Beware of false summits...

Without accredited esports bodies at summits, like IESF and MSSA, such summits do not deal with the real issues surrounding esports.

With the development of esports since 1998, only recently is there a plethora of summits.
Summits are  now being staged on a seemingly endless basis, and, if a person is so inclined, one could attend at least one a month. But to what end of these summits being held? What is the expected outcome?  To whom are these summits being aimed?

It is a well known fact that Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) had managed to have esports recognised as an official sport in South Africa in 2005 when, it was allowed for the first time to have Protea Colours awarded to its national esports team that participated in the World Cyber Games (WCG). pening in the field of esports.

With esports already being considered to be a sport (in terms of the Sport and Recreation Act of 1998) it seems strange that any summit held in South Africa not have the official sporting authorities present to weigh in on what is really happening in the field of esports.

Thus it is laughable that any summit that is pretending to deal with the growth of esports in the South  African context leave out major players like International Esports Federation (IESF), the Department of Sport and Recreation (SRSA), SASCOC, MSSA, or major clubs affiliated to MSSA. It would be like holding a summit apropos the future of football without having FIFA, SAFA, and a few PSL clubs present. Such a summit on football would be considered to be of no value as it would be deemed to be self-serving at best, and irrelevant at worst.

What we do see is summits being organised by exhibition companies on their own behalf, using journalists and operators of private events as their main speakers. In my personal opinion, such a summit is merely an advertising event for those present and has verly little to do with the long term development of esports.

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23 Countries enter League of Legends - IeSF's 8th World Championships - Jakarta

IeSF's e-Sports World Championship is the sole international e-Sports competition based on nationality.

The 8^th edition, bears  greater weight than ever  before since it is being held at the same time, and at  the same venue, as The Association for International Sport for All (TAFISA) World Games.

Of course Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) has delivered teams in the  past to TAFISA events, for example, Thailand in 1996 and to Lithuania in 2012.

Who could forget that the 1996 Chef d' Mission was in fact Danny Jordaan  of SAFA fame?

When perusing all the names of the players, the reader should be struck by  the fact that  only South Africa has once again dared to send a mixed team.

Maryke 'Ykie' Kennard, once  again is the sole rose among the thorns.

With Matthew Smith as Team eSports South Africa's captain, there is no doubt that the South African team will upset just a few at the world championships.

IeSF will be supporting each nation with 200,000 USD for athlete travel according to the performance level of each National Federation and quality of qualifying procedures that each of them took to select their national representatives.

No.	Country	Team Name	Player name	Nick name
1	Australia	Omega	Vincent Lin	gunkrab
			Luke Duske	clown syndrome
			Paris Sitzoukis	YAC SOULI
			Jonothan Cannon	eLy bluz0r
			Stewart Riesenweber	eLy Flick
2	Azerbaijan	Legendary Gaming	Faraj Nasirli	F0rtun3
			Huseyn Nasirli	Dragy
			Tofig Huseynov	Merlin
			Mikhail Strepetov	Egruocs
			Nurlan Madatov	Godfather
3	Belgium	Team Belgium	Aaron Serneels	berrywhite
			Sander Schuermans	imheat
			Lenny Uyterrhoeven	lenny
			Brent De Laet	sigma
			Robbe Dobbeleers	Anthrax
4	Brazil	Team Brazil	Bruno Garcia	CWG Kennedys
			Diego Jara	CWG Sephis
			Douglas Dos Santos	CWG Vampyrus
			Samuel Assis	CWG Huxy
			Diego Pinhe Robalinho De Queiroz	CWG DLC
5	China	Team China	Fan shi
			Junxuan Zhou
			Zhi Ke
			Haoshun Wu
			Xin He
6	Costa Rica	Team Costa Rica	Josué Rodríguez Monge	7Aster
			Stiven Cordero Murillo	Choisix
			Alonso Reyes Morales	Sandroxx
			Esteban Matamoros Valverde	EstebanMegaK
			Andres Nunez Campos	Bazu
7	Egypt	Frost Guards	Kotb Amr
			Hamed Ramy
			Abo Galala Ahmed
			El Sayed Khaled
			Abdel Hamid Karim
8	Indonesia	Team Indonesia	Ananda Rizky
			Adi Riansyah
			Zainal Hakim
			Gerry Arisena
			Muhammad Naufal
9	Italy	Nazionale Personal Gamer League of Legends	Nicola Paolucci	Gnaff0
			Giacomo Manconi	CounterG0d
			Valerio Cepale	Valex
			Luca Incorvaia	Crashhh
			Stefano Passini	PsychoPas
10	Korea (South)	Team Korea	Haram Kim	HARAM
			Hosung Ryu	Hoit
			Jeongmin Yoon	yongsu
			Chanju Lee	Lion
			Min Cho	Ming
11	Macau (China)	G4ES	Ka Kin Leong	Eric
			Meng Chong Kou	Alex
			Chak Hou Wai	Jonhson
			U Son Yau	NH
			Fernando Delmundo Gabriel	Na
12	Macedonia	EON	Viktor Kordanovski	The Fallen Angel
			Martin Ivanovski	Kuon
			Valjmir Fejzula	GoldenTo4st
			Jane Vasov	Gizmawks
			Hristijan Blazheski	asyrh shrimp
13	Malaysia	Orange Esports	Seong Yoong	Yoong
			Wein Lee	Lee
			Song Chin	Chin
			Jye Lim	Lim
			Jerrel Hoe Wong	Wong
14	Netherlands	Dorans Alpha	Henricus Van Roestel	Snitsky
			Jasper Hermsen	Djep0
			Job Goossens	Slyv3r
			Philip Teunissen	Erudite
			Rudolf Brus	Dirco
15	New Zealand	eBlacks	Cameron Russell	Crunch
			Kevin Wu	KayWu
			Adam Mason	liberty
			Adrian Desilvestro	Opaque
			Huu Pham	Bobo
16	Philippines	Acion Arena	Jayson Dela Victoria	Jayson
			Robert Rey Tan	Rey
			Jason Clark Galang	Jason
			Neil Harold Gabriel	Neil
			Mark Wendell Perante	Mark
17	Romania	Nexus	Octav Cretu	Ang
			George Savu	Speedy
			Andrei Popa	Orome
			Cosmin Danila	Chevalier
			Laurian Avrigeanu	Khantos
18	Russia	Albus NoX Sidus	Ivan Nikolaev	Hi im Ratxi
			Konstantin Shubin	LaKostya solotop
			Dmitry Korovushkin	Dimonk0
			Daniil Klimanov	Shalnoy Lo1
			Daniils Vlasov	apmzero
19	Serbia	Team Serbia	Dorde Lapcevic	Baxauer
			Gvozden Moljkovic	zdengvo
			Jovan Jovanović	Demented Clown
			Luka Todorovic	kaLuGG
			Pavle Kostic	Yoppa
20	South Africa	Team eSports South Africa	Matthew Smith	Feno
			Johan Uys	Harlem
			Taylor Rose	Elis
			Johan Van Breda	Joe
			Maryke Kennard	Ykie
21	Sweden	Wyvern e-Sports	Lars Gabrielsson	Ripqq Mcfreezt
			Frank Norqvis	Swag
			Elias Edlund	Kakan
			Steven Keay Kridiotis	wazzari
			Anton Sten	Heatz
22	Switzerland	Dead Pixels	Seyed Ali Nasserzadeh	Lagily
			Seyed Mahdi Nasserzadeh	Pride
			Steffen Sinkwitz	Talosin
			Marin Pudic	GoldenGod
			Joshua Lim	Wild Joshy
23	Tunisia	Armoured Brothers	Ayoub Chamakhi	MYI Azra
			Ali Gaaloul	Gaaloul
			Aymen jedallah	AlphaG Lokmays
			Oussama Bousselmi	osmo
			Haithem Attia	Armoured Dean

Growth of Mind Sports

Who would have thought back in the 1980's the various mind sports would have achieved the levels of accreditation that they have today.

When MSSA was started (as  the South African Wargames Union) it approached the South African national federation for Chess to become a board of control of such  body.

The national federation for chess rejected MSSA's application.

It was the best thing that ever happened to MSSA!

MSSA's committee realised that they would have to get the recognition that they  needed by themselves.

By applying continuously to the Confederation of South African Sport (COSAS), MSSA was accepted as a member in 1991.

Thus from 1991 MSSA was allowed to award Springbok Colours to its teams.

The TAFISA World Sport for All Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 6 to 12 October 2016 will see both eSports and Draughts 64 being played at such festival. 

Certainly the MWEB Protea eSports and MWEB Protea Draughts Teams are looking forward to going.


MSSA was allowed to award such Springbok Colours even before Chess.

In 1997, MSSA pushed hard to get Morabaraba  into the TAFISA Sport for All Festival.

As a result Morabaraba was played in Bangkok, Thailand. The Chef d' Mission was none other than SAFA supremo Mr. Danny Jordaan.

The importance of having  both sports played there cannot be over emphasised!