Official Announcement for 6th e-Sports World Championship BAKU 2014

According to the MSSA, the IeSF has now finalized the Official game titles, Participation conditions, Prize pool and Uniform Regulations for the 6th e-Sports World Championship BAKU 2014, which are follows,

1. Additional Game Titles:
- The host country, Azerbaijan, recommended 2 additional game titles as is their right, which are follows:
1) ULTRA STREET FIGHTER IV (CAPCOM) – Male Competition / Individual Match
2) HEARTHSTONE (BLIZZARD) – Male Competition / Individual Match

- Thus the official game titles for the 6th e-Sports World Championship BAKU 2014 are as follows:

1) Male Division

a. DOTA 2 (Team Match)
b. STARCRAFT II (Individual Match)
c. ULTRA STREET FIGHTER IV (Individual Match)
d. HEARTHSTONE (Individual Match)

2. Prize Pool
- The Board of IeSF decided the total Prize Pool for 6th e-Sports World Championship BAKU 2014 as $ 100,000 USD, which is the biggest size of IeSF’s history ever.
- The Prize Pool is divided into two categories: Winning Nations by Overall Performance and Winners by each game title
- All Categories of Prize will be distributed to the related Member National Federation, and the such National Federation can distribute the Prize to the related players in accordance with the contract between NF and the Player.
- For more details of Prize Distribution, please see below table:

1) Category for Winners by Each Game Title
　 

	Game	1st	2nd	3rd	Total
Male	DOTA 2	$25,000	$15,000	$10,000	$50,000
	SC2	$5,000	$3,000	$2,000	$10,000
	SF4	$5,000	$3,000	$2,000	$10,000
	HS	$5,000	$3,000	$2,000	$10,000
Female	SC2	$2,500	$1,500	$1,000	$5,000
	TTT2	$2,500	$1,500	$1,000	$5,000
Overall Performance		$5,000	$3,000	$2,000	$10,000
Total		$100,000 USD

This means that the MWEB Protea Team will have not only national honour for which to play, bt cold hard cash as well!

It will indeed be interesting to see if the Protea Team is up to the task.

Coaches essential to the growth of eSports

There is no doubt that for a game to grow, there must be a general groundswell of interest in the game if it is to develop as a sport.

But, is that enough?

I mean, just because there are people who are interested in playing the game, does that mean that the game will develop as a sport?

No, not at all!

The initial interest in the game being played, may be just a fad, or remain as just a game being played on a recreational level without ever moving upwards to become a truly competitive sport.

Of course there are many who are content with games just being around as a recreation, but there are those who want to see games played on a more competitive level, and who want to push themselves to the nth degree to demonstrate their mastery over the game.

So what is the catalyst to make games into a sport?

The way that I see it, gaming is no different from the traditional sports.

For many years the traditional sports were played on a truly amateur basis, but the sports grew from strength to strength even without huge injections of money.

So what then created the impetus for growth?

The way I see it is that it was the coaches who provided the impetus. Sport is in many ways no different from the automobile industry..

In the automobile industry, the manufacturer makes the product, and then advertises the product in the attempt to enable sales.

The dealer then sells the car, and sometimes very aggressively, as it is in the dealers interest to make sure that the brand is protected and that events take place to further recruit customers.

So is it with sport!

The National Federation creates the environment that is conducive to growth. Through its dealings with government, accreditation of events, and selection of teams (to mention but a few), the National Federations take on the role as the manufacturer.

However, it is the coaches that take on the role of the 'dealer'.

The coach has a single-minded approach to the survival of the game as a sport. It is through the promotion of the game that the coach earns his/her living. It is in the pursuit of earning a living that the coach will attract more players to the game. It is through the coach's abilities that players will improve and thus make a name for the coach.

Thus is eSports is to truly become a sustainable sport in South Africa, their has to be the development of professional coaching!

Gone are the days of coaching being done on a ad hocnature with advice being freely given.

Coaching must be professional, and gamers must be prepared to pay for it!

When South Africa has professional coaches in South Africa, I guarantee that there will be a remarkable improvement in the average standard of play.

Then you will see foreign players queuing up to play in the MSSA's MWEB Provincial and National Championships.

Results: MSSA's MWEB 2014 Mpumalanga LAN Championships - 24 & 25 May 2014

Once again HTS Witbank hosted the MSSA's MWEB Mpumalanga

However the growth in the number of gamers at the championships would not have been possible without the herculean efforts of Morizane Boyes, Bianca Henning, and Louis Brown.

The support being given by the schools is proving to be the back-bone of the MSSA  and is the most important part of the MSSA's development programmes.

Championships. The Championships were played on the weekend on 24 & 25 May 2014 and experienced solid growth among all sectors. Not only was there a general increase in the number of gamers present, and the number of games that were played, but there too was an increase in the number of female competitors.

There was no less than a seven fold increase in the number of females competing with  more females playing the game of Tekken Tag Tournament II© than males. Obviously the emphasis that the MSSA is putting on the development of females in gaming is starting to bear fruit. It is hoped that the 2015 championships will see even more female gamers especially now that the MSSA makes provision (in accordance with IeSF rules) to hold competitions in all titles for both female and male teams and/or players.

The support given by MWEB again proved to be invaluable to the MSSA, and as a result of such support members were able to enjoy the benefits of participating in an official LAN championship. It is through the official championships that gamers are able to qualify for colours and for national team trials. In other words, the official championships form part of a year year  long qualification process for gamers to  prove their worth in order to be selected to finally, and officially, represent South Africa in international competition.

Six member clubs from two provinces contested the championships.

At the championships, the Tuks Mindsport Club again dominated the League of Legends and Dota 2 events. However, the rest of the events were divided up among the Mpumalanga based clubs.

Special mention must be made of Kyle Turnbull who pulled out a surprise win over veteran Abubakar 'Mikkael' Ebrahiem at the 2013 MWEB Mpumalanga Championships. Kyle went on to further cement his dominance in the game of FIFA '14© by trouncing all opponents at the 2013 MWEB SA National Championships. Kyle confirmed his mastery of the game at the Mpumalanga Championships by once again winning all of his games at the Provincial Championships to automatically earn himself Provincial Colours.

Nadine Swart also deserves special mention. The diminutive Nadine totally dominated the game of Tekken Tag tournament II©. Her standard of play was indeed most impressive and Nadine lead the championship from start to finish. In fact, there are many of the MSSA officials who strongly believe that Nadine may just have a chance of earning herself a place in the 2014 Protea Team that will go to Baku, Azerbijan in November this year.

Only time will tell!

The winners of the different titles are:

BOARD GAMES

Morabaraba

Female – Premier				Male – Premier
Pos	Team	Club		Pos	Team	Club
1	Nomfundo Moyo	HTS Witbank		1	Simphiwe Maphumulo	Zola Checkers Club

eSPORTS

Call of Duty: Ghosts

Male – Premier (PC)
Pos	Team	Club
1	TFR	All Stars

Male – Premier (PS3)
Pos	Team	Club
1	Ash Meltdown	HTS Witbank

Male – Premier (XBox)
Pos	Team	Club
1	ELECTRA	HTS Witbank

COUNTERSTRIKE GO

Male – Premier
Pos	Team	Club
1	Delta 5 Gaming	All Stars

Dota 2

Male – Premier
Pos	Team	Club
1	TMSC Sabotage	Tuks Mindsport Club

Male – Schools
Pos	Team	Club
1	Grey Warders	HTS Witbank

FIFA '14

Male – Premier (PS3)
Pos	Name	Club
1	Kyle Turnbull	HTS Witbank

Male – Schools (PS3)
Pos	Name	Club
1	Sibusiso Mathizerd	Hoerskool Generaal Hertzog

Male – Premier (XBOX)
Pos	Name	Club
tie 1	Bomganjala Zwane Setlabocha Pudi	HTS Witbank

Male – Schools (PS3)
Pos	Name	Club
1	Armand du Preez	Hoerskool Generaal Hertzog

League of legends

Male – Premier
Pos	Team	Club
1	Senior Team	Tuks Mind Sports Club

OSU

Female – Premier				Male – Premier
Pos	Team	Club		Pos	Team	Club
1	Lucille Brown	HGH		1	Lejend Muir	All Stars

StarCraft 2

Female – Premier				Male – Premier
Pos	Team	Club		Pos	Team	Club
1	Morizane Boyes	All Stars		1	Jaco Botha	HTS Witbank

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Female – Premier				Male – Premier
Pos	Team	Club		Pos	Team	Club
1	Nadine Swart	HTS Witbank		tie 1	Legend Muir Andrè Potgieter	All Stars HTS Witbank

Female – Under 24
Pos	Team	Club
1	Riana du Plessis	All Stars

Female – Schools				Male – Premier
Pos	Team	Club		Pos	Team	Club
tie 1	Nadia Nasson Zanele Kanye	HTS Witbank HTS Witbank		1	Martin van Niekerk	HTS Witbank

FIGURE GAMES

Ancients

Female – Premier				Male – Premier
Pos	Team	Club		Pos	Team	Club
1	Elisha Retief	Old Edwardian Wargames Club		1	Donald Mullany	Old Edwardian Wargames Club

In total, 29 gamers earned the right to wear Provincial Colours. A further 10 students were awarded Student provincial Colours and 12 learners were awarded High School Provincial Colours. All those that were awarded the various Provincial Colours were immediately given both their certificates and a high quality 195gsm golf shirt to indicate that they had received such colours.

The MWEB championships too saw a total of 95 gamers qualify for National Team Trials. With so many gamers qualifying for trials, there is no doubt that the MSSA will have sufficient teams in order to select teams to represent South Africa.

