Road to Kaohsuing: MSSA announces the Protea Esports Team.

Road to Kaohsuing - 49 days to go...

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is proud to announce South Africa's official Protea Esports team which shall participate in IESF's 10th World Championships - Kaohsuing to be held from 6 to 13 November 2018.

Mind Sports South Africa has earned a reputation of being a federation totally committed to its members and athletes alike.

Through MSSA's efforts esports in South Africa has grown from being a mere activity to being a fully-fledged-accredited-sport for which players may earn Regional, Provincial, National Federation, and/or Protea Colours.

Thus, MSSA has gone through the process of selecting a national team for the 9th World Championships.

The process includes holding Regional, Provincial, and National Championships which feed  into the annual National Team Trials. It is from those that participate at the National Team Trials that the National Squad is selected, and then from those in the National Squad, various Protea Teams are selected to play in various events.

IESF's 2018 World Championships is being hosted in Chinese Taipei, and it is off to Kaohhsuing City that our brave and merry band will journey to once again do battle against the rest of the world.

The game titles in which South Africa's Protea Esports Team will compete are League of Legends®, CounterStrike: GO®, and Tekken 7®.

Alasdair Donaldson

MSSA is proud to have Alasdair Donaldson represent South Africa for Tekken 7®. Alasdair has showed his loyalty, dedication, and skill over many years having won many of the official provincial championships around the country. Alasdair too, has proven himself to be a very tough competitor and distiguished himself in IESF's 9th World Championships held in Busan. MSSA is quite confident that Alasdair will deliver solid results in Kaohsuing.

MSSA is particularly proud of its League of Legends® (LoL) Team. Without doubt, the League of Legends®  being fielded this year by South Africa combines the best of South Africa's two finest teams. The members of the team are all well known in South African competitive circles, and the members of the team have all dominated most of the events in which they have participated. 

Donovan de Klerk

With many of the members having obtained experience in online test matches as well as at IESF's 9th World Championships, there is great confidence in the team selected.  However, it is the team captain that often seals the fate of the team. MSSA believes that it has found the best possible team captain for the Protea Esports League of Legends® Team in the person of Donovan de Klerk. Donovan has proved himself to be a strong team captain being able to marshal, inspire, lead and  maintain the integrity of his teams, and it is hoped that such skills shall be used with equal effect in South Africa's Protea Esports League of Legends® Team.

MSSA is thus extremely confident in the abilities of the team to not only play well, but to also win the hearts, minds and souls of all those present at IESF's 2018 World championships.

Marisa van der Westhuizen

Although the esports title of CounterStrike: GO® was only introduced by IESF to into World Championships in 2016, Mind Sports South Africa has promoted such esports title in all Provincial and National championships since the game was published. 

Thus, MSSA jumped at the opportunity to enter its national team in 2016, and on the back of the experience learned at IeSF's 2016 World Championships - Jakarta, and IESF's 2017 World Championships - Busan, MSSA has again entered a team to contest the CounterStrike: GO® title.

The team is indeed 'battle-hardened' and will have to do battle against very tough competition. Nevertheless, MSSA is convinced that the team will do its best under the astute leadership of Marisa van der Westhuizen who is captaining South Africa's Protea Counter-Strike: GO® Esports Team.

It should be noted that Marisa will make history at such IESF's 10th World Championships - Kaohsuing as she will be the first ever female team captain of a CounterStrike:GO team at World Championship level. Marisa follows in the footsteps of Maryke Kennard who blazed the way in 2015. Marisa is consolidating on, and is building on, such gains to create greater equality for females in esports. 

The full team is as follows:

Title	Name	Club
CounterStrike: GO	Marisa "Faith" van der Westhuizen (Captain)	ZAG Academy
	Nicole "Nexxy" Rootman	ZAG Academy
	Alora Ann "Saphira" Liebenberg	ZAG Academy
	Lelane "Lilly" Soldin	ZAG Academy
	Leander "Chappy" van Schalkwyk	Taccor Gaming
League of Legends	Donovan "MoreGank Freeman" De Klerk (Captain)	Good Gaming
	Stephen "MrKnott" Pretorius	Good Gaming
	Brett "Clax" Whitehead	VexxedPhoenix
	Kyle "youNique" Taylor	VexxedPhoenix
	Maalik "YoloPete" Rawoot	VexxedPhoenix
Tekken 7	Alasdair Donaldson	VexxedPhoenix
Manager	Johan van Breda	ZAG Academy

Johan van Breda

The Team Manager, Johan van Breda, first served South Africa as a player in IESF's 2016 World Championships - Jakarta, been elected to the lofty position of Vice-President in 2017, and was selected to be Team Manager by MSSA's Management Committee in 2018. 

