How to affiliate a club to Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA).

MSSA has had number of schools and other interested people enquiring about the process and benefits associated with registering with Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA).

Mind Sports South Africa is the largest membership based gaming organisation in South Africa, and is also the official controlling body for Board games, Card games, Esports, Robotics, and Wargames. 

There are many advantages of having a MSSA affiliated club, such as:

1. Being part of a community where your club has a real say in how things are done
2. Being able to apply for National Lottery Funding – MSSA member clubs can apply for up to R800,000.00 in funding, 
3. Being able to get assistance from your local government,
4. Experience increased media exposure of your events and your gamers,
5. Become part of the international community through the MSSA Registered players are able to become internationally recognised umpires, etc.,
6. Being able to put your club's news up on MSSA's blog,
7. Enable your gamers to take part in MSSA events, which may qualify them for colours, overseas trips, and even sports bursaries at university.

How to affiliate a club

To affiliate a club is quite an easy affair, all you have to do is follow these easy steps:

1. Gather the people together that want to form the club. Please note that there needs to be at least three members, and
2. Hold a meeting at which you agree to start a club, and at which meeting you agree to the Constitution as well as who are the elected office-bearers of the club (all such decisions must be by consensus), and
3. Write up the minutes of your inaugural meeting, and
4. Send in the club’s Constitution and Application Form for Affiliation to the MSSA.

However, it should be noted that school clubs do not need their own constitution and only require the permission of the school's  principal.

Once the MSSA is in receipt of the Constitution and Application Form for Affiliation, the MSSA will go through the Constitution and (if acceptable) approve it at the next Management Board Meeting. Only once membership is approved, are fees due.

Fee note for the 2019/2020 year 

The fee note details the Affiliation Fees and Registration fees that are payable.

The fees for the 2019/2020 gaming year (1 November 2019 to 31 October 2020) are:

Affiliation fees per club		R104.00 per annum
Registration fees:	Registered with MSSA Players who are members of school clubs	R110.00 per player R10.00 per player

Every club must  have a Constitution  

In order for a club to be a legal entity, a club must have a Constitution and must have multiplicity of members (3 or more members). The Constitution tells how the club operates and must, to a certain extent mirror MSSA’s Constitution. The Constitution  of a club must have certain clauses in order to ensure that there are the necessary bonds between the MSSA and the club. Therefore, MSSA insists that the clauses, “Objectives”, “Title and Legal Personality”, “Dispute Resolution”, and “Dissolution” remain unchanged. However, the club may amend the other clauses. Once the applicant club is satisfied with their Constitution, the elected Chairperson must initial each page, and sign and date the last page and submit a copy to the MSSA.

Anyone who would like to obtain more documentation, as well as the necessary application forms to register or affiliate with the MSSA please contact MSSA directly on mindsportscorrespondence@gmail.com 

Also read: 

• Closing date for booking accommodation at Fakkel School of Skills for SA Nationals in December 2019.
• Events for July until December 2019
• New National Team Selection Criteria
• Why schools and universities should invest in esports.
• National Federation Colours
• Earning Provincial Colours at S A National Championships.
• Any Registered Player may enter MSSA's S A National Championships.
• 2020 Calendar of Events

MSSA's continued growth.

MSSA - looking after a variety of disciplines and games.

Currently, there are over eighty-eight (88) clubs affiliated to Mind Sports South Africa.

South Africa’s oldest, and largest membership based, gaming organization continues to grow. With many of the member clubs having more than one team, MSSA is now able to deliver more than ever before.

The growth of structured clubs leads to a far more sustainable sport. In the past, teams were created by interested individuals, and when such individuals lost interest, ‘fell’ out with their players, or found that running a team was not as profitable as they thought, such individuals would move on to more lucrative endeavours.

Clubs provide a legal framework for a democratic process in which there can be a process of elections wherein the intellectual property of the various teams and the resources earned over the years can be legally transferred to the new administrators.

It is through the legal club structure that clubs can access National Lottery Funding.

