Road to Kaohsuing: MSSA announces the Protea Esports Team.

Road to Kaohsuing - 49 days to go...

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is proud to announce South Africa's official Protea Esports team which shall participate in IESF's 10th World Championships - Kaohsuing to be held from 6 to 13 November 2018.

Mind Sports South Africa has earned a reputation of being a federation totally committed to its members and athletes alike.

Through MSSA's efforts esports in South Africa has grown from being a mere activity to being a fully-fledged-accredited-sport for which players may earn Regional, Provincial, National Federation, and/or Protea Colours.

Thus, MSSA has gone through the process of selecting a national team for the 9th World Championships.

The process includes holding Regional, Provincial, and National Championships which feed  into the annual National Team Trials. It is from those that participate at the National Team Trials that the National Squad is selected, and then from those in the National Squad, various Protea Teams are selected to play in various events.

IESF's 2018 World Championships is being hosted in Chinese Taipei, and it is off to Kaohhsuing City that our brave and merry band will journey to once again do battle against the rest of the world.

The game titles in which South Africa's Protea Esports Team will compete are League of Legends®, CounterStrike: GO®, and Tekken 7®.

Alasdair Donaldson

MSSA is proud to have Alasdair Donaldson represent South Africa for Tekken 7®. Alasdair has showed his loyalty, dedication, and skill over many years having won many of the official provincial championships around the country. Alasdair too, has proven himself to be a very tough competitor and distiguished himself in IESF's 9th World Championships held in Busan. MSSA is quite confident that Alasdair will deliver solid results in Kaohsuing.

MSSA is particularly proud of its League of Legends® (LoL) Team. Without doubt, the League of Legends®  being fielded this year by South Africa combines the best of South Africa's two finest teams. The members of the team are all well known in South African competitive circles, and the members of the team have all dominated most of the events in which they have participated. 

Donovan de Klerk

With many of the members having obtained experience in online test matches as well as at IESF's 9th World Championships, there is great confidence in the team selected.  However, it is the team captain that often seals the fate of the team. MSSA believes that it has found the best possible team captain for the Protea Esports League of Legends® Team in the person of Donovan de Klerk. Donovan has proved himself to be a strong team captain being able to marshal, inspire, lead and  maintain the integrity of his teams, and it is hoped that such skills shall be used with equal effect in South Africa's Protea Esports League of Legends® Team.

MSSA is thus extremely confident in the abilities of the team to not only play well, but to also win the hearts, minds and souls of all those present at IESF's 2018 World championships.

Marisa van der Westhuizen

Although the esports title of CounterStrike: GO® was only introduced by IESF to into World Championships in 2016, Mind Sports South Africa has promoted such esports title in all Provincial and National championships since the game was published. 

Thus, MSSA jumped at the opportunity to enter its national team in 2016, and on the back of the experience learned at IeSF's 2016 World Championships - Jakarta, and IESF's 2017 World Championships - Busan, MSSA has again entered a team to contest the CounterStrike: GO® title.

The team is indeed 'battle-hardened' and will have to do battle against very tough competition. Nevertheless, MSSA is convinced that the team will do its best under the astute leadership of Marisa van der Westhuizen who is captaining South Africa's Protea Counter-Strike: GO® Esports Team.

It should be noted that Marisa will make history at such IESF's 10th World Championships - Kaohsuing as she will be the first ever female team captain of a CounterStrike:GO team at World Championship level. Marisa follows in the footsteps of Maryke Kennard who blazed the way in 2015. Marisa is consolidating on, and is building on, such gains to create greater equality for females in esports. 

The full team is as follows:

Title	Name	Club
CounterStrike: GO	Marisa "Faith" van der Westhuizen (Captain)	ZAG Academy
	Nicole "Nexxy" Rootman	ZAG Academy
	Alora Ann "Saphira" Liebenberg	ZAG Academy
	Lelane "Lilly" Soldin	ZAG Academy
	Leander "Chappy" van Schalkwyk	Taccor Gaming
League of Legends	Donovan "MoreGank Freeman" De Klerk (Captain)	Good Gaming
	Stephen "MrKnott" Pretorius	Good Gaming
	Brett "Clax" Whitehead	VexxedPhoenix
	Kyle "youNique" Taylor	VexxedPhoenix
	Maalik "YoloPete" Rawoot	VexxedPhoenix
Tekken 7	Alasdair Donaldson	VexxedPhoenix
Manager	Johan van Breda	ZAG Academy

Johan van Breda

The Team Manager, Johan van Breda, first served South Africa as a player in IESF's 2016 World Championships - Jakarta, been elected to the lofty position of Vice-President in 2017, and was selected to be Team Manager by MSSA's Management Committee in 2018. 

The Protea Esports Team has always finished in the top half at every IESF World Championships in which it has competed. 

Johan is determined to lead the Protea Esports Team into the top ten - a position to which South Africa has not risen since 2013.

It is MSSA's opinion that South Africa's Protea Esports Team finds itself in no better hands, and MSSA's President, Amanda Pakade, is confident that Johan shall deliver.

The Protea eSports Team shall officially be awarded their colours at the official award ceremony that shall be done just pri or to departure.

South Africa's past results are as follows:

Year	Venue	Position
2017	Busan –  South Korea	12th
2016	Jakarta –  Indonesia	14th
2015	Seoul –  South Korea	12th
2014	Baku –  Azerbaijan	13th
2013	Bucharest –  Romania	10th
2012	Cheonan –  South Korea	18th
2011	Andong –  South Korea	13th