MWEB and ROCCAT sponsor South African team

So the MSSA has finally announced its team for the the 2013 IeSF World Championships to be held in Bucharest, Romania.

I see that this year the MSSA has MWEB and ROCCAT sponsoring the team.

That is good!

At last companies are beginning to see where the real development of gaming happens and are not just funding individuals and clans who want to make a 'fast buck' out of computer gaming.

Gaming is not going to provide many paying jobs in South Africa until there is real development among who is gaming in South Africa.

Until there is a solid base of gamers who are prepared to pay for championship experience, there will not be any true professionals.

It is like South African footballers complaining about how little they get paid, when the spectators refuse to pay more than R50.00 to watch a game.

Of course our players will never get paid the same if there is no base.

Instead the South African gaming scene has a lot of people leeching onto it expecting to be paid for blogs, paid for running championships, and paid for playing.

Look at how long it has taken basketball to set up a professional league in South Africa. It was only done because the Minister of Sport (Fikile Mbabula) made it happen.

And that is why government involvement in sport is important.

But more than that, I believe that no company should even consider sponsoring any body that is not affiliated to the national body. The reason is simple – there is no return if you do.

MWEB and ROCCAT are making things happen for gamers. MWEB and ROCCAT are helping to get gamers overseas and improve the standard.

For those interested, the MSSA put up the following on their facebook site:

“Although this is the fifth IeSF World championships that South Africa shall be attending, the support given by MWEB and ROCCAT has ensured the South African participation at the 2013 IeSF World Championships which is to be held in Bucharest, Romania. The team that will be representing South Africa at the 2013 IeSF World championships will be the largest eSports team that has ever departed from South Africa to play at a IeSF event.

The MSSA, MWEB, and ROCCAT are all in concord about the outcomes for the team. Although this is the first foray ever for a South African "League of Legends" team to foreign shores, everybody expects the team to handle themselves well and to be a credit to South Africa. The lessons that the young "League of Legends" team will learn in the Championships will prove to be invaluable, not only to themselves, but to all the League of Legends gamers in South Africa as well as to future South African teams.

However, it is in the women that will be going overseas to play "StarCraft II" and "Tekken Tag Tournament II" that the administrators put their greatest faith.

In 2012, Gabriela Isaacs finished in second place in StarCraft II and Lyrene Kűhn finished in fourth place in Tekken Tag Tournament II. This year has seen a slight change to the team where Yolandi Williams has powered herself into the team to represent South Africa in starCraft II. Yolandi dominated all the StarCraft II championships in which she played. Lyrene Kűhn, however, successfully maintained her position as the dominant force in Tekken Tag Tournament II in south Africa in order to better her 2012 result.

The team will be issued with its new kit showing both the sponsorship of MWEB and ROCCAT at the award ceremony on Wednesday before embarking on their wonderful adventure.

The full team is:

League of Legends

Name of Player........................Club

Conradie van Heerden.............ROCCAT
Myburg Brink...........................ROCCAT
Willem Strȍfeldt.......................2up Gamers
Kyle Rhoodie...........................2up Gamers
Marco Botha...........................2up Gamers

StarCraft II

Name of Player.......................Club

Yolandi Williams.......................Deviation Gaming

Tekken Tag Tournament II

Name of Player.......................Club

Lyrene Kühn..........................Knights Mind Sports Club

Due to Lyrene's experience with the 2012 South African Protea Team, and dealing with the many issues that arose, Lyrene has also been appointed as the captain of the team. This is the first time that a woman has been appointed as the captain of a South African eSports Team.
Lyrene is confident that the additional duties will not affect her standard of play.”

I along with all South Africans wish the team the best of luck.

All photographs used come off the MSSA facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/mindsportssa