Team Vitality Forms Free Fire Mobile Roster

Team Vitality unveiled an India-based Free Fire roster for the 2022 season on Monday, February 14. The news surfaced just a couple of hours before reports emerged suggesting the country is blocking access to the game.

Team Vitality formed a Free Fire roster, consisting of three Nepali and two Indian players, who were supposed to operate out of Mumbai, India. The roster was set to represent the European esports organization’s banner in the Free Fire India Championship 2022 Spring, a Free Fire tournament with a prize pool of Rs. 1,00,00,000 ($132,432).

As revealed, Team Vitality Free Fire roster will consist of Mehul “MEJUSTMEHUL” Rawat, Dipu Subba, Sanjog “Aizen” Thapa, and Sangam Kunwar. The quartet will be led by former ESports Premier League 2021 and Free Fire Tri Series 2021champion Idranil “FABINDRO” Saha, who joins as the head coach.

“Indranil has done a great job in scouting for and cherry-picking this roster. We trust his decisions fully and are happy that the team is bonding and grinding hard at our Training Facility for the upcoming FFIC,” said Vitality India’s Managing Director Randall Fernandez.

“We are very excited to see them achieve great feats in Free Fire.”

This marks Vitality’s first entry into the Free Fire esports scene, expanding its presence in the esports world. However, things might not work out as Vitality intended.

Shortly after Team Vitality revealed its Free Fire roster, it was reported that the Indian government is looking to ban Free Fire, which would completely shut down Vitality’s new project.

The announcement of Vitality’s Free Fire roster surfaced this morning, just a few hours before the Indian government banned the battle royale game. As it stands now, it’s still unclear why India would ban Free Fire; however, it was said that the government believes it poses a “threat to national security.”

This wouldn’t be the first time a country would block an application for the same reasons. Since mid-2022, India has banned over 200 apps, including Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG Mobile, due to privacy concerns.

The game developer, Garena, has yet to respond to the news, but it’s interesting to see India wanting to ban a game that has become hugely popular in the country. In fact, India was one of the largest regions for the battle royale game, so a ban would be a huge blow to Garena, who would lose most of its player base.

The Indian government’s decision to block the game also comes at a weird time, with many huge Free Fire tournaments scheduled to take place across 2022. Most notably, Garena recently revealed a roadmap for Free Fire esports in India, unveiling four major events for each quarter and a prize pool of over $357,100.

Furthermore, the game developer planned to launch many smaller tournaments for Free Fire community throughout the year. But it seems like Garena’s intentions to help the growth of the game in the country was in vain.

If Free Fire gets blocked in India, it will put Team Vitality in an unenviable spot. The situation which saw the French esports organization sign its inaugural Indian Free Fire roster just hours before the game got banned in the country is quite comedic and tragic at the same time. However, there’s more to the story.

Team Vitality announced in January its intention to form another mobile battle royale roster in India. As revealed, Vitality was nearing a signing of an Indian Ballegournds Movile India (BGMI) squad; however, as it may seem, they would have to step away from the plans.

Still, Vitality already made the first step towards forming a BGMI roster by signing Pratik “Aurum” Mehra as the inaugural member and coach of the team. But as it seems, he might remain as the first and only member of Vitality’s BGMI squad.