St John's learner shows ability beyond his years

Jason Batzofin - Team Manager of  Team eSports South Africa - Jakarta

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) has always believed in giving youth the chance to step up to the plate in order to lead.

Thus MSSA invests heavily in its athletes.

It has certainly been no different with Jason Batzofin (of St John's College) who in July 2016 was sent to Shanghai (China) to become one of the founding members of IeSF's Athlete's Commission.

Such is MSSA's belief in Jason's potential, that MSSA appointed Jason, on reaching his age of majority, as the Protea eSports Team Manager for the SA Protea eSports Team that travelled to Jakarta.

Jason accepted the task and swiftly rose to the challenge.

Backed by an  incredibly supportive family and MSSA, Jason hurdled each obstacle to deliver the team safely to IeSF's 8th World Championships - Jakarta. While there Jason dealt expeditiously with all issues - both large and small, to ensure that the team could properly concentrate on the event itself.

MSSA is absolutely satisfied with Jason's performance in the role of team Manager and expects even greater achievements from him in the future.

Korea is victorious at IeSF’s 2016 e-Sports World Championship - Jakarta

Top three countries

IeSF’s8th World Championship 2016 - Jakarta, officially ended on the 9^th of October 2016.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals were held on the previous day, being the 8^th of October, with the finals being played on the 9^th of October 2016 where all the title winners for three different game titles were decided.

The overall winner was Korea, which, remarkably, witnessed its League of Legends team finish the tournament without a single loss.Korea’s League of Legends team won the title by winning all the sets of games in the final, while its Counter Strike: Global Offensive team finished the tournament in 3^rd place overall. Korea’s HearthStone team, while only finishing in 4^th place, earned sufficient points to push the Korean national team into first place overall.

The total points earned by Korea was 152 to once again regain the top rank.

The overall runner-up was Finland, whose Counter Strike: Global Offensive team won the the CounterStrike: GO title, with 111 total points.

Austria, which only participated in HearthStone, came on the 3^rd place by earning 100 points for winning such title.

Team China, stayed on the 4^th place with total points of 98.

The opening of the 8^th IeSF World Championship 2016 Jakarta, saw a bevy of who's who at the opening, such as, IeSF Board Members, IeSF President Mr. Byung Hun Jun, IeSF Vice-President Mr Silviu Storie, officials from the Indonesian e-Sports Association, as well as personnel from The Association For International Sports for All.

During the 4 days of the tournament, many top-class games occurred which drove the crowds wild while a various events hosted by KEK TV, RAZER, ASUS, allowed visitors to experience a wider range of entertainment.

Thanks to the cooperation with TAFISA, there was a great deal of interest from the media which benefited the sponsors.

Colin Webster giving his speech

Colin Webster, Board Member of IeSF, gave the closing speech. The current status of e-sports becoming a global sport was emphasised, while at the same time asking the players to foster a sense of ethics to further develop e-sports.

Consequently, Korea’s winning back the 1^st place in the global ranking as well as the honour of the country in which e-sports is claimed to have started.

As for IeSF World Championship, as the sole e-sports competition based on nationality, the championship ended with great success once again.

Already everybody is looking forward to the 2017 competition.