Meet MSSA's stars: Johan Uys

Johan Uys - deep  in game

Johan Uys is a passionate gamer and student. He is currently completing his third degree in Honours for Bachelor of Commerce in Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the University of Pretoria. Johan began his competitive gaming career in 2014 when he first made the Gauteng provincial team.

After again earning Gauteng Provincial Colours in 2015 Johan was selected by MSSA's MANCOM to assist the South African Protea eSports Team at IeSF's 7th World Championship in Seoul as the head coach of League of Legends Team.

Through hard work and dedication, Johan became the Chairperson of Tuks Mind Sports, the competitive gaming club at the University of Pretoria in 2016 where he continues to help grow e-sports at grassroots level all the way up to elite level.

However, Johan is not just a hard worker, he is more than capable at competing too. In 2016, Johan was selected as a player of the South African Protea League of Legends eSports Team and represented his South Africa with distinction in the top lane at IeSF's 8th World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. Johan has the distinction of being the only person in MSSA who has moved from being the coach of the national esports team to become one of its most valued players.

eSports growth

Team Serbia - 2015 World Championships

TELKOM has pushed in a huge cash injection of one million Rands (R1,000,000.00) into the Digital Gaming League for the game title of CounterStrike: GO and DotA 2.

This is a huge development in gaming in South Africa as it further emphasises the growth and continuing popularity of eSports in South Africa.

The growth of eSports should be of no surprise to anyone. eSports is probably one of the most accessible sports to the public, and in spite of the initial cost of hardware, still one of the most cost effective sports in which a person can partake.

Thus the growth of eSports in South Africa can clearly be seen at school level, where Mind Sports SouthAfrica's official league is showing exponential growth as schools clamber to get on board.

The growing number of gamers, and the resulting increase in competitiveness, has meant that South Africa can hold its head high in international competition.

South Africa's current ranking by the International eSports Federation is at 12^th place due to the MWEB Protea eSports team that participated in the IeSF's 7th World Championships - Seoul.

South Africa ranked 12th in the world for eSports

MWEB Protea eSports Team: (L to R): Taylor Rose, Cameron Tilley, Matthew Smith, Wynand Meiring, Maryke Kennard, Nathan Anderson, Vasudev Stringer

Without doubt MSSA's 2015 MWEB Protea eSports Team that attended the IeSF's 7^th World Championships has had one of the best overall results.

While the team failed to get out of the group stages, the team showed solid growth in that the team has picked up more victories than any other team that has gone before.

The League of Legends team scored an impressive victory over Iran, but just lost to Thailand in what many consider to be one of the best matches of the championship. There is no doubt that the team played its heart out, and, at the end of the group stages, was utterly exhausted.

The members of the League of Legends team are:

South Africa (MSSA)

Maryke 'Ykie' Kennard

Taylor 'elis' Rose

Matthew 'Feno' Smith

Vasudev 'Paga' Stringer

Cameron 'SexyB' Tilley

In StarCraft, Nathan 'StatiC' Anderson won a match, and lost out to Joona 'Serral' Sotala in an exciting test match. Serral went on to win the World championships.

In HearthStone, Wynand 'ViViD' Meiring picked up two impressive victories. Unfortunately the victories were not enough to get Wynand out of the group stages.

However, all the victories that the MWEB Protea eSports Team obtained were enough to help South Africa claw its way up from 13^th place (2014) back into 12^th place overall.

Thus, what with the victories obtained, the impressive amount of media coverage received both in South Africa and abroad, and the final ranking of the team in 12^th place, the team has much to feel satisfied about.

Rank	Country	Name	Point
1	SRB	Serbia	147
2	KOR	Korea	132
3	CHN	China	113
4	FIN	Finland	111
5	THA	Thailand	67
6	PHL	Philippines	63
6	ROU	Romania	63
8	TPE	Chinese Taipei	48
9	CHE	Switzerland	43
9	RUS	Russia	43
11	ISR	Israel	38
12	ZAF	South Africa	33
13	SWE	Sweden	32
14	AZE	Azerbaijan	22
14	BEL	Belgium	22
14	GEO	Georgia	22
14	IDN	Indonesia	22
14	MNG	Mongolia	22
14	TUN	Tunisia	22
20	AUS	Australia	11
20	AUT	Austria	11
20	IRN	Iran	11
20	VNM	Vietnam	11

Photographs of the event may be found on: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154291404924008.1073741930.146018324007&type=3

IeSF's National rankings

IeSF has just released its  national rankings.

The winners (Serbia) of the 7th World Championships - Seoul are of course at the top.

Rank	Country	Name	Point
1	SRB	Serbia	147
2	KOR	Korea	132
3	CHN	China	113
4	FIN	Finland	111
5	THA	Thailand	67
6	PHL	Philippines	63
6	ROU	Romania	63
8	TPE	Chinese Taipei	48
9	CHE	Switzerland	43
9	RUS	Russia	43
11	ISR	Israel	38
12	ZAF	South Africa	33
13	SWE	Sweden	32
14	AZE	Azerbaijan	22
14	BEL	Belgium	22
14	GEO	Georgia	22
14	IDN	Indonesia	22
14	MNG	Mongolia	22
14	TUN	Tunisia	22
20	AUS	Australia	11
20	AUT	Austria	11
20	IRN	Iran	11
20	VNM	Vietnam	11