IESF announces proposed game titles for 17th World Esports Championships to be held in 2025.

In a communique received by Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) from International Esports Federation on Friday, 27 December 2024 in which IESF stated, "The game titles remain the same as last year. Final negotiations with publishers are currently underway:

• CS2, Dota 2, MLBB, PUBG MOBILE, and eFootball."

IESF (International Esports Federation) typically selects game titles for its official competitions based on several criteria including popularity, competitive balance, accessibility, and the ability to foster a global esports community.

Since IESF has stated that the game titles remain the same, and knowing that IESF is fully committed to the empowerment of female esports athletes, it is obvious that CS2 and MLBB will also be held for female teams as well as being held in the open section. The open category allows teams or players to be either female or male. A female team may only consist of female players.

Thus, it is not imaginable, that should our female players outperform our male players in provincial championships, and at National Team Trials (NTT), the entire 2025 Protea team could only consist of females.

With South Africa (through MSSA) having participated in every IESF World Championships since the inception of such championships in 2009, MSSA expects a fierce competitive spirit to continue to grow among its membership as players fight for a place in the Protea Team.

Additional reading:

• 2025 Calendar of Events
• AEC24 - Champions of all of Africa - Protea Female Counter Strike 2 Esports Team wins AEC24
• AEC24 - Forged in battle - a Counter Strike story...
• Affiliation: Private Clubs
• Affiliation - Procedure to be followed by school clubs affiliating for the 2025 season.
• Awards - 2024 Management Board Awards
• Colours 2024 - Almost  half the awards are awarded to female gamers.
• Colours 2024 - Athletes who have earned Senior Provincial Colours in 2024
• Fees: MSSA advises of its affiliation and registration fees for the 2024/2025 season.
• Hosting official Regional Championships.
• IESF - IESF announces proposed game titles for 17th World Esports Championships to be held in 2025.
• National Team Trials: Ensuring every athlete achieves their dreams.
• Team Trials: To qualify for National Team Trials to represent South Africa.
• Transfers: Transfer season - 1 November 2024 to 28 February 2025

AVENGERS vs EXPENDABLES

The Beta has started on 28 March 2022.

The official playtest times are 7pm-9pm GMT every day.  The game is still playable outside of those hours, but there might not be many people playing, so the queues would  be quite long

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) has 1,000 beta keys to give away to interested gamers.

If you are interested in receiving a beta key, please contact Mindsportscorrespondence@gmail.com

Massage for gamers.

When it comes to muscular pain, few things feel better than a well-done massage. It’s one of the things players request most at tournaments. It can be used for as part of a warmup, a cooldown, or a break, and even those of us without serious pain can enjoy a nice massage.

But how useful is it for treating injuries? What are the short- and long-term effects? 

Massage works to reduce muscle tension by improving local bloodflow. By “local”, we mean that only the area that’s been massaged sees any change, as opposed to the whole body.

Massage has an impact on mental state as much as on physical status, and research suggests that mental state changes from massage are part of how pain and tension are relieved.

Research suggests that massage, by itself, is more useful for improving pain and function than just rest. When it comes to pain, massage appears to improve pain and function in patients with shoulder pain, knee pain, neck pain and low back pain. That’s not to say it doesn’t also help with pain for other conditions, just that the research in those areas is lacking.

Massage, by itself, helps pain in the short term. In the long term, though, unless you’re consistently and repeatedly receiving massages, your pain isn’t going to stay away. And if you only ever address the source of the pain and not the cause, the underlying cause will worsen until addressing the source isn’t enough.

So: does massage work? If your goal is short-term pain relief, yes. If your goal is to completely fix an injury, no.

Massage is great as a complimentary therapy, and can definitely be part of a good treatment or prevention program.

If you have pain from inflammation, gentle massage like effleurage to can help decrease swelling along with ice, compression, and gentle movement. Higher pressure types of massage like deep tissue, petrissage or tapotement are likely to make inflammation worse and to cause more damage.

If you have pain from muscle tension, especially from “muscle knots” or trigger points, massage is likely to address the source of pain (tightness) well. The underlying cause may involve muscle weakness, poor muscular endurance, or impaired coordination. While massage won’t address that directly, relieving tightness through massage can allow for improved muscle performance during the exercises that are used to address the cause.

Sleep Coaching gamers

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is ever mindful of improving player welfare and performance. With such belief Mr. Barry Bridges operates as MSSA's online coach and wellness consultant. 

Barry Bridges (ZAG Academy) is a qualified sports scientist who holds international certifications in sleep science, sports performance, golf fitness, and FMS movement testing.  He is based in Cape Town, South Africa and has over 12 years of experience working with Golf fitness for professional golfers such as interprovincial, national and sunshine tour golfers. While Barry had focused extensively on the golf industry he also has experience in working as a coach for strength and conditioning (soccer), corporate wellness, sleep coaching, and esports performance.

Barry uses the following list of tools to assess novice and professional gamers when they undergo when I sleep training. 

Barry further believes that education is vitally important when approaching gamers on this topic Gamers need to understand the 'why' and 'how' of sleep and recovery. Once the basic information has been covered, then Barry will dig deep into proper analysis and find out their sleep needs.

