Monday 31 October 2022

Reminder - Nominations for MSSA positions

 

According to MSSA President, Colin Webster, MSSA's constitution allows for greater upward mobility than any other South African National Federation.

Only Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) runs accredited, and official, regional, provincial, and national championships and leagues.

Serving on Mind Sports South Africa's Management Board is not for the faint-hearted as there are many tough, and some unpopular, decisions to be made on a continuous basis.

It is during these times when Board members have to stand up and be counted, times when you know that it is the right decision, albeit not a popular one. It all comes down to ethics.

Even bearing all the above in mind, the work is done gleefully by a core of volunteers who seek no reward other than seeing the various disciplines and games grow, and watch the athletes attain their full potential.

Every club may nominate athletes for the Board, and since retiring officers are not automatically made eligible for re-election, even retiring officers need to be nominated by a member club in good standing, if the following criteria are met:
  • A member club has nominated the Registered Player on the prescribed form, and
  • The Nomination Form and Letter of Undertaking has been submitted to MSSA on or before 1 November 2022, and
  • The Registered Player is fully-paid-up for the 2022/2023 year as at the date of nomination, and
  • The club nominating the Registered Player has paid its affiliation fees for the 2022/2023 season on or before 1 November 2022.
However it should be noted that only athletes who meet the following criteria may be elected on to the Management Board:
  1. Have served a full term on the Management Board, or
  2. Have served a full term as Provincial Director (2 year terms), or
  3. Have served two full terms as Regional Director (1 year term), or
  4. Have served two full terms on a Board of Control (1 year term), or
  5. Have earned at least ten (10) Protea caps, or
  6. Have served three years on the club committee of which they are currently a member.
All elections are done on a staggered basis, so, although the Management Board consists of 18 members, only 6 positions may be contested at the 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM). The system of doing the elections on a staggered basis allows MSSA to have a greater degree of stability as the entire Management Board is not able to be elected at any one time which preserves MSSA's continuity and knowledge base.

The positions available on MSSA's Management Board are all 3 year terms and are:
  1. Two Executive Officer
  2. Disabled Gamers' Representative
  3. Legal Advisor (only a qualified lawyer may hold this position)
  4. Students' Representative (only a student registered at a SA Tertiary institution may hold this position)
  5. Computer Gaming Representative

Additional reading:

Sunday 30 October 2022

South Africa eclipsed by Algeria

Suhail Khan, MSSA DotA 2 Team Captain, inspired his team to give their all during the gruelling match against Algeria.

Mind Sports South Africa's Team Esports South Africa's victory over Namibia put South Africa through to the finals of  IESF's African Regional Championships held on 29 October 2022.

Team Esports South Africa faced off against Algeria in the final round to see which country would  win the spot for the DotA 2 esports title at IESF's 14th World Championships to be held in Bali.

Algeria proved to be a very differet team compared to Namibia, and the South African DotA 2 Team under the able leadership of  Suhail Khan gave it their all. Team Esports South africa played harder than they had ever played before and fought over every point with true spirit.

Nevertheless, the Algerian onslaught proved to be to strong, and Algeria eclipsed Team Esports South Africa to win 3 - 0.

While obviously disappointed, Team Captain, Suhail Khan stated, " the Algerian team is a remarkable team, their timing was perfect, and they proved to be the better team." Suhail went on to say, " Team Esports South Africa salutes Team Algeria and wishes them all the best for IESF's 14th World Championships to be held in Bali."

MSSA's official Protea DotA 2 Team is:

Esports titleName of playerInstitution of higher learningClub
DotA
Christian UysUniversity of Stellenbosch-MATIESZAG Academy
Lennard KoekemoerUniversity of Pretoria (TUKS)ZAG Academy
Nathan BeckUniversity of Pretoria (TUKS)ZAG Academy
Suhail KhanUniversity of Pretoria (TUKS)ZAG Academy
Tameer ChicktaySWPS UniwersytetZAG Academy

Additional reading:

Saturday 29 October 2022

South Africa demolishes Namibia in DotA 2

MSSA's Team Esports South Africa for the DotA 2 title.

With IESF's African Regional Championships having been plagued with issues, the actual off-line event to have been held in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) from 28 to 30 October 2022 having to be cancelled, IESF has had to fall back to holding the event online.

This of course poses many problems due to the size of Africa, which is depicted incorrectly on all standard world maps, the poor infrastructure, the high latency, and the dearth of servers in South Africa.

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) had initially entered its Counter-Strike: GO team and Tekken 7 player directly into International Esports Federation's 14th World Championships to be held in Bali later this year.

This means that the other teams entered by MSSA being, PUBGM, DotA 2, and Mobile Legends Bang Bang, had to qualify for Bali through IESF's online African Regional Championships.

The match between South Africa and Namibia saw South Africa take control of both games from the very beginning. At no stage did the Protea team let up and Namibia struggled to inflict any real damage on South Africa.

The South African victory against Namibia saw South Africa move through to the finals to battle against Algeria for a spot at IESF's 14th World Championships to be held in Bali.

MSSA's official Protea DotA 2 Team is:

Esports titleName of playerInstitution of higher learningClub
DotA
Christian UysUniversity of Stellenbosch-MATIESZAG Academy
Lennard KoekemoerUniversity of Pretoria (TUKS)ZAG Academy
Nathan BeckUniversity of Pretoria (TUKS)ZAG Academy
Suhail KhanUniversity of Pretoria (TUKS)ZAG Academy
Tameer ChicktaySWPS UniwersytetZAG Academy

Colin Webster, MSSA President, enthused about the team saying, "South africa's team under the expert leadership of Suhail Khan is arguably the best DotA 2 team ever fielded by South Africa in an IESF event."

Webster went on to say, "MSSA is very proud of its team, and wishes it all the very best against Algeria".

Additional reading:

Monday 10 October 2022

National Team Manager needed for Malawi.


Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) has been invited to participate in the Southern Africa Region Esports Championships 2022 (SAREC 2022) which shall be held in Lilongwe, Malawi on December 3rd and 4th , 2022.

SAREC 2022 is a joint project of the GEF's Africa Esports Development Federation (AEDF) and the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 and it will be a demonstration showpiece alongside of the AUSC Region 5 Youth Games.

With the event being held at the same time as IESF's 14th World esports Championships, National Team Manager, Johan van Breda, will not be able to accompany the team to Malawi.

Thus MSSA shall select a National Team Manager specifically for this event, and all Registered Players that meet the following criteria may apply:

  • Current or past members of the Management Board.
  • Have held office for at least three years in an administrative or technical capacity for MSSA. This includes all Registered Players who have actively served as umpires and as Regional and Provincial Directors.
  • Have already served as a National Team Manager.
  • Have earned Protea Colours and who is of majority. This allows a huge number of past Protea Team Members to stand for the position who have earned Protea Colours in the past, as well as those who currently hold such colours.
Since MSSA's Constitution states that the National Team Manager (NTM) must be a Registered Player, it means that only fully-paid-up Registered Players may apply for the position. Thus, it would not even stop a player who is no longer fully-paid-up from quickly paying up and applying for the position. 

The position includes all flight and hotel costs and the delegate shall be expected to meet African Union delegates and attend the conference as well as manage the team.

All Registered Players interested in applying for the position must submit the following to mindsportscorrespondence@gmail.com by no later than 18H00 on 11 October 2022:

Additional reading: