MSSA's Management Board Members.

Morizane Boyes (MSSA's  President) in gaming mode.

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) was founded in 1985 and since its inception has relied only upon volunteers to run the organisation.

Volunteers remain the back-bone of MSSA, and without the continued passion of such, MSSA would cease to be.

Even though MSSA pursues aggressive gender policies, the number of female participation on MANCOM  fell from 42% to 31%. This was due to very few females standing for positions at MSSA's Annual General Meeting. Had females contested any/all of the available positions, the current rules would only have allowed the female candidates to have been elected.

With Morizane Boyes holding the position of president, MSSA is confident that the needs and wants of Registered Players who are females will be addressed as never before.

It is should be noted that only MSSA has sent females to participate in every IESF World Championships since 2012 (Cheonan, Bucharest, Baku, Seoul, Jakarta, and Busan). However, it was pleasing to see other national federations starting to emulate MSSA by including females in their teams - well done Thailand!

The full list of MSSA's  Management Board (MANCOM) members for 2017 is as follows:

Position	Name	Term of office	Club
President	Morizane Boyes	2016 -2019	HTS Witbank
Deputy President	James Evans	2017 – 2020	Knights Mind Sports Club
Vice-President (Development)	Johan van Breda	2017 – 2020	ZAGA
Vice-President (Umpiring)	Adele Janse van Rensburg	2016 -2019	Generation X
Vice-President (Liaison)	Sheraaz Nunnian	2016 -2019	East London Esports
Vice-President (Events)	Leonard Loftus	2017 – 2020	Masters of Mind Sports
General Secretary	Colin Webster	2016 -2019	Old Edwardian Wargames Club
Board Gaming Representative	Joseph Matlhong	2016 -2019	North West University – Vaal
Card Gaming Representative	Paula Loftus	2016 -2019	Masters of Mind Sports
Esports Representative	Ryan Boyes	2016 -2019	BNKR
Wargames Representative	Terence Allwright	2017 – 2020	Old Edwardian Wargames Club
Womens’ Desk	Blair Hamberger	2016 -2019	IntenSity E-Sports
Athletes’ Representative	Jason Batzofin	2016 -2019	Old Edwardian Wargames Club
National Schools’ Director	Darryl-Lee Bruce-Smith	2017 – 2020	HTS Sasolburg – Gaming Club
Differently Abled Persons Representative	Twane Tollemache	2016 -2019	BNKR
Legal Representative	Carl Holliday	2016 -2019	Knights Mind Sports Club

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

Report on day 1 of the 2015 IeSF world championship: League of Legends

                          South Africa getting ready for the match against Thailand
   

Day 1 saw team South Africa take on Switzerland, Thailand and Iran in a best of 1 format for League of Legends. Game 1 against Switzerland was highly competitive as the  MWEB Protea eSports Team South Africa got off to a flying start with an early gold lead and turret advantage. The game saw first blood go to South African mid laner Matthew "Feno" Smith on Lulu when Dennis "koala with a hat" made a risky invade. The game remained close up until the 17 minute mark when Swiss jungler Dennis "koala with a hat" Berg started to snowball bottom and mid lane with some mechanically skilled Lee Sin plays. The Swiss team capitalized off of the mid game and saw them win at 28 minutes.

In the second game South Africa took on Thailand on the main stage which was broadcast live to thousands of viewers around the world. Cameron "SexyB" Tilley said the game was especially exciting as they got to play in one of the famous "gaming booths" commonly used here in Korea. Everyone who watched the game live here in the arena and those watching on line commented that this particular match was the closest and most competitive game they had seen up til then. First blood went to Taylor "Elis" Rose at 4 minutes with a level 3 gank on Lee Sin when Charoen "Argonaut" Limprasert overextended on Lulu against Vasudev "TagaBearClaw" Stringer on Pantheon in the top lane. The South African team drafted a strong early and mid game composition with a Lee Sin Jungle pick and Pantheon top lane pick, the down side to this composition however is that it had a time limit to close out the game before the late game started. The casters mentioned that the game was particularly fun to watch due to the aggressive and unusual current meta top lane Pantheon pick with Ignite/Flash as summoner spells.

                             South African and Thailand League of Legends teams

The undoubted star performance of the second game came from the South African mid laner Matthew "Feno" Smith on Ahri. Feno applied a lot of pressure in the mid lane which spilled over in to the side lanes as the jungler from Thailand had to constantly visit the mid lane to try and relieve some of the lane pressure after the level 6 mark. He also flourished in the mid game with some spectacular Ahri mechanics and flash-charm plays in the jungle skirmishes. At the 30 minute mark Feno had accomplished a 4.0 KDA with a score of 9/5/11. He had also completed his Zhonyas Hourglass, Luden's Echo and Morellonomicon with the eye on mitigating some of the life steal the Thai AD carry Panthakan "Murphyy" Kukham was building up on Vayne. The Thai team was running a protect the AD carry composition with Lullu in the top lane buffing up Vayne who was starting to snowball off some mid game kills. This proved effective as a late game team fight around the Baron pit swung the game in the favor of Thailand. The Thai team managed to capitalise off of this late game fight and saw them drive home a win in a nail biting finish.

South Africa faced off against Iran in the final game of the day. The South African bottom lane shined in this match with Cameron "SexyB" Tilley on Vayne and Maryke "Ykie" Kennard on Janna. The bottom lane synergy of South Africa proved to be too much for Iranian bottom lane of Iman "iman" Delaram on AD carry and Mohammad "mohammad" Nejati on support as Cameron and Maryke expertly navigated the early and mid game to create a massive gold and objective lead for South Africa. South Africa ran with this lead with an overwhelming victory at 37 minutes.

The team is looking forward to day 2 of the 2015 IeSF championship with some test matches against Australia and Serbia

- Johan Uys

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!