What is development?

Johan van Breda, who represented South Africa in IESF's World Championships - Jakarta, now in charge of development.

Much is written about development.

Many feel that development is only about activating growth at grass-root level, but,  in truth, development is so much more than that.

Development affects every single  aspect within Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA), whether it be administration, athletes, technical officials, coaches, etc.

The most visible signs of development, generally, is in the growth of numbers of athletes participating in events, however unless there is a concomitant improvement in the standard of play, such growth in numbers is worthless.

The standard of play in MSSA has definitely improved over the years. This subjective is not a view, bur one based on an  objective analysis of results. The rankings maintained by MSSA provide the yard-stick by which MSSA can analyse the performance of its esports athletes in local competitions.

In order to judge MSSA's performance in international competition, one only has to read the results achieved by MSSA's official Protea Esports Teams at IESF's World Championships. Even though it may seem as though South Africa is stuck at being ranked between the 10th to the 14th mark, it should be remembered that every year, there are more and more national federations competing. As the list of members grows, the competition becomes more intense, and more-and-more effort is required to maintain SA's current ranking.

However, in order for esports to further progress in South Africa, greater efforts in the field of development are required.

With Johan van Breda, who represented South Africa in IESF's World Championships - Jakarta, being in charge of MSSA's development programmes, much is expected.

It is going to be a good year!