SA's League of Legends has an exciting competition ahead of it.

Matthew Smith after having done the draw

The opulent ballroom of the Grand Mercure hosted the draw to determine the draw to see in  which group the teams would be placed.

Australia went first, and one by one the team captains were called up to participate in the draw.

Eventually it was the turn for South Africa, and veteran (and Protea League of legends eSports captain) Matthew Smith lept to his feet to do the draw.

With the draw being done, the official representative South African team found itself in Group B with the likes of Belgium, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Romania, and Serbia.

The battle lines have now been drawn. The various teams are now eyeing each other in order to go for the prize.

The 2016 South African League of Legends team is the most internationally experienced team to ever leave the shores of South Africa for League of Legends, and with veteran players of the calibre of Matthew Smith, Maryke Kennard, Taylor Rose, Johan van Breda, and Johan Uys, all South Africans can rest easy knowing that the team will give of its best and fly South Africa's flag high.

The main matches of the group preliminary round will be broadcasted in English through IeSF channel on Twitch TV(http://www.twitch.tv/iesf_tv), official website of IeSF(http://www.ie-sf.org/) and in Chinese through HuoMao TV(http://www.huomao.com/). Also it will be broadcasted in Indonesian at Ligagame eSports TV(www.ligagame.tv/). The following is the schedules of broadcasting schedule for the 6th of October, and the schedule is based on Indonesia Standard Time(GMT+7).

8th IeSF World Championship 2016 - Jakarta

International e-Sports Federation (IeSF) hereby announces that IeSF has selected the primary official games to be played in the 8th IeSF World Championship 2016 to  be held in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The official games are League of Legends (LoL), Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO), and Hearthstone. IeSF has finalized negotiations with the game developers which are Riot Games, Valve Corporation and Blizzard Entertainment. IeSF has decided to open the participation of all titles to all people regardless of gender, age or disabilities.

This is the first time that ‘CS:GO’ has been selected as an official title for IeSF's e-Sports World Championships. CS:GO is one of the most popular games in Indonesia, the host country of the 8th IeSF World Championship.

League of Legends was previously the official title for the 7th e-Sports World Championship - Seoul 2015. IeSF and Riot Games agreed to limit participating players to amateur players, who have not participated in LCS or LOL Semi Pro events in 2016 in order to expand LOL amateur base world-wide.

Hearthstone has again been selected as an official title for the third consecutive year from the 6th e-Sports World Championship, Baku (2014) until the 8th e-Sports World Championship, Jakarta (2016). In the 7th e-Sports World Championship, Milos Perovic, Hearthstone player from Serbia, led his country to become the overall champion by winning 1st place in Hearthstone.

IeSF World Championship is the only international e-Sports competition based on nationality. The 7th World Championship held in Seoul, Korea boasted 180 participants from 33 countries, and the overall champion was Serbia. Indonesia participated in the host city bidding process of the 8th IeSF World Championship and IeSF Board Members reviewed all the host city candidates for 8th e-Sports World Championship. After reviewing all of the candidates, IeSF Board selected Jakarta, Indonesia as the host city for 8th e-Sports World Championship. Member nations of IeSF which participate IeSF World Championship will hold National Qualifiers to qualify players who represent their countries.

The total prize pool is 54,000 USD, which is broken down to 20,000 USD for each team title, 4,000 USD for the individual title, and 10,000 USD for overall champion nation. According to the performance of each National Federation and quality of national qualifying rounds, IeSF will be supporting 200,000 USD for athlete travel.

8th e-Sports World Championships 2016 will be held from 6th to 9th of October, 2016 in Ancol Beach Auditorium, Jakarta, Indonesia.

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.

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

Serbia is now the eSports World Champion

Triumphant Serbia!

At the IeSF's 7th eSports World Championships held in Seoul from 2 to 5 December 2015, Serbia achieved the  unthinkable.

The World Championships have been dominated by Jorea for no less than years.

Sweden, up until now was the only European nation able to win the Worlds.

However, now there is a new World Champion - Serbia!

Year	Location	Winner
2009	Taebaek, South Korea	South Korea
2010	Daegu, South Korea	South Korea
2011	Andong, South Korea	Sweden
2012	Cheonan, South Korea	South Korea
2013	Bucharest, Romania	South Korea
2014	Baku, Azerbaijan	South Korea
2015	Seoul, South Korea	Serbia

AFRICAN QUALIFIER SET TO START

The MWEB Team eSports South Africa has its work cut out for itself when the qualifier rounds for the spot to represent Africa at the 2015 World Championships for CounterStrike: GO begins on 10 August 2015.

Egypt, Morocco, Lybia, Algeria, Tunisia and South Africa are all located in the same group where they will play each other in a best-of-one format while after each team play five group stage matches only one will qualify for Global Finals in Belgrade, Serbia. Travel and accommodation costs are covered by E-FRAG.NET. 