Such funding is vital to anyone who wishes to grow and develop gaming, whether it be, board gaming, card gaming, esports, wargames, or robotics.

Playing in international competition

The BOO! Protea Esports Team that attended IESF's 9th World Championships - Busan.

There seems to be a great deal of confusion in certain quarters about who may, and who is eligible, to play in overseas competition.

The short  answer is that any person may play in any private competition.

Thus any South African gamer may enter ESL, WESG, Dreamhack, ESWC, etc., as those competitions are privately owned and do not form part of the officially recognised circuit.

In fact it has always been part of MSSA's policy to encourage teams to enter such.

It should be noted that MSSA even helped Energy eSports attend the ESWC in 2014 by helping to obtain deferred exams for two members of the team so that they could attend such the event.

MSSA believes that until more teams experience international competition, the standard of gaming in South Africa will not improve.

Thus all clubs should take advantage of National Lottery Funding, as such funding allows for travel to such events.

However, it should be noted that a club team playing in an event in a foreign country does not mean that such team is representing South Africa.

Only a team officially selected by MSSA may claim to represent South Africa.

Only the team so selected may be awarded Protea Colours.

Any queries apropos the above may be directed to mindsportssa@iafrica.com

What does MSSA have to offer South African gamers?

MSSA offers a huge amount to South African competitive gamers.

It has taken years to get the government and older sports bodies to take gaming seriously. To give you an example, in 1987 when MSSA requested to become affiliated to the Confederation of South African Sport (COSAS), the request was initially denied. By sheer perseverance and determination (allied with strong arguments), COSAS finally acceded to the MSSA’s request and granted the MSSA membership into the greater body of sport. This was indeed a huge triumph as the Springbok Colours Board also accepted MSSA as a result thereof and granted Springbok Colours to the MSSA’s team. Through careful politicking, the MSSA also joined the anti-establishment National Olympic Committee of South Africa (NOCSA) and formed a firm friendship with the late Bill Jardim.

As a result of being an affiliate of both COSAS and NOCSA, the MSSA was able to contribute to the equalisation of sport in South Africa and has been an affiliate of every macro sport body in South Africa since then, such as:

• The National Sports Council (1994 to 1999)

• The South African Sports Commission (1999 to 2002), and

• The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) 

With such recognition comes total accreditation of eSports as a sport. 

Protea Colours have been awarded since 1994 to deserving teams which represent South Africa in international events.

Some gamers may scoff at the fact that Protea Colours are now awarded, but they are those who have never experienced the joy and full benefits of being part of that select few that have officially represented South Africa overseas.

Apart from Protea Colours, there are National, Provincial, and Provincial School colours that can be earned. Allied to the colours awarded by the MSSA, there are the sporting colours that are awarded by both Universities and Schools alike. There too are the bursaries for which well deserving gamers can apply. The amounts differ from university to university, but such bursaries make a substantial difference to the costs of studying at university.

Other benefits include National Lottery Funding, the improved ability of obtaining sponsorship, local government support, and most importantly… having a voice to direct the future of eSports.

With MSSA being an Universitas all clubs that are fully-paid-up members have rights in voting on issues and have the right to propose issues. This means that the gamer actually takes control over the games which they play and love. MSSA is NOT a monolithic structure and has to comply with the wishes of the majority of its members.

Thus whatever MSSA does, it is because the majority of the membership wish it to be done so.

In this way MSSA is unique. MSSA is not driven by market forces and by pursuing profits at every turn, but is instead driven by what its membership wants.

We want R500k!

Reading a number of articles that  came out after rAge, I came across an article where the blogger stated that gaming deserves prize-money of at least R500,000.00 for events in South Africa.

But do our gamers deserve such an amount?

Are the amounts unrealistic?

Let's look at road-running as an  example...

The Old Eds 21 began in 1980 and has become one of the most sought after races to compete in. It is an ideal race for those who ran Comrades to start their preparation for City to City.

The race has grown in popularity over the years, and now attracts upwards of 3000 runners.

All finishers are given a medal.

However, prize-money is:

Picture courtesy of the Old Edwardian Society

Most gamers will moan about these prizes. When you consider that there are over 3,000 athletes competing, TV, radio, online, and newspaper coverage, the prizes do not look that  great.

However, in road-running, most of the events carry prize-money of roughly the same value. 

The reason, why it is simple, that is what the market can afford. Athletes realise the cost of putting on a road race and the monumental amount of effort demanded of by the organisers and their crew.

It is no different with eSports. In fact, hosting an eSport event may be proportionally much more expensive.

So, the costs are higher, there is less coverage, fewer participants, and even fewer spectators.

How many shoutcasters in South Africa are broadcasting to just a couple of hundred viewers?

How then do we change  the current situation and turn it into something that benefits everyone?

1. Start with development. Get more players across the board.
2. Clubs must become legal  bodies and take advantage of Lottery Funding.
3. Clubs should affiliate to MSSA so that eSports can talk with one voice.

Once the three steps have been achieved, the rest will start falling into place which will ultimately lead to greater spectatorship and sustainable revenue.

Without sustainable revenue, there just will not be increased prize-money.

Are sponsors limiting the growth of eSports?

To date clans cluster around sponsors like hounds around the master who throws scraps to the baying pack to placate the insatiable demand.

All the scraps do is temporarily satiate the hunger pangs which quickly return and leave no real respite.

So does the current sponsorship of eSports. Clans sell their brands for little and the sponsorship thus received does little to promote growth of gaming in terms of the number of gamers, standard of gaming or even the long-term financial sustainability of gaming.

As a result the sponsors too feel they are under siege. As the clans yelp around the sponsors for sponsorship, the sponsors are acutely aware of the transient nature of the clans. In business, any company that has not been in existence for at least ten years is considered to have a high rate of failing. Yet, only the clubs based at schools and universities have survived for more than ten years. Bravado is one of the few clans that is coming up to its tenth year of existence through the herculean efforts of 'bvd-cent'.

Sponsors are also more than aware that most, if not all, clans have no legal status and are often nothing more that individuals operating as Sole-traders. The opportunity for sponsors to thus claim any sponsorship as social development in order to win much needed BEE points is thus negated, and the sponsors themselves are aware that such sponsorships should be treated by those clans as income in the hands of the owners of such clans.

Also, many of the sponsors are aware that many gamers will in fact not buy their products. Gamers are without doubt a very discerning breed when it comes to technology and will favour picking-and-choosing what they need to build up their 'rigs' rather than just buying a finished product.

The types of sponsorships received thus do little for log-term development. While it is nice for a clan to secure hardware for their top clan, such a sponsorship does little to promote gaming and the profitability of the sponsor itself.

And therein lies the rub!

Unless sponsors can see that by sponsoring eSports that they will do more business, it remains more profitable for sponsors to sponsor football, rugby, and/or cricket.

Everybody in eSports thus has a duty to ensure that the sponsors can and will do better.

This does not mean that everybody must run out and quickly start purchasing computers, screens and the such.

Instead, every gamer must help to make it possible for prospective sponsors to substantially increase sales.

One of the ways to do this is to simply tap into NATIONAL LOTTERY FUNDING (NDLTF).

Of course there are criteria that have to be followed in order to do this, but it can be done!

Any club affiliated to the MSSA can apply for up to R200,000.00 per annum. The monies can be spent on equipment, kit, travel and entry fees, but only if:

a. the club is affiliated to the recognised national federation, and

b. has at least three year's audited financial statements.

Through participating in the NDLTF in this way, gamers will be able to unlock substantial amounts which will benefit sponsors and sponsored alike.

The money received will be spent on purchasing new equipment, which will increase the amount of sales and will further encourage companies to commit larger amounts to sponsoring both clans and events.

The growth can thus be exponential as more and more money will be spent in the computer industry.

Remember that approximately R400 million is earmarked every year for sport – it is foolish not to take advantage of this gilded invitation.

By following this course of action, gamers will have taken the initiative in controlling the destiny of eSports in South Africa to become the masters of their own fate.