Wednesday 23 October 2024

Nominations required by midnight,1 November 2024 for MSSA's Management Board Awards.

Anneke Lourens Luies was MSSA's Mind Sports Person of the Year for 2023. Who will it be in 2024?

Mind Sports South Africa's Management Board Awards are the longest running awards for gaming in South Africa. The awards take into account all the various disciplines being, board gaming, card gaming, esports, and wargaming.

It could even be argued that such awards are the longest running awards for rewarding such athletes in the world having started in 2009. Whereas the long running awards (like BAFTA) acknowledge the games themselves, MSSA's Management Board Awards acknowledge the contribution made by the very gamers/athletes themselves. 

MSSA's Management Board Awards were initiated in 2009 to reward excellence not specifically provided for in MSSA's Constitution.

When reading through the names of those previously honored, the reader is quickly reminded of MSSA's rich history. The names are not just names, these are the men and women who have made an incredible contribution to the various mind sports in South Africa and even beyond South Africa's borders.

The awards are now more representative of MSSA's membership, of the work being done, and of society as a whole.

It should be noted by the reader that the categories for Writer of the Year, Social Media Person of the Year, and Sponsor of the Year are open categories and apply to anyone that has given their 'all' to the development of boardgames, card games, esports, and wargames as a sport.

The awards now take into account the following categories:
  • Mind Sports Person of the Year
  • Board Gamer of the Year
  • Esports Player of the Year
  • Wargamer of the Year
  • Team of the Year
  • Volunteer of the Year
  • Umpire of the Year
  • Coach of the Year
  • Educator of the Year
  • Writer of the Year
  • Social Media Person of the Year
  • Sponsor of the Year
MSSA's Management Board requests all members to make submissions by midnight 1 November 2024.

The names of previous winners may be seen on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Sports_South_Africa#Management_Board_Awards

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Nominations are needed for 2024 AGM.

Colin Webster is the current MSSA president, and past IESF president. Only when there is an active committee are the rights of all athletes protected.

Mind Sports South Africa's elections are fast approaching. MSSA is the only South African national federation that allows an athlete to be elected onto its Board as well as allowing a fast, and direct, path for administrators while cutting out 'dead-men's shoes'.

All elections are done on a staggered basis. 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.

An interesting aspect of the 2024 Annual General Meeting is that there are 5 positions that are available for election on the Executive and Management Board. Where positions are vacant, the newly elected Board will co-opt Registered Players to the position. A co-opted Registered Player only serves out one year in the position in which he/she is co-opted and resigns prior to the General Meeting.

As everyone already knows, the MSSA is a democratic organisation, where only decisions of the committee that are enforced, and never the will of any one individual.

All athletes are reminded that only affiliated clubs may nominate players who are registered and fully-paid-up for positions on any of the committee.
  • A member club nominates the Registered Player on the prescribed form, and
  • The Nomination Form has been submitted to MSSA on or before 1 November 2024, and
  • The Registered Player is fully-paid-up for the 2024/2025 year as at the date of nomination, and
  • The club nominating the Registered Player has paid its affiliation fees for the 2024/2025 season on or before 1 November 2025.
However it should be noted that only persons 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, or
  3. Have served two full terms as Regional Director, or
  4. Have served two full terms on a Board of Control, 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.
  7. Be resident in South Africa for at least 186 days of the Calendar Year. Should such terms of residency not be met, such Elected Member shall be automatically removed and such position be declared vacant, and
  8. Only persons who have completed a full term on the Management Board may stand for the position of President.
The positions up for election are (3 year terms):
  1. President
  2. One Executive Officers
  3. Women's Desk
  4. Card-Gaming Representative
  5. National School's Director (This position must be held by an Educator)
The following Provincial Directorships are also available (2 year terms):
  1. Eastern Cape
  2. Free State
  3. Gauteng
  4. KwaZulu Natal
  5. Limpopo
  6. Mpumalanga
  7. Northern Cape
  8. North West
  9. Western Cape
All the following 56 Regional Directorships are also available for election (1 year term).

Thus the 2024 elections will be more than interesting.

There is no doubt that the committee has worked well over the past number of years, and it will indeed be interesting to again see democracy at work.

A breakdown of the positions on the Executive Committee and Management Board are as follows:

ELECTION OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
PRESIDENT:To be elected in 2024 - Incumbent Colin Webster (Old Edwardian Mind Sports Club)
VICE PRESIDENTTo be elected in 2026- Incumbent Johan Van Breda (ZAG Academy)
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS (4 out of 5 available positions)1 x to be elected in 2024
2 x to be elected in 2025
2 x to be elected in 2026 - 1 incumbent Letladi Lekolwane (Tuks Esports)
GENERAL SECRETARYTo be elected in 2025
ELECTION OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD
WOMENS’ DESK:To be elected in 2024
BOARD-GAMING REPRESENTATIVE:To be elected in 2025
CARD-GAMING REPRESENTATIVE:To be elected in 2024
COMPUTER:-GAMING REPRESSENTATIVE:To be elected in 2026 - Incumbent Simon Zandstra (ZAG Academy)
FIGURE-GAMING REPRESENTATIVE:To be elected in 2026 - Incumbent Terence Allwright (Old Edwardian Mind Sports Club)
NATIONAL SCHOOLS DIRECTOR:To be elected in 2024
LEGAL ADVISORTo be elected in 2025
PLAYERS’ REPRESENTATIVETo be elected in 2026 - Incumbent Armand van der Colf (TuksEsports)
STUDENTS REPRESENTATIVETo be elected in 2026 - Incumbent Saudah Baimia (Knights Mind Sports Club)
DISABLED GAMER'S REPRESENTATIVETo be elected in 2026- Incumbent Sjoert Zandstra (ZAG Academy)

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R910,735,00 to be won!


 On Sunday, 20 October 2024, Mind Sports South Africa's (MSSA) Protea Student DoTA 2v Esports Team departed for the Open Esports Student Games 2024 to be hosted by the Russian Esports Federation (ReSF) to be played in Sochi, Russia from 23 to 25 October 2024.

The prize money is a staggering Roubles 5,000,000.00 to be split as follows:

1st place - 40%
2nd place - 25%
3rd place - 15%
4th place - 10%
5-8th places - 2,5%

Only teams with athletes between the ages of 16 to 24 may compete.

On the arrival of the Protea Team on 21 October 2024 the team was met by volunteers and escorted to  the hotel.

A media day was then held on 22 October 2024, where the media interviewed the teams in all their livery.

The draw was also held on 22 October 2024, an d the games started today on 23 October 2024. The draw is as follows:

Times are subject to change;

Group A

11:00 - Cuba VS Kyrgyzstan
11:00 - Algeria VS Kazakhstan
11:00 - Nepal VS RSA
11:00 - Argentina VS Iran
12:00 - Argentina VS Kyrgyzstan
12:00 - Iran VS Kazakhstan
12:00 - Cuba VS RSA
12:00 - Algeria VS Nepal
13:00 - Argentina VS Kazakhstan
13:00 - Kyrgyzstan VS RSA
13:00 - Iran VS Nepal
13:00 - Cuba VS Algeria
14:00 - Kyrgyzstan VS Algeria
14:00 - Iran VS Cuba
14:00 - Kazakhstan VS Nepal
14:00 - Argentina VS RSA
15:00 - Argentina VS Nepal
15:00 - RSA VS Algeria
15:00 - Kazakhstan VS Cuba
15:00 - Kyrgyzstan VS Iran
16:00 - Argentina VS Algeria
6:00 - Nepal VS Cuba
16:00 - RSA VS Iran
16:00 - Kazakhstan VS Kyrgyzstan
17:00 - Argentina VS Cuba
17:00 -  Algeria VS Iran
17:00 - Nepal VS Kyrgyzstan
17:00 - RSA VS Kazakhstan

Group B

11:00 - Serbia VS Belarus
11:00 - India VS Mongolia
11:00 - Bangladesh VS Vietnam
11:00 - Colombia VS Russia
12:00 - Colombia VS Belarus
12:00 - Russia VS Mongolia
12:00 - Serbia VS Vietnam
12:00 - India VS Bangladesh
13:00 - Colombia VS Mongolia
13:00 - Belarus VS Vietnam
13:00 - Russia VS Bangladesh
13:00 - Serbia VS India
14:00 - Belarus VS India
14:00 - Russia VS Serbia
14:00 - Mongolia VS Bangladesh
14:00 - Colombia VS Vietnam
15:00 - Colombia VS Bangladesh
15:00 - Vietnam VS India
15:00 - Mongolia VS Serbia
15:00 - Belarus VS Russia
16:00 - Colombia VS India
16:00 - Bangladesh VS Serbia
16:00 - Vietnam VS Russia
16:00 - Mongolia VS Belarus
17:00 - Colombia VS Serbia
17:00 - India VS Russia
17:00 - Bangladesh VS Belarus
17:00 - Vietnam VS Mongolia

18:00 - 21:00 Time for team replays

The Student Protea Team consists of the following athletes:

NameNickEducational institution
Suhail Khan (Captain)SoupVarsity College
Howie ChenhowiechenCrawford College
Ryan Caogaodaren_2023Crawford College
Srivar PremjeethSS991788Crawford College
Aryan PillayAryan608Crawford College
Johan van BredaNational Team Manager

The Stream link for the day is: https://vk.com/wall-14046705_169947

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