PCU FIFA23 TOURNAMENT - FOR ALL STUDENTS WORLDWIDE.

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) has just been advised of a FIFA23 Tournament (on PS5 only) organised for students worldwide, representing their university or institute of higher education.

Timing: Friday 21 April 2023 from 19h00 to 23h00 CEST. Participation in the PCU E-Sports Games is simple, by filling in the form below. After your registration is confirmed, you will receive the link to the online platform. The deadline for registration is 20 April 2023.

All participants receive a participation certificate.

The rules and regulations can be found here.

Results will be available during competition

FIFA23 tournament (played on PS5) which will take place online on Friday 21 April 2023 from 19:00 to 23:00 CEST (this week!). Participation is open to all students worldwide and free of charge. Registration is possible until 20 April! 

For more information and registration, please visit our website www.pcucommittee.com/pcugames.

• 4th PCU FIFA Tournament
• What: free online FIFA23 tournament (on PS5 only)
• When: Friday 21 April 2023 (19-23h CEST)
• Registrations: PCU Committee website until 20 April.
• For who: all students worldwide.

Additional reading:

• 2023 Calendar of Events
• Affiliation: Private Clubs
• Affiliation - School
• Events: 5th Provincial Online Student Championships - 6 May 2023
• GEF - The Road to Riyadh
• IESF: IESF has announced the slots for 15th World Championships to be held  in Lasi, Romania.
• IESF: Titles entered
• IESF: National Team Trials - 25 March 2023
• Phygital Gaming: Kazan to host Phygital Games
• National Team Trials: Counter-Strike: GO - 25 March 2023
• National Team Trials: DotA 2 - 25 March 2023
• National Team Trials: eFootball - 25 March 2023
• National Team Trials: Mobile Legends Bang Bang - 25 March 2023
• Results: 2023 Northern Cape Online Championships
• Results: 2023 Western Cape Online Championships held on 25 February 2023.
• Results: 12th Online Inter-school Provincial Championships - 4 March 2023
• Results: 2023 Gauteng Online Championships held on 11 March 2023.
• Results: 13th Online Championships held on 15 April 2023.
• Selection: Calling all female esports athletes.
• Selection: Passports are required.
• Titles - esports: Premier Championships
• Titles - esports: Student Championships
• Umpire Course - 18 February 2023

Results - Western Cape Online Provincial Championships

 

Rafeeq Cariem (PES Society) of Cape Town

With Coronavirus (COVID -19) still holding South Africa in its pestilential grasp, Mind Sport South Africa (MSSA) is still unable to hold its LAN championships for all esports titles. As such the online option will remain the popular option until the member clubs have determined a suitable way forward.

The online provincial championship system ensures that its esports athletes are not compromised in terms of being able to qualify for provincial colours and for possible inclusion in South Africa's National Protea Team to attend International Esports Federation's 12th World Championships in November in Eilat later this year, MSSA created the Online Provincial Championships.

Esports athletes were able to play in the comfort and safety of their own homes and are still capable of competing on provincial, and even, a national level.

In such championships, Oakhill School continued to dominate most of the events consolidating the school club as the major force in esports in the Western Cape while PES Society has entrenched itself as the leading club in the country for Pro Evolution Soccer.

The winners of MSSA's 2021 Online Provincial Championships are as follows:

Title	Name of player/team	Club	Colours awarded
Clash Royale - Premier	Tom Seddon	Oakhill School
Clash Royale - High Schools	Ethan Bright	Oakhill School
Counter-Strike: GO	ZAG CSGO	ZAG Academy	Western Cape
FIFA - Premier	Jonas Lorse	Oakhill School	Western Cape
PES - Premier	Rafeeq Cariem	PES Society	Western Cape
Tekken 7 - Premier	Jonathan Brown	Team PlayBell	Western Cape
Sportsmanship Award	Rafeeq Cariem	PES Society

Also read:

• Affiliation: Schools
• Affiliation: Private clubs
• Affiliation: Advantages of affiliation
• Calendar of  Events: 2021
• Colours: Regional Colours
• Colours: School Provincial Colours
• Entry Dates: All championships
• Esports titles selected: MSSA's High School Championships.
• Esports titles selected: MSSA's Student Championships
• Esports titles selected: MSSA's Premier Championships.
• Events: Provincial Online Student Championships - 10 April 2021
  