The Protea Esports Team has always finished in the top half at every IESF World Championships in which it has competed. 

Johan is determined to lead the Protea Esports Team into the top ten - a position to which South Africa has not risen since 2013.

It is MSSA's opinion that South Africa's Protea Esports Team finds itself in no better hands, and MSSA's President, Amanda Pakade, is confident that Johan shall deliver.

The Protea eSports Team shall officially be awarded their colours at the official award ceremony that shall be done just pri or to departure.

South Africa's past results are as follows:

Year	Venue	Position
2017	Busan –  South Korea	12th
2016	Jakarta –  Indonesia	14th
2015	Seoul –  South Korea	12th
2014	Baku –  Azerbaijan	13th
2013	Bucharest –  Romania	10th
2012	Cheonan –  South Korea	18th
2011	Andong –  South Korea	13th

IESF announces the venue for its 10th World Championships.

(Left: Alex Lim, the Secretary General of IESF / Right: Pei-Ching Hsu, the Deputy Managing Director of CTeSA)

The host city bid results for the 10^th Esports World Championship 2018 was taken by Kaohsiung city (Chinese Taipei) which was lead by the Chinese Taipei Esports Association (CTeSA). The results were announced at the closing ceremony of the 9^th Esports World Championships - Busan.

The 10^th edition of IESF's Esports World Championship is expected to be the greatest Esports World Championship in size and scale in comparison to all former events.

The venue in which the Esports World Championship will be held is none other than the Kaohsiung Arena.  The Kaohsiung Arena has previously hosted many other sporting events. 

Kaohsiung Arena

The stadium has the capacity of 15,000 seats, and has the history of holding the 2017 League of Legends Rift Rivals Seriesin 2017, as well as playing host to the World Games in 2009. 

Kaohsiung city government has promised that the Esports World Championship will be held to the highest standards and class. More detailed information concerning the 10^th edition of the World Championships is to be announced by IESF from time-to-time.

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA),  as usual, intends to send a team to compete at such event. In fact, MSSA has sent a team every year to IESF's World Championships, and is the only country that has had members of both genders in its national team in every world championship since 2011.

But why Kaohsiung City?

Kaohsiung City has recently been selected as one of the top 10 tourist cities to be visited in 2018 by Lonely Planet. Kaohsiung City too has the geographical advantages of both sea and airports, as well as perfect mass transit systems. Kaohsiung MRT connect High-speed Rail, Taiwan Railways and the international airport. While visiting the tournament, participants can tour Kaohsiung and enjoy the scenery and food of Kaohsiung.

The host member CTeSA was founded in January 2012, and has since its formation been the national federation representing Chinese Taipei. CTeSA are also proactive in the movement for esports recognition as an official sports, and have successfully received the recognition from the Ministry of Education and the Sports Administration. CTeSA is currently the one and only approved managing body for all esports event in Chinese Taipei just as MSSA is  in South Africa.

Thomas Brown to referee at WCA

On 27 April 2016, Mind Sports South Africa reported that Thomas Brown would be sent by MSSA to China for further training.

Thomas Brown

Like all benefits, they do not just fall out of the blue. Years of dedication, loyalty, hard-work and perseverance all have a part to play in the rewards and benefits that a person earns.

So it is true for Thomas as well,

Thomas has officiated at no less than 15 Mind Sports South Africa's eSport events and has run 22 of his own events while he has been a member of MSSA.

But now, there is even something greater in store for Thomas.

After attending the International Referee Conference in Yinchuan, China, Thomas shall move to Beijing where he will be the first ever South African to referee at a major international event.

Thomas will, in Beijing, referee at the WorldCyberArena 2016 Season 1 final.

WCA tournament is a platform to promote the role of Chinese E-sports development which cannot be ignored. WCA started in 2014 to access overseas markets for China's outstanding gaming platform products, but also to provide for the exchange of game products at home and abroad.

With a huge following, WCA will no doubt prove an interesting starting block for Thomas to launch his career as an international referee.