MSSA to turn commemorative coin into eSports trophy?

The proof of how well an organization is run always rests on the rules of such body and how those trusted to

As being part of the accredited sporting scene, the officials of the MSSA are often invited to the big events, and I mean big, events.

For example, it is not unusual for the President of the MSSA to be invited to the inauguration of the President at the Union Buildings, the memorial for the late Nelson Mandela, and the Gala Dinner for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, etc.

run the body respect such rules.

It was at  the Gala Dinner for the 2010 FIFA World Cup that, as usual, gifts were given to the delegates. Making up the parcel of gifts was a commemorative coin for the 2010 FIFA World Cup (as above) which was given to some of the guests.

Upon receipt of the coin, the then president of the MSSA (Colin Webster) transferred to coin into the MSSA's inventory.

That is what I like about the MSSA. Instead of the official holding onto a gift, it is passed on to the body, and instead of the gift just lying around in a dark drawer or in a display case, the coin will be used to help uplift a title.

This will be a floating trophy that many will want to win at the MWEB S A National Championships in order to have their name on!

wp MSSA, wp indeed!

More on transformation!

On Wednesday, 27 May 2015, the Minister of Sports and Recreation announced that a number of national
federations had further committed themselves to transformation.

My last article on transformation created so much ire among gamers that I received over 500 responses. Unfortunately few were able to be posted due to legal constraints.

However what is important is that transformation affects ALL sports and ALL of South Africa.

There were some rather weird reasons given by gamers why transformation should not apply to cyber-sports. One of the reasons was that since computer gaming is a post apartheid activity, transformation should not apply. Another gamer stated that it is not the responsibility of the clans to transform, but for organizations to create new clans among disadvantaged peoples.

On re-reading these comments, I am struck by the naievity of the gamers concerned.

Transformation exists in every aspect of South African life, and no matter if people oppