Leading the pack.

Sk Gaming ( including 'Loda' seated on the left) with MSSA's ACER Protea Team in 2008 at the Old Edwardian Society, Johannesburg.

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) has long been in the forefront of esports – not only in South Africa, but in the world.

In South Africa alone, MSSA took the lead by running its first esports competition (in WarCraft) in 1998. I remember it as if it was yesterday.

Some of the milestones achieved by MSSA are:

• Being the oldest national federation for esports in the world
• Is purely volunteer run
• Being a founder member of SASCOC
• Getting esports recognised as an accredited sport
• Held the first competitions for females in South Africa
• Consistently sends national teams overseas since 2005
• Started inter school championships and competitions in 2010
• Started the first online league in South Africa in 2005
• Hosts more LANs in more towns, cities, regions and provinces than any other organisation in each and every year
• The only organisation that brings out a Calendar of Events out for esports at least 6 months prior to the start of the year

Yet, even with these Herculean steps forward in promoting esports, none of the steps would have been successfully completed without the loyalty, dedication, and resourcefulness of so many of the volunteers and sponsors who have put their hands up over time to serve the growth and development of esports in South Africa.

However, it does not stop here. There is so much more to be done.

Not only are their always new barriers to break, but there is always the day-to-day running to be done.

MSSA today is better and stronger than it has ever been, and intends to remain at the forefront of esports.

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) never takes selection for a national team lightly

MSSA's 2017 Protea Esports Team - at the forefront of long-term development.

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) never takes selection for a national team lightly.

Since being selected to officially represent South Africa for esports is the same as being represented by any other South African National Federation for any other sport, team selection must have great meaning to the esports players. The award of National Team status for esports also leads to comparisons from other sports as it is the highest level in esports, just as much as the Springboks are the highest level in rugby. 

The selection process always has a dilemma as it is known that when choosing a team for international duty, concepts such as 'potential' does not have any meaning. Also, with South Africa being so far away from mainstream events, it is always difficult to relate how players who have performed well  at regional, provincial, and national championships will perform at a international level.

That is why, with MSSA there is no automatic selection to the team. 

Every player standing for selection has to reprove him/herself. 

International competition is tough. Much tougher than  anything that you will encounter in South Africa, and that is part of the problem.

In my opinion a number of events, with their large cash prizes, do nothing to develop strength or depth.

Such events seem to only promote the same old favoured few with no real eye to developing real gaming strength for the future. Without a long-term view, South African gaming will never improve and South African teams shall, in my opinion, remain the whipping boys of the international community.

I am too reminded of when MSSA brought out SK Gaming's CS:GO and DotA 2 teams in 2008 to participate in the ACER African Continental Championships.

MSSA arranged, as a courtesy, a 'friendly' between SK Gaming's Counter-Strike: GO team against a South African club team. The match  was so one-sided, it was horrible. Since it was BO3, SK Gaming rather than thrash the local team again, just gave them the third game.

Such act lead to the local team claiming how they held off SK Gaming instead of taking a long hard look at themselves. People always tend to believe their own propaganda.

But I ramble.

In conclusion, for South Africa to  do well overseas, all teams must buy-in to a  long-term development programme and  not look to quick gratification. The average standard of play must be improved upon if players expect to improve the highest level of play.

While there are the exceptional cases of individuals who may achieve greatness inn spite  of their surroundings, generally speaking, successful athletes are produced in successful environments which  have successful coaches, expert administrators, and efficient administration.

I-Village Schools Digital Skills Workshop - a huge success.

I-Village digital skills workshop, hosted at Emadwaneli Secondary School on the 26th of July 2017 was a huge success.

The school proved to be a more than able host and had not only an enthusiastic and learned educator but also an attentive and eager-to-learn audience.

The objective of the workshop was to raise awareness on the digital career opportunities, understanding that more jobs today requires a level of adequate understanding of digital skills and further to ensure that our youth participate in the digital economy. The workshop was conducted in collaboration with Emadwaneli Secondary School, The National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (Nemisa), Mind Sport South Africa (MSSA) and Acer South Africa.

The workshop began with the presentation of Build Your Own Cloud (BYOC) from ACER. Such presentation captured the imagination of all the learners present and a lively debate followed.

The Creative New Media Industries, and MSSA's presentations were also well received.

Ekasi Esports' presentation on gaming too captured the minds of all those present. The learners were excited to learn of the development of gaming in South Africa.

Soweto TV was also there to film the entire workshop.

It is seen that this workshop will be the first of many in which, according to Mr Mpho Tladi - Business Development Manager at I-Village, our youth will become active participants in the 4th Industrial Revolution.

I-Village Schools Digital Skills Workshop.

I-Village will be hosting a digital skills workshop, at Emadwaneli Secondary School, on the 26th of July 2017.

The objective of the workshop is raise awareness on the digital career opportunities , understanding that more jobs today requires a level of adequate understanding of digital skills and further to ensure that our youth participate in the digital economy. The workshop will be conducted in collaboration with Emadwaneli Secondary School, The National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (Nemisa), Mind Sport South Africa (MSSA) and Acer South Africa..