• Events: 2021 On-line Provincial Championships - 17 April 2021
• Events: Combined Online Provincial Championships for Schools - 24 April 2021
• Ladder: National Ladder Champions
• Notices: MSSA's new Players' Representative - Jessie Joubert (ZAG Academy
• Notices: Lenel Human makes history.
• Notices: Sahil Ebrahim of PES Society elected as MSSA's Western Cape Provincial Director.
• Notices: Derby events
• Notices: Derby events -the way forward.
• Notices: Publishing your club news.
• Notices: Transfer season
• Notices: Learners may play for both private and school clubs.
• Notices: Calling all those wishing to serve as Selectors to volunteer
• Notices: The various events held by Mind Sports South Africa.
• Rankings: Clash Royale
• Rankings: Morabaraba
• Rankings: Pro Evolution Soccer (PES)
• Results -  Western Cape Online Provincial Championships
• Selection: New National Team Selection Criteria
• Selection: Selecting the national Protea teams for Mind Sports South Africa.
• Test Match results: South African Protea DotA 2 team rises triumphant.
• Test Match results: DOTA2: South Africa vs Azerbaijan
• Trailblazers: Michelle Marde

OKI Gaming is on the move.

OKI Gaming is up and ready for the 2021 year. The club has moved into a new facility (out of our old shack into a new house), and has been setting it up and finalizing its trai8ing schedule so that it can continue to train and teach players games other than EA's efootball sports title of FIFA. 

 OKI Gaming will be focusing on fighting games for the next 4 months (Street Fighter 5, Tekken 7 and Dragon Ball Z Fighter). After that the club will move into the realm of First Person Shooters (FPS) for 4 months. The club will concentrate on (Call of Duty, Apex Legends and Fortnite).

The club will then concentrate on sport games in the last stretch of the year as most new sport games are released after August of each year.

The club also intends to hold "biweekly tournaments", through which the club can assess the progress of each player being taught/developed, and monthly tournaments for the FIFA esports title, to generally accommodate the community. The management of OKI Gaming realize that the growth of any club is utterly dependent on having sustainable and effective outreach programmes.

However, all the above depends on the situation apropos COVID-19, but the club remains confident that things will work out well, given the solid foundations laid in 2020.

The club, based in Simunye (Westonaria), affiliated to Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is "a shining light in terms of development among the community", according to MSSA President Amanda Kwaza.  

Also read:

• MSSA elections allow change and growth.
• MSSA remains a dynamic institution.
• Preventing dominance by any one club.
• Advantages of affiliation
• Calendar of  Events: 2021
• Affiliation: Schools
• Affiliation: Private clubs
• Esports titles selected: MSSA's High School Championships.
• Esports titles selected: MSSA's Student Championships
• Esports titles selected: MSSA's Premier Championships.
• Notices: MSSA's new Players' Representative - Jessie Joubert (ZAG Academy
• Notices: Lenel Human makes history.
• Notices: Sahil Ebrahim of PES Society elected as MSSA's Western Cape Provincial Director.
• Notices: Derby events
• Notices: Publishing your club news.
• Notices: Transfer season
• Test Match results: South African Protea DotA 2 team rises triumphant.
• Test Match results: DOTA2: South Africa vs Azerbaijan
• New National Team Selection Criteria
• Selecting the national Protea teams for Mind Sports South Africa.

The team from Azerbaijan that beat MSSA's Protea DotA Esports Team.

Gaming League Azerbaijan (GLA)

Gaming League Azerbaijan (GLA) is Azerbaijan's largest cybersport organization, which was established in 2019 with help of Azerbaijan Cybersport Federation. GLA and AzKif holds several E-Sport events in Baku in the disciplines such as FIFA, Dota 2, Counter-Strike, etc. - the most successful local leagues in FIFA, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike and Fortnite which are being carried out at the moment with the support of the relevant structures.

AzKIF’s (Azerbaijan’s Cybersport Federation) main goal is to develop a cybersport discipline in the country, together with GLA they develop the best players and provide them with all the resources required in order to assist the local teams in bringing home the winning trophies. Nowadays, GLA holds the biggest FIFA league of the country with 40 different teams.

Azerbaijan’s DotA 2 team participated in officially recognized LAN tournament IESF and is aiming to participate on other tournaments as well.

GLA Dota 2 Team

Members:

Sabir Kerimov - LOOM	1 - Carry
Kanan Mustafazadeh - Scarlett	2- Mid
Tofik Guseinzadeh - Merlini	3 - Offline
Ali  - DarkWay	4 - Soft Support
Azar Agazadeh – Flownee (Captain)	5 - Hard Support

Bios:

Azar “Flownee” Agazadeh

https://www.dotabuff.com/players/872847229

I have decided to form this team in March of this year. I have previously played with Merlini in the year 2015 when he just started playing Dota 2 together with LOOM. Previously I have played always against DarkWay, he used to play in ShapShup team most of his Dota career. First, I have invited Merlini and then LOOM together with DarkWay. We found scarlet on GLA’s first Dota 2 league in October of this year.