Gathering the information from the gamer will be the first step to allowing to identify weak performance points and to provide the best solutions going forward.

Here below are a few sleep tricks to help all gamers build sleep quality:

• Make sure to get regular sleep wake up times this will help promote sleepiness the night leading up to sleep.
• Get outside first thing in the morning and add some movement. The body needs sunlight and movement to reset our body clocks to prepare us for work. It is suggested that gamers have 15-30min of sunlight exposure in the morning, and add a walk or a early morning run and some stretching.
• Eat on a regular basis. Meal timing is important for the stomach and sleep. When you eat on regular times you will be able to perform on a daily basis. I suggest aiming for a big breakfast, Medium lunch and a light dinner. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and supper like a peasant!
  

Anyone wishing to contact Barry Bridges can do so on WhatsApp: +27 (0) 83 651 4170.

Also read:

• MSSA elections allow change and growth.
• MSSA remains a dynamic institution.
• Preventing dominance by any one club.
• Advantages of affiliation
• Calendar of  Events: 2021
• Events: 11th Online School Championships - 13 February 2021.
• Events: Western Cape Online Provincial Championships - 27 February 2021
• Affiliation: Schools
• Affiliation: Private clubs
• Esports titles selected: MSSA's High School Championships.
• Esports titles selected: MSSA's Student Championships
• Esports titles selected: MSSA's Premier Championships.
• Notices: MSSA's new Players' Representative - Jessie Joubert (ZAG Academy
• Notices: Lenel Human makes history.
• Notices: Sahil Ebrahim of PES Society elected as MSSA's Western Cape Provincial Director.
• Notices: Derby events
• Notices: Derby events -the way forward.
• Notices: Publishing your club news.
• Notices: Transfer season
• Notices: Learners may play for both private and school clubs.
• Notices: Calling all those wishing to serve as Selectors to volunteer
• Test Match results: South African Protea DotA 2 team rises triumphant.
• Test Match results: DOTA2: South Africa vs Azerbaijan
• New National Team Selection Criteria
• Selecting the national Protea teams for Mind Sports South Africa.

Rankings to be used at Gauteng Championships - Northcliff High School - 24 & 25 February 2018

The events to be played at MSSA's 2018 Gauteng Provincial Championships at Northcliff High School on 24 & 25 February 2018 will produce new rankings for all such games.

All gamers are reminded that MSSA's 2018 Gauteng Provincial Championships are an open championship. In other words any registered player is entitled to enter the championship – no matter where they live, or their category of membership. 

You may contact MSSA at mindsportssa@gmail.com

Other official rankings produced by MSSA are as follows:

• Senior Ancients Wargames
• Senior CounterStrike: GO
• Senior DotA 2
• Senior FIFA '18
• Senior HearthStone
• Senior Injustice 2
• Senior League of Legends
• Senior Morabaraba
• Senior Mortal Kombat X
• Senior Pro Evolution Soccer (PES)
• Senior StarCraft II
• Senior Street Fighter V
• Senior Tekken 7
• Schools CounterStrike: GO
• Schools DotA 2
• Schools FIFA
• Schools HearthStone
• Schools League of Legends

Details of the championships are as follows:

• Board gaming: https://esportscommentator.blogspot.co.za/2018/01/36th-mssa-gauteng-board-gaming.html
• Esports: https://esportscommentator.blogspot.co.za/2018/01/esports-mssas-36th-gauteng-provincial.html
• Wargaming: http://esportscommentator.blogspot.co.za/2017/01/34th-mssa-gauteng-wargaming.html

Should gamers 'hop' from club-to-club?

Some esports gamers have been known to move two or three times a year.

With MSSA now having over 90 clubs affiliated to it, are you at the right club?
Conventional wisdom holds that there is some kind of sliding scale between loyal club member and a member that hops from club-to-club, and that it is dangerous to move to much. 

If, on the other hand, you opt for the loyalty route, the club for which you play may give substantial benefits, as turnover is expensive. 

Because of the expense in training new club members, clubs look for unfaithful members, but not members that are unfaithful too often as they do not want those members to cheat on them as they did on the previous club.

Transition from clubs are a finite resource, and is often the difference between having a few cold ones on the weekend and being an alcoholic.

One of the biggest reasons people stay at a club is simple inertia as it is easier to stay where you are comfortable rather than going somewhere else which may test you, and possibly make you 'up' your game.

Being satisfied with the club of which you are a member, is also a huge reason why a player would not hop from club-to-club.

Loyalty too is yet another reason why a player will remain with a club. In return, the club may reward such a player with loyalty in return. Such cases are, however, rare as administrators change and sometimes do not share the same values as the previous administrators.

It is always unwise to believe that a club would not be able to survive without your loyalty and skills. Clubs are remarkably good at plodding along, even when administrated by incompetents.

When club hopping, you stand a better chance of developing your career. When you hop: you tend to accumulate more experience as you have to learn to deal with new team-mates, learn new aspects of the game, a deal with new environments.