At I-Village we are committed to bring about digital opportunities to the youth, most importantly in the townships and rural areas and with the key objective that our youth not only become consumers, but active participants to the 4th Industrial Revolution, says. Mr Mpho Tladi - Business Development Manager at I-Village.

The workshop will be showcasing digital career opportunities in Creative New Media Industries, Build Your Own Cloud (BYOC): Robotics, Coding and Electronic Sports (Esports).

About Us:

Innovation Village herein known as “I-Village” is a non-profit organisation that provides digital skills
training to the students, entrepreneurs and unemployed youth in townships and rural areas. The IVillage is based in Soweto, Dube, Kronen Centre.

Not yet available in SA.

Predator 21 X Gaming Laptop

Acer’s Highly-Anticipated Predator 21 X Gaming Laptop, Featuring the World’s First Curved Screen Notebook, Shipping This Quarter

Loaded with high-end features and technology, the Predator 21 X is the de facto dream machine for ultimate gaming enthusiasts

Editor’s Summary

l   The Acer Predator 21 X is the world’s first notebook with a curved screen and integrates eye-tracking technology for an even more immersive user experience

l   The Predator 21 X features the latest 7th Generation Intel^® Core^™ i7 processor, 5 cooling fans and dual NVIDIA^® GeForce^® GTX 1080 GPUs in SLI for unmatched graphics performance

l   Making each Predator 21 X unique, Acer lets customers add a design, flag and laser engraved name to the notebook’s maintenance panel.

l   Acer also updated its high-performance Predator 17 X gaming notebook with the powerful 7^th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU.

LAS VEGAS, (Jan. 4, 2017) Acer announced the availability of its highly anticipated Predator 21 X gaming laptop, the world’s first curved screen notebook. Designed for ultimate gaming enthusiasts who only want the best, the Predator 21 X is advanced beyond anything on the market today.

The world’s first notebook to offer a curved 21-inch IPS display (2560 x 1080 resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate), it delivers a truly immersive gaming experience, especially when combined with the notebook’s  eye-tracking technology from Tobii. Taking PC gaming immersion to new depths, eye tracking lets gamers identify enemies, aim and take cover simply by gazing at objects on the screen in over 45 titles like Elite Dangerous, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and WATCH DOGS 2™. The curved screen also features NVIDIA^® G-SYNC^™ technology, ensuring smooth and sharp gameplay.

Beneath the notebook’s curved hood lies a powerful engine just waiting to be unleashed. The Predator 21 X GX21-71features dual NVIDIA^® GeForce^® GTX 1080 graphic cards in SLI and an overclockable 7^th Generation Intel^® Core^™ i7-7820HK processor for ultimate performance and responsiveness.

Supporting all this power is 64GB of DDR4-2400 memory, up to four 512GB solid state drives in RAID 0 configuration (including 2 NVMe PCIe SSDs, which are up to 5x faster than SATA SSDs) and a 7200 RPM hard drive of 1TB capacity. In addition, Killer DoubleShot Pro automatically picks the fastest network connection (Ethernet or wireless) and sends all high priority traffic over that interface while standard traffic is sent over the other. This ensures the highest priority traffic will always be put on the fastest and most reliable link. Thunderbolt™ 3 brings Thunderbolt to USB-C at speeds up to 40 Gbps.

Dissipating excess heat effectively for uninterrupted performance during intense gaming sessions, the notebook also features an advanced cooling architecture consisting of 5 system fans (including 3 ultra-thin AeroBlade™ metal fans) and 9 heat pipes. It also includes Acer Dust Defender, which removes dust build-up and improves heat dissipation, and Acer’s CoolBoost app, that can be used to adjust the fans’ airflow to deliver extra cooling performance during heavy use.

Its full-sized mechanical keyboard features Cherry^® MX Brown switches, with individually programmable backlit keys, offering 16.7 million color options. Customers can swap out the black W, A, S and D keys with teal ones, using the included accessory kit. A unique numeric keypad allows it to be flipped over and turned into a Precision Touchpad.

Making the action come to life, the Predator 21 X features a new 3-way (tweeter, midrange, woofer) audio design which produces Hi-Fi quality sound and is powered by 4 speakers (2 tweeters, 2 midrange) and 2 subwoofers to produce a full spectrum of sound.

Preloaded Acer PredatorSense software allows users to control and customize the whole gaming experience from one central interface, including overclocking, lighting and fan control. In addition, the included Xsplit Gamecaster software makes it easy for gamers to record and edit videos and live streaming on Twitch and Youtube channels.

Located just above the keyboard on the right side is a metal maintenance panel which provides access to the RAM modules and one 2.5-inch hard drive. The notebook ships with a blue dragon graphic on the panel, or it can be customized with a combination of  graphics,  nation flags and name engraving.  In addition, the first 300 notebooks will include a limited edition series number on the panel.

For safe transport and storage, each Predator 21 X ships with a custom ultra-durable hard-shell carrying case which securely stores the notebook and accessories.