Achievements:

·         2017 RedBull “The Last Champion” Win,

·         2018 RedBull “The Last Champion” 2nd Place.

·         2019 IESF Seoul Qualifications Second Place. 2019

Sabir “LOOM” Kerimov

https://www.dotabuff.com/players/113833980

I have started playing Dota since its very first version, from Warcraft 3. I made my first appearance on Azeri Dota scene in 2015, on Azerbaijan’s first largest tournament, together with Merlini. We won that tournament and since then I did not lose my passion for it. My peak of career was becoming Top 300th Dota 2 player in Europe and I look forward to achieving even better results.

Achievements:

·         2015 Kreki Cup Win,

·         IESF 2016 Second Place,

·          Red Bull 2017 “The Last Champion” tournament Win,

·         IESF 2018 National Qualifications Win,

·         IESF 2019 Seoul Qualifications Win (as a coach),

·         2019th-year CyberArena Tournament Win,

·         First place in all of the three local Face.it Ladders

Ali “DarkWay” Aliyev

https://www.dotabuff.com/players/166436385

I have played the first Dota in 2010 when I was studying in school. I was considered as a strong player. I played a lot of Garena lobbies. I was considered as a strong player. I played a lot of Garena lobbies. I started playing Dota 2 in 2015. Now I am top 500th Dota 2 player in Europe.

Achievements:

·         IESF 2016 Qualifications Win

·         IESF 2017 Qualifications Win

·         Red Bull “The Last Champion” 2018 Win

·         IESF 2019 Qualifications Second Place

·         GLA League Win 2019

·         First in Azerbaijan to reach 7k

Tofik “Merlini” Guseinzadeh

https://www.dotabuff.com/players/112954736

I have started playing MOBA genre since First Dota, from the year 2008. We started playing together with LOOM and we really enjoyed it. From the year 2012, I am playing Dota 2.

Achievements:

·         Semi-Pro Starladder Win,

·         Kreki Cup Win (First biggest tournament of Dota 2 in Azerbaijan, 2015),

·         IESF 2019 Seoul Qualifications Win,

·         A lot of other local championships in Baku and always took minimum 3rd place in all of them.

Kanan “Scarlett” Mustafazadeh

https://www.dotabuff.com/players/873399463

I am a new member of GLA’s Dota 2 Team.

Achievements: IESF 2019 Seoul Qualifications Win

Also read:

• Test Match results: DOTA2: South Africa vs Azerbaijan
• The road to Eilat
• IESF announces first three titles for 12th World Championships

From club to national federation to international federation

South Africa's Sport and Recreation Act defines a National Federation.

Although I will be writing in general terms, the basics apply to practically every national federation.

It all starts with the individual!

All you need is one individual who wants to play with other individuals. Eventually through a sense of community, the individuals playing together form a society to reflect their common interest in the game, and as such a club is born!

Then the newly formed club looks for other clubs to play against. Should they not find any, the club either stagnates and eventually dies, or it boldly, and unabashedly, promotes the growth of other clubs.

Once the clubs have created a framework for competition, the clubs generally come together to form the federation.

As such, the club always precedes the federation.

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) (https://www.facebook.com/mindsportssa) is no different. Some of the member clubs date back as far as the 1970's (Wits Wargames Club which was founded in 1979) whereas MSSA was only founded in 1985. 

This is true for swimming as well where clubs in what was known as the Transvaal were founded as early as 1884, but Swimming South Africa (SSA) was only founded in 1899. FINA, the international federation, was then founded in 1908.

Even in football, a British club like Cambridge was founded in 1846, the Football Association (English) was only founded in 1863 whereas the international federation (FIFA) was only constituted in 1904.

However, what is important to note is that at no time does government become involved in the creation of these national sport bodies.

In fact government involvement is decidedly frowned upon and discouraged by the international controlling bodies.

So, just like any other sport, esports has done its time in developing the national federation with the first clubs being formed in the 1970's, the national federation being formed in 1985, and International Esports Federation (IESF) being formally constituted in 2008.

Few gamers will understand the amount of work that it has taken a small group of dedicated people to get esports to this level, and many of those who have poured their hearts and efforts into this project may very well be forgotten over time. However, the legacy of having a non-profit structure that is dedicated to the promotion of the games and a structure that is dedicated to serving the gamer will endure for many decades to come!

Also read:

• The road to Eilat
• IESF announces first three titles for 12th World Championships
• The transition of eSports from a recreational game to a structured sport
• Mind Sports are indeed a sport!