and a top ranking on the leaderboard, which brought Nebula Esports to where it is today. 

Q: Why did the name change to "Nebula Esports"? What was the issue with the old name, or was it a complete rebranding?

Aditya Dawar: It was part of a rebranding process. Our owner, Ankit Tiwari, had the vision of creating an organisation that builds stars. As you know, a nebula is a galaxy of stars, so that was the core ideology behind the name.

Q: For mainstream audiences, like our parents' generation or people who have never played video games, gaming is often seen as a waste of time. How would you explain Nebula Esports and gaming as a legitimate career to someone with zero knowledge?

Aditya Dawar: Most parents in India aren't very familiar with gaming because they haven't really seen what it can look like as a career. For many of them, the traditional path of focusing on studies and pursuing a stable job is simply what they know best. When I started gaming, my parents didn't support me either because they couldn't yet see the possibilities.

To help them understand, you have to show real examples: people who have followed the same path, built successful careers, grown huge audiences, and earned a name for themselves. You need to give them a clear vision that this can be a genuine career. If you approach gaming with a serious plan rather than treating it as just a pastime, parents are much more likely to understand and support it.

Q: In India, gaming is split between PC/console setups and mobile phones, but entry to PC gaming is restricted due to cost. Mobile devices heavily dominate Indian esports. What is your take on this, and does Nebula participate in both platforms?

Aditya Dawar: Nebula Esports is currently focused strictly on mobile titles, specifically BGMI and Free Fire. In India, not everyone can afford a high-end PC setup because building a PC requires a significant financial investment. However, mobile gaming has a much lower barrier to entry, making it the dominant gaming platform in India. That's actually exactly how our own journey started: at OnePlus Campus Dominate last year. Players can put in their grind on a phone, start with a low investment, and launch their esports career in the mobile segment, the same way we did.

Q: Is Nebula planning to expand into PC gaming in the future?

Aditya Dawar: Definitely. As the name suggests, Nebula is a galaxy full of stars. We plan to fully expand into every area of esports, including PC gaming and every other competitive field.

Q: Beyond being a team, what do you plan to achieve with Nebula Esports for the larger gaming community?

Aditya Dawar: We want to build a complete esports ecosystem in India and become the best organisation in the country. Thousands of aspiring players ask how to enter esports and get opportunities.

Nebula aims to be that platform: giving new talent a stage, building a larger merged ecosystem, and bringing Indian esports the recognition it deserves on the global stage.

Q: If an undiscovered player performs exceptionally well in their local area and wants to join Nebula Esports, how do you assess and recruit them?

Aditya Dawar: Throughout my career, I have always worked with new players. I keep an eye on tournaments to spot players who show raw skill and talent, observing how they play. People often ask me where I find my players and how I turn them into stars.

My approach is to take raw talent and groom them into complete, top-tier professionals. That is exactly what we did during OnePlus Campus Dominate: we were just a college team with fundamentals but no real competitive stage experience.

Campus Dominate gave us that genuine competitive environment, including a taste of a proper, broadcast-quality stage at the Nodwin Gaming Arena, before we ever turned pro. Working with raw talent and giving it that platform is exactly how we got to where we are today.

Q: How can a new team establish itself in the current Indian competitive scene?

Aditya Dawar: Beyond specific tournaments like OnePlus Campus Dominate, there are also open-for-all tournaments where unrepresented teams can register, perform, and make a name for themselves. Campus Dominate itself is a genuinely good platform for visibility, since it gives college teams a professionally organised stage to compete on and get noticed.

For us, it was that starting point: it gave us exposure and a credible next step forward, which is often the biggest gap between talented amateur teams and pro-ready ones. If a college team like ours can go from campus champions to competing with India's best, there's no reason the next success story can't come from this year's Campus Dominate, which is expected to engage 100,000+ students and double the prize pool from last year.

Q: Having spent 7 years as a professional in the esports industry, what is your view on where the Indian gaming ecosystem is heading following recent legal definitions separating gaming from gambling?

Aditya Dawar: It is moving in the right direction. Growth is happening across the board. Indian teams are now competing on the world stage at international events like the Esports World Cup (EWC).

We are finally getting global exposure. Things are becoming properly structured without the internal politics that used to exist, and organisations are supporting each other to represent India globally.

Q: With esports entering events like the Asian Games, what do you think of the current situation in India?

Aditya Dawar: The ecosystem is still managed by private organisations that have existed since 2018. While there are officials working behind the scenes to support teams for events like the Asian Games, no formal government committee has been officially formed yet to govern esports.

Q: What has Nebula accomplished over its first official year?

Aditya Dawar: Back then, we had a team, but we lacked a platform to show our talent. OnePlus Campus Dominate brought college teams together from across India and provided us with a proper LAN stage atmosphere at the Nodwin Gaming Arena. Winning that tournament proved that we could compete on bigger stages. That victory gave us the momentum to push forward into BGCS. From BGCS, we qualified for BGMS: a massive milestone since only the top 4 teams qualified. BGMS allowed our roster of raw talent to compete directly against the best teams in India, providing essential exposure and setting us on an upward trajectory.