Predator 17 X gets an upgrade with higher performing CPU and GPU

The Acer Predator 17 X gaming notebook also received both a CPU and GPU upgrade, and will now include models with a 7^th Gen Intel Core i7-7820HK processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU with 8G GDDR5X video memory. Featuring overclocking, desktop grade components, a custom triple-fan cooling system with front air intake and a server-class vapor chamber, it is ideal for the most demanding games and running virtual reality (VR) devices. It’s overclocking lets gamers experience turbo speeds[1] of up to 4.3GHz for the CPU; up to 1732MHz for the GPU; and up to 5.4GHz for VRAM. Immersive game play is delivered with buttery smooth visuals via the notebook’s 17.3-inch G-SYNC FHD IPS (1920 x 1080) or UHD IPS (4K 3840 x 2160) display.

The Predator 17 X (GX-792) is also configured with an overclockable 7^th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-7820HK[2]processor, up to 64GB of DDR4-2400 memory and an enterprise level NVMe PCIe solid state drive² or three-SATA-SSD RAID 0 array for immense data transfer speeds.

Price and Availability

The refreshed Predator 17 X will be available in the South Africa with recommended prices starting at R 49,999.00.

Exact specifications, prices, and availability will vary by region. To learn more about availability, product specifications and prices in specific markets, please contact your nearest Acer office via www.acer.com.

About Acer

Established in 1976, Acer is a hardware + software + services company dedicated to the research, design, marketing, sale, and support of innovative products that enhance people's lives. Acer's product offerings include PCs, displays, projectors, servers, tablets, smartphones and wearables. It is also developing cloud solutions to bring together the Internet of Things. Acer is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2016 and is one of the world’s top 5 PC companies. It employs 7,000 people worldwide and has a presence in over 160 countries. Please visit www.acer.com for more information.

© 2016 Acer Inc. All rights reserved. Acer and the Acer logo are registered trademarks of Acer Inc. Other trademarks, registered trademarks, and/or service marks, indicated or otherwise, are the property of their respective owners. All offers subject to change without notice or obligation and may not be available through all sales channels. Prices listed are manufacturer suggested retail prices and may vary by location. Applicable sales tax extra. 

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[1] The default configuration figures are based on Acer test conditions to ensure the performance and system quality. The max speed may vary by the different power demand from either CPU or GPU.

[2] Specifications may vary depending on market and configuration

Putting SA on the eSports map

Without doubt no other organization in South Africa has done quite as much as Mind Sports South Africa  (MSSA) to put South Africa on the eSports gaming map.

"Really!", do I hear you exclaim?

"Yes, really!" I reply.

Let's look at the facts.

The MSSA sent teams across overseas as follows:

Year	Team	Sponsors
2014	6th IeSF World Championships – Baku	MWEB
2014	IeSF Test Match vs Namibia	MWEB
2014	IeSF Test Match vs Finland	MWEB
2014	IeSF Test Match vs Egypt	MWEB
2013	IeSF World Championships - Bucharest	MWEB, ROCCAT
2013	DreamHack - Bucharest	MWEB, GIGABYTE
2013	IeSF Trination Match vs Denmark & Israel	MWEB, ROCCAT
2013	IeSF Test Match vs Mexico	MWEB, ROCCAT
2013	IeSF Test Match vs Romania	MWEB, ROCCAT
2013	IeSF LAN Test Match vs Romania (SCII) - Jhb	Megarom, Internet Solutions, AMD
2013	ESL's Nation's Cup	GIGABYTE
2012	IeSF World Championships - Cheonan	GIGABYTE
2012	ESL's Nation's Cup	GIGABYTE
2011	IeSF World Championships - Andong	Blizzard
2011	IeSMOD World Championships - JeJu	Blizzard
2011	LG Mobile World Championships – New York	LG
2010	World Cyber Games – San Fransisco	SAMSUNG
2010	IeSF World Championships - Daegu	Blizzard, ASUS
2010	LAN Test Match vs Namibia - Windhoek	ASUS
2010	LG Mobile World Championships – New York	LG
2009	World Cyber Games – Chendu	SAMSUNG
2009	DreamHack - Denmark	ASUS, Incredible Connection
2009	IeSF World Championships - Taebeck	ASUS, Incredible Connection
2009	Hyundai FIFA '09 Challenge	Hyundai, ASUS, Incredible Connection
2008	African Continental Championships - Jhb	MSSA, ACER
2007	World Cyber Games - Seattle	SAMSUNG
2006	Asian Championships - Taiwan	EA
2005	WCG – Busan	Exactmobile, First National Bank

Of course none would have been possible without the sponsors as indicated. However, where the MSSA is mentioned in the sponsors column, it should be noted that these events were entirely self-funded by the MSSA.

The cost and effort of getting teams overseas is truly monumental and the dedication shown by the MSSA is truly admirable.

It is no wonder that South Africa is now ranked 13th in the world.

Thus despite anybody else's protestations, the only body that has really tried to get South Africans into serious on-line competition is - the MSSA