A RSL Story

Rushil Gupta

19 Feb 2024 • 6 min read

university

This story is of my journey through Ashoka's first Racquet Sports League (RSL) in January 2024.

It all started in November 2023. I meet Pranav Koka, a 3rd year CS Major in the CS Soc, the tennis team captain, and the sports Minister. He asks whether I'm good at making websites. "No, but I'd love to make one". "Okay, thanks," and then Koka walks away without giving me more context. A couple of weeks later, I meet Koka again in the second-floor mess. We talk about how we both enjoy racket sports. "Why did you leave squash? Why do you not play for the team?" I just ignore the questions since it's a topic I would rather not touch. "Anyways, we are hosting a Racket Sports League. Will you and Dhruman (my twin) make the website?". I said yes without even asking Dhruman.

...

I am back home for winter vacation, and Dhruman and I have completely forgotten about RSL. We are sitting side by side at the same table, playing Minecraft for the last 6 hours, trying to grind our stats up; Koka randomly calls us wanting to plan the website, and we agree that we will make the website's first version in 20 days (an arbitrary date we set without any logical reasoning).

Fast forward 15 days, and we have not started anything. We are still playing Minecraft, and now, we realize RSL is less than 3 weeks away, and we have fucked up. Somehow, in our remaining 5 days of the commitment, we scrambled and came up with a website that looked somewhat decent and, more importantly, did its job. By this time, we had returned to campus and were preparing for classes to start.

...

Koka calls me and tells me that only 11 teams have registered and 12 are needed. "Do you and your brother want to own a team?" "Dhruman, wanna own a Gupta bro team?" "Yes, Koka, we're in." It turns out that someone else wants to own a team, so the best we can do is co-own it with them. This is when I hear about 4 people: Arya, Saransh, Bhavya, and Nisanka. One of them asked if "Toofan Express" was a good name, and we all agreed.

...

"Do you all want to meet once?" "On campus Monday?" I finally see all of them. I am a bit intimidated since, at the end of the day, I am still a junior. But they all seem to be very fun and inclusive people. We decide Saransh will be our manager, and Saransh, being Saransh, pulls out an Excel sheet and starts to do magic.

Scouting starts, and we are frantically looking for good players. I was playing with squash players to judge their level. I meet Bhavya, and we talk for 30 minutes about the players we had shortlisted.

...

The day of the auctions has come, and Dhruman and I are now going to make sure the live Auction works on the website while ensuring we have a good team. I am not intimidated by my co-owners, but I am not exactly "friends" with them either. It turns out that Arya is one of the best tennis players on campus, and Nisanka was willing to buy him for any price. "52 Million sold to Toofan Express". We all were happy except for Arya, who was banging his head (he's too modest). We also end up buying many good players on our team, including Avisikta (the best TT player), Nisanka (also a co-owner), Harsh, Chitrakshi, and Sunil sir (Ashoka IT Head). We are all very confident now; we have one of the best teams on paper.

We decide to go for a Dhaba dinner, and this is the first time I have had a proper conversation with all of them (I can now finally call them my friends). It turns out that the 3 second years (Arya, Nisanka, and Saransh) are best friends.

...

Two days before the first match, I was teaching Squash to 2 of my team players (they were both Badminton players). That is when I met Ravi Dixit (a legendary Squash player), and I almost freaked out before him. Anurag, the squash team captain, watches me play and asks if I want to play a match with a team member, Aryaman. I knew Aryaman since he was in the same squash academy as me, but he never knew me since he was 2-3 years older than me. I somehow managed to beat him and was offered the 3rd position spot in the Squash team, which I decided to take up.

...

The matches start. The first match is TT. We know we will win; we have some of the best players on our team. However, the opponent team "Pineapple Express" has a different plan. They are trying to intimidate Avisikta by hooting loudly in the small TT room. But they have forgotten we have Saransh, a literal loudspeaker.

We have won all the TT matches, but things are going terribly off-plan. Our main squash player cannot be there for the most important match, and our badminton player is injured. We lose to Pineapple Express 8-5.

...

We are all now good friends and eat together almost daily. After all, Toofan Express had the most active owners, meaning we would spend most of our days together for RSL. I have made different dynamics with everyone. Arya and I are racket sports fans, and we can talk about them for as long as we want. Saransh is the cute and sweet guy in the group. Nisanka is also a very chill guy, and we bond by saying shit to each other. Bhavya and I have been eating snacks and dinner daily together, and he is the happiest person I've met till now. Overall, even though it has been about 10 days, we have made good friendships with each other and somehow skipped the long, awkward phase (the magic of sports).

...

Day 3, and we have a match with "Asawapur Racketeers". We were supposed to win 8-5, but our Badminton player is still injured, so we are now losing 6-4. We have 3 matches left, all in tennis. They would single-handedly decide if we qualify, and we are all nervous. We knew we would win the doubles and one of the singles matches. So it all came down to one match: our female tennis player and their female tennis player.

Both teams enter the tennis court at 9 PM. "Saima (our tennis player) has a knee injury she learned about 2 days ago." "Anika (the opponent) is the tennis team's number 2." Our heart rate is automatically 20 beats higher in an instant.

The match starts. We are cheering as loud as we can at every single point. Saima won the first set when Anika served - a great confidence booster. As time progresses, we are becoming more involved in the match. Because of our cheering, people near food outlets and passersby are also engaged in the match. Some have also chosen sides.

It is now 4-4, the deciding set begins. It is 7 points to win. If we win this set, we qualify. If we lose, we are out of the tournament. Each point is met with a loud cheer from our side. Saima is now 6-0 up. It has all come down to one last point. Koka, who is Arya's opponent (if we win this match), has started to warm up. Tensions have never been higher. Saima loses a point, 6-1. We are still very confident and cheer her. Before we realize it, it's 6-6. There is no duece; the winner of this point takes it all.

"It's fine, you played really well. It couldn't have been closer!" Everyone on the court is consoling Saima. We lost, but none of us had any regrets. Our team arguably had the most fun; we all gained something: friends, memories, and intense matches.

...

I think I was the luckiest. I was just meant to be a website developer. But instead, I ended up making a lot of fun memories and made a lot of friends. But RSL gave me one more gift. Since the first semester, I had been conflicted about ever wanting to play Squash again; after all, I had a rough and traumatic exit in grade 11. Without RSL, I would never be able to play a team player, and I would've never decided to be on the team.

Many people tell me I wasted time and effort that it was not worth it. But I never really care about it. What do you think?

The Toofan Express Owners (from left to right): Dhruman, Nisanka, Arya, Saransh, Bhavya, and Me.

Note: This is a new style of writing I have tried. I was inspired from by my Math professor, Gaurav Bhatnagar (A Linear algebra story.)