Photographs can be found on https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152856369719008.1073741880.146018324007&type=3

Photo's of the winners at the 2014 MWEB Mpumulanga Championships

TEKKEN

CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS (XBOX)

CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS (PS3)

STARCRAFT II

CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS (PC)

 COUNTERSTRIKE GO

FIFA (PS3)

 MORABARABA

'ANCIENTS' WARGAMES

OSU

DOTA 2

Quotas out - transformation is in!

Xola Magwaza at the 2009 IeSF Challenge

It was pleasing to see that the Sports Minister, the Hon. Fikile Mbabula backed down on the issue of quotas.

Quotas are a very dirty word for many people in South Africa.

Even a recent South African court case declared quotas to be illegal in business,

However, even with the Minister back-tracking on the issues of quotas, the Minister, and SASCOC, are dedicated to the issue of transformation.

Of course, transformation does not just apply to the sporting teams, but to the entire structure of the sports code from the athletes, coaches, technical officials, and administrators.

This of course, poses various problems for the sporting codes as most coaches, technical officials, and administrators are in fact volunteers.

Volunteers are, as we all know, people who do something for free out of the love and passion that they have for the game. Without the volunteers in any sports structure, the federations themselves will surely buckle under the weight of having to find additional resources to pay those who demand to be paid for the jobs that volunteers are doing for free.

Thus in a volunteer organisation, it seems as though transformation will be a slower process as it will take time to develop the ethos of volunteerism?

I do not believe so!

Sporting bodies are no different to churches. Churches often survive in the most adverse of conditions. Churches survive without government aid and purely upon the contributions of the membership. The contributions consist of financial, time, effort and skills.

It all depends in what you really believe, and what you

want to see happen.

For the members of a church group, of any religion, it is the promotion of their beliefs.

Why then do gamers shy away from the same level commitment in promoting eSports? After all more gamers put more time into gaming than into any other activity that they do. Gamers get far more pleasure out of eSports than from any other activity. Gamers should then treat gaming as if it were there religion and put more back.

With more volunteers from across the board, total transformation will be achieved very quickly indeed, and we can then all move on from worrying about politics and getting down to the business at hand, and that is, playing the game!

6th e-Sports World Championship Baku

The Crystal Hall, Baku

The International eSports Federation (IeSF) has moved forward with eSports on an unprecedented scale.

The recognition that the IeSF has earned from 2008 among governments is now beginning to bear fruit.

There was a time when we all thought that the IeSF would only be able to host its events in South Korea. After all, the IeSF, through the efforts of the General Secretary, Mr. W. S. Oh, had earned the respect, and support of the South Korean government.

However, in 2013 the bold move was taken to allow the Romanian member, the PGL, to host the championships in Bucharest in Romania.
The championship in Romania was a fantastic success.

Certainly the South African team thoroughly enjoyed the event.
Thus with the success of the event in Romania, the IeSF decided to allow members to bid for the event.

And so Azerbijan won the bid for the 2014 World Championships.

Thus on the 1^st of May 2014 the IeSF signed a MOU for hosting 6^th e-Sports World Championship with both the Azerbaijan Cyber Sports Federation and Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Through the MOU, the government of Azerbaijan will be directly involved in hosting World Championship with full support including funding for whole operation.

The 6^th e-Sports World Championships shall be played from 12 – 17 November 2014 in the Crystal Hall in Baku.

Apparently the hall boasts an amazing internet speed of 1 GB.

The MSSA has also stated that it will enter its official South African Team to play in such World Championships.

It will the first time that the MSSA will send a team to Azerbijan.

Up to now, the MSSA has only sent eSports teams since 2005 to the USA, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Namibia, and Romania.

According to the MSSA shortly after the IeSF announced the venue, the IeSF announced which titles to be played at such championships in order to allow all member federations to adequately prepare.

The tiles to be played at the 6^th e-Sports World Championship Baku are:

Male division	Female division
Dota 2	StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm	Tekken Tag tournament 2

Two to three additional official games can still be added by the host county. 

I'm pretty much hoping that League of Legends and/or CounterStrike GO will still be added to the event.

However, even if they aren't, I estimate that this event is likely to set the MSSA back over two hundred thousand rands to get the team overseas.

Now that is a real commitment to gaming!

Official South African National eSports Teams - 2013

All photographs are taken from the MSSAs facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mindsportssa/photos_albums

The BATTLEFIELD 3 TEAM:

Captain: Barry 'Anthrax' Louzada

Photo on the left shows members from the team from the Gauteng area.

The photo on the right shows members of the team from Cape Town.

StarCraft II Test Match between South Africa and Romania:

Robert 'PandaTank' Botha (South Africa) in action against Silviu 'NightEnd' Lazar (Romania)

Gabriella 'GabyBear' Isaacs at a film shoot on gaming:

Dota 2 Protea Team:

Team captain: Anthony 'Scant' Hodgson

StarCraft 2 - Dreamhack, Bucharest:

Nathan Anderson

Team eSports South Africa - 2013 IeSF World Championships:

Team captain: Lyrene Kuhn

The team participated in League of Legends, Tekken Tag Tournament II, and StarCraft 2.