A bizarre comment!

Just after the on-line Test Match between South Africa on 8 August 2014, a gamer said to me, “We (I presume he meant SA) should not be sending teams overseas, we should only be spending all our money on teams in South Africa”.

I was flabbergasted!

Really!

How short sighted....

It is well known that the standard of play in South Africa already falls far behind the international norm, and yet here is a gamer actually advocating that South Africa remains in its own little puddle.

Yes, by all means, let us not test ourselves against international competition, let us only play amongst ourselves.

To do that, would be a travesty. South African teams would never, ever get any better and would only ever be able to measure themselves against other mediocre South African teams.

The MSSA, through the MWEB sponsorship, is able to, year-on-year, send teams overseas to help try and raise the standard.

Not only that, but the MSSA also helps teams to go overseas. For example, in 2013, had it not been for the help that the MSSA gave to Energy eSports, Energy eSports would not have attended the ESWC.

The biggest problem seems to be that South African gamers in general do not have a clue about the standard of play in top line competition.

It is very easy to tear down other people's efforts when sitting on the sidelines and trying to put yourself up as a community leader when in fact, you have no basis whatsoever to even claim that you are a community leader.

Yes the 2013 Protea Team for Dota 2 was ripped apart by Romania, and yes the 2014 Protea Team was beaten by Egypt, but in the absence of continued and active participation by South African teams on an international level, it is indeed difficult to say if any other South African team could have done any better.

The reason I say that is because the game changes in an international test match. There is a lot more pressure. You know everyone is watching, and waiting for a chance to criticize.

Just look at the 2013 Protea Team, 4 players were from Bvd, 1 from Energy, and a further 2 reserves from Energy as well. However, gamers immediately began to criticize the team by saying that they were not good enough.

So, for all those gamers who think that the MSSA should not be sending teams overseas, I put it to you that you are looking at the issue with only yourself in mind. You are not looking at the bigger picture of development, growing the community and international participation. You are only looking at it from a point of view of what you can get out out of it.....

Sad, very sad!