Hopping from club-to-club also lets you control your circumstances.

The club hopper is never around long enough to wait for promotion to the 'A' team, if he/she sees it is not going to happen within his/her time-frame, he/she moves, and goes to a club that will provide the advancement that he/she craves.

As a result of the above, players who hop from club-to-club avoid stagnation.

As long as you don’t quit, or get kicked-out, without another club to go to, there is nothing wrong with hopping from club-to-club.

Sure it will annoy club administrators, but such administrators were probably far to complacent with you as a member, and not really meeting your needs anyway.

Of course the player  who is having his/her needs met will rubbish this opinion piece.

Growth in Participation: Choosing the correct titles.

As we have already seen in my article titled Growth in Participation: effects of Sponsorship., sponsorship plays an important part in the growth of participation.

However, as important, is the choice of game titles.

Choosing the wrong titles can kill an organisation, and Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) has made some good choices and, admittedly, has also made some mistakes.

Currently MSSA only selects a maximum of 10 esports titles a year for the Premier and for School Provincial and National Championships.

It should  be noted that due to the fantastic increase of over 77% in participation in 2017, every single title showed a net increase in the actual number of participants.

What also becomes apparent is that the titles played at IESF's World Championships totally outperform the other titles in terms of participation. There can be no doubt that the lure of being in an official Protea Esports Team is a big draw card. To be able to wear the same Protea Colours as awarded to any other sport is indeed a great incentive.

This means that MSSA must look for other events to which it can send the top teams in the other titles in  order to develop them equally.

However, titles that prove to be unsupported by the gamers themselves, or which prove to be unsuitable, run the risk of being cut from the official schedule.

The 'championship share' of the various esports titles for the past 5 years is as follows:

Year	Game titles
	CounterStrike: GO	DotA 2	FIFA	HearthStone	League of Legends	MortalKombat	PES	StarCraft II	StreetFighter	Tekken
	% share	% share	% share	% share	% share	% share	% share	% share	% share	% share
2017	21	7	7	2	16	9	4	4	7	14
2016	13	9	7	2	15	13	5	3	9	11
2015	20	23	8	3	9	not played	not played	4	3	8
2014	4	22	8	not played	14	not played	not played	3	not played	11
2013	3	28	8	not played	6	not played	not played	4	not played	3

(Please note that the 'championship share' of the various board games and for wargames has not been included in the above table).

Also read:

• Titles selected for all Premier online and LAN championships for the 2018 year.
• Titles selected for all school online and LAN championships and leagues for the 2018 year.
• Growth in Participation: effects of Sponsorship.

MSSA has approved its schedule for all School Provincial and National LAN championships.

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) has already approved the new schedule for all Premier Provincial and National esports championships.

By having every such school Premier Provincial and National championship played to the same schedule, gamers are able to become used to the schedule and the procedures enforced at such championships.

Gamers are requested to thus make themselves  aware of the championship schedule and to also note the changes in terms of games/titles hosted at such events.

The schedule is as follows:

Saturday
Time	StarCraft II	FIFA Online	Counter Strike GO
09H00	Round 1 Starts	Round 1 Starts	Round 1 Starts
09H45	Round 2 Starts	Round 1 Continues	Round 1 Continues
10H30	Round 3 Starts	Round 2 Starts	Round 2 Starts
11H15	Round 4 Starts	Round 2 Continues	Round 2 Continues
12H00	Round 5 Starts	Round 3 Starts	Round 3 Starts
12H45		Round 3 Continues	Round 3 Continues
13H00	Lunch
Time		FIFA Online(continued)	Counter Strike GO (continued)
14H00		Round 4 Starts	Round 4 Starts
14H45		Round 4 Continues	Round 4 Continues
15H30		Round 5 Starts	Round 5 Starts
16H15		Round 5 Continues	Round 5 Continues
17H00
18H00	Awards Ceremony
19H00	Doors Close
SUNDAY:
Time	Dota	League of Legends (LoL)	TEKKEN 7	VainGlory
09H00	Round 1 Starts	Round 1 Starts	Round 1 Starts	Round 1 Starts
09H45	Round 1 Continues	Round 1 Continues	Round 1 Continues	Round 2 Starts
10H30	Round 2 Starts	Round 2 Starts	Round 2 Starts	Round 3 Starts
11H15	Round 2 Continues	Round 2 Continues	Round 2 Continues	Round 4 Starts
12H00	Round 3 Starts	Round 3 Starts	Round 3 Starts	Round 5 Starts
12H45	Round 3 Continues	Round 3 Continues	Round 3 Continues
13H00	LUNCH
Time	Dota (continued)	LoL (continued)	TEKKEN 7 (continued)
14H00	Round 4 Starts	Round 4 Starts	Round 4 Starts
14H45	Round 4 Continues	Round 4 Continues	Round 4 Continues
15H30	Round 5 Starts	Round 5 Starts	Round 5 Starts
16H15	Round 5 Continues	Round 5 Continues	Round 5 Continues
17H00
18H00	Awards Ceremony
19H00	Doors Close

Also read:

• MSSA has approved its schedule for all Provincial and National LAN championships.