Although the qualifying rounds for Africa begin on 10 August 2015, it is not until 13 August 2015 that South Africa will take to the field.

Thus South Africa will play all four of its matches on only two days!

Thus while some may argue that the MWEB Team eSports SA have an advantage in that they can see how the other four countries play, there is a great deal of concern in the South African camp apropos the effects of fatigue among the team members.

A full list of all five African nation's teams participating in the African Qualifier are:

Egypt	Lybia
Rami 'Dare_Dev1L' Rahman	Auos 'Frosty' Alojaly
Ahmad 'Ahmad' Khaled	Abdullah 'Josh4tw' Albarsha
Seif 'STK' Tarek	Ali 'Espio-Fed-' Sallak
Wael 'LogaN' Mahmoud	Abdullah 'dA-DvL' El Gallal
Amr 'GreWolf' Assem	Mohammed 'Crocodile' Farina
Rafeef 'Hunter' Natiq	Muhimen 'nONOLINHO' Battor
Ahmed 'AbuFasT' Mohamed	Abdelrahman 'MeryDith' Tarbah
Ehab 'Mickeykatze' Mohamed
Rami 'Dare_Dev1L' Rahman - (M)	Auos 'Frosty' Alojaly - (M)

Algeria	Tunis
Toafek 'Hydromeister' Hayder	Bahaeddine 'Attiaz' Attia
Walid 'ColdNess' Haddou	Mohamed 'torr' Hamdani
Nacim 'GGta' Khalfi	Alaeddine 'Potei' Chaari
Achraf Sami 'Nier' Serrai	Mehdi 'edge' Zouaghi
Racim 'MvRiK' Boumalit	Oussama 'Reina' Khediri
Anis Fawzi 'Blaq' Abdelaziz	Yessine 'Vins' Hammami
Bilal 'Atilla' Ghemari	Najd 'w33dh4x' Khemiri
Akram 'Saylar' Zeghimi	Hakim 'SHOGUN' Ben Tanfous
	Adel 'Remind' Guermassi
Chakib 'Cursed' Boudjakdji - (M)	Hatem 'SHEVA' Guermassi
	Oussama 'MTLC' Reguez
	Salim 'moNster' Mansouri
	Bahaeddine Attiaz Attiaz - (M)

Morocco	South Africa
Yolussef 'razoR' Bousetta	Johan 'Zaphire' Heymans
Nadir 'vespeR' Laroussi	Wilmar 'Invert' Krügel
Ali 'Alislak' Hibatallah	Cornel 'Random' Venter
Tarik 'SaAtaN' Naciri	Michael 'Swagrid' Boucher
Youssef 'cactu' Ait Amghar	Duncan 'Paratex' Smale
Mouhamed 'yoshy' Ouarid	Bastiaan 'MellowPanda' van Wamelen
Hakim 'haks' Tadlaoui	Jason 'Jay' Batzofin
Salah 'Salah' Moujeb	Thyle 'CyberTron' Nortje
Amine 'poggY' Benbada	Thomas 'Chippy' Brown
Oussama 'Almighty' Barazzouk
Salah 'Salah' Moujeb - (M)	Ryan 'Snowflake' Boyes - (M)

The schedule of games from August 10-14 is:

Algeria	vs.	Morocco	Aug 10	14:00 CEST	(BO1)
Morocco	vs.	Lybia	Aug 10	15:00 CEST	(BO1)
Lybia	vs.	Egypt	Aug 10	16:00 CEST	(BO1)

Tunisia	vs.	Algeria	Aug 11	14:00 CEST	(BO1)
Morocco	vs.	Tunisia	Aug 11	15:00 CEST	(BO1)
Egypt	vs.	Morocco	Aug 11	16:00 CEST	(BO1)

Lybia	vs.	Algeria	Aug 12	14:00 CEST	(BO1)
Tunisia	vs.	Lybia	Aug 12	15:00 CEST	(BO1)
Algeria	vs.	Egypt	Aug 12	16:00 CEST	(BO1)

Egypt	vs.	Tunisia	Aug 13	14:00 CEST	(BO1)
South Africa	vs.	Egypt	Aug 13	15:00 CEST	(BO1)
Tunisia	vs.	South Africa	Aug 13	16:00 CEST	(BO1)

South Africa	vs.	Morocco	Aug 14	14:00 CEST	(BO1)
Algeria	vs.	South Africa	Aug 14	15:00 CEST	(BO1)
South Africa	vs.	Lybia	Aug 14	16:00 CEST	(BO1)

Entire tournament will be streamed on multiple languages on Hitbox.tv including English on E-Frag TV so tune in on time to watch best African players in battle for Global Finals of $100,000 The World Championships 2015. In addition, all matches will show up on the right side of the E-FRAG.NET homepage with all information including starting lineups, maps, result, time and date.