Founded by ex-Nodwin Gaming employee Akash Dhangar in October 2021 with Aditya Raj joining as the co-founder in April 2022, AA Gaming provides end-to-end event solutions for brands and companies looking to host esports tournaments.
The company’s list of services includes software development, event production, content creation, talent management, media networking, and more – everything a brand would need to organize an event.
The company is currently bootstrapped and their success has enabled them to quickly grow the team to 12 people, with AA Gaming actively hiring more. The company has an office in Pune but has served clients across South Asia which includes Sportskeeda Nodwin Gaming, Skyesports, and India Today Gaming.
Akash Dhangar, Founder, CEO, and Managing Director of AA Gaming spoke about his decision to start the company, “I have been working in the esports business for over three years now, and one problem that I witnessed was the low quality of third-party tournaments and the dearth of offline events in South Asia, even before the pandemic began. AA Gaming was founded to give a solution to brands in order for them to provide the broadcast quality which esports fans expect. Our goal is to reach out to the country’s grassroots and give an esports platform for underdogs.”
“AA Gaming, with our extensive experience of offline events, has helped break the monopoly in this field by giving brands choices if they want to execute a LAN tournament,” he added.
AA Gaming also has its home-developed software for production which automates much of the process. Clients can avail their services to get access to this unique software.
Aditya Raj, co-founder, and COO of AA Gaming said, “With our well-experienced team, AA Gaming has executed more than 10 events in the past year. Going forward, we aren’t just restricting ourselves to gaming and esports but also providing services to organize conferences, sports events, entertainment events, news, and shows.”
AA Gaming is currently exploring opportunities for a fundraiser to expand further into the worldwide esports industry while continuing to provide white-label and third-party solutions and create exclusive IPs.
We Had A Quick Chat With AA Gaming Founders, you can read the full interview below.
How did AA Gaming come to be? When and what made you form AA Gaming?
Akash: We have been working in production as freelancers and at different companies for a few years now and one thing we observed were the flaws in production by third-party TOs and the need for better quality of broadcasts for the esports audience.
This is what made us form the initial idea of AA Gaming way back in 2018. Our goal was to create a one-stop destination for high-quality esports production and to make esports more accessible to brands. These plans were put on hold, however, due to a lack of funds but I returned to later to found AA Gaming in October 2021.
Aditya: Yes, as Akash said, our goal was to create a place where brands with no prior experience in esports production can just come to organize events. Our end-to-end event solutions services which include production, content creation, talent management, and more, have made us exactly that.
What has AA Gaming championed according to you? What is that aspect which sets you apart from other established competitors?
Akash: Well, the first thing is that there aren’t many companies which can offer the end-to-end services we do. On top of this, me, Aditya, and most of our employees come from a technical background which we have found is something that lacks in our competitors. We find ways to integrate this background in tech into production to enhance our quality further.
My technical background has enabled me to create a unique software which we use in production. This software is what really sets AA Gaming apart as it automates a lot of the production process and is useful in graphics for esports broadcasts.
Aditya: I have a background in electronical engineering and years of production experience so I have a deep know-how on hardware. This also helps execute LAN events smoothly like the AMD Skyesports Souvenir.
You served at Nodwin for a long time. How has the experience at Nodwin helped with running AA Gaming?
Akash: Nodwin Gaming is one of the biggest esports companies in the reigon and my time there has taught me a lot of things. They have been organizing esports events for a long time now and working for them on these helped me develop a much deeper understanding of esports production. My time there has been very helpful in running the technical side of AA Gaming.
Aditya: Besides this, the time at Nodwin also taught us how to handle stress, and gave us experience of working in a fast-paced environment, and overall polished us as individuals. These have been vital to what we have been doing at AA Gaming.
You must have faced a lot of challenges during the formation and early initiation of AA Gaming. What was the one event that really tested you and your team?
Akash: In terms of online events, it was the Gillette 7Sea Invitational which we executed earlier this year. It was challenging because just before the event we recreated and updated our software and also restructured the entire production flow. The team took a bit of time to get familiar with this but we were able to conduct the event without any mishaps. The toughest event, though, had to be the Skyesports Souvenir LAN we executed. I will let Aditya explain why that is.
Aditya: Yes definitely, the Skyesports Souvenir was our first LAN event in around three years, and the first offline event for AA Gaming. For many of our staff, this was the first LAN event they executed. This is what made it extremely challenging. We took it one step at a time and were able to conduct the event smoothly in Mumbai.
We did run into some problems on the first day but these were fixed within 40 minutes and the rest of the event happened flawlessly. I can say that I am proud of the team for how we managed to pull it off. The Skyesports Souvenir has set us up to continue hosting more LAN events in the future which we expect to be doing more often with the COVID-19 situation improving.
How does the future look like for AA Gaming? What’s next?
Answer – For now, we will be continuing to provide whitelabel and third-party solutions to tournament organizers and brands. We have grown rapidly in the past few months and to fuel this even further, we are looking to raise some funds soon. We are also building a new office and are hiring aggressively across all roles.
Aditya: Other than this, we are also thinking of not just limiting ourselves to esports and gaming. We have the capability to organize any offline or online event and we will be expanding our services to any client looking to do an event in whichever field. This includes executing conferences, sports events, entertainment events, news, shows, and more. The future looks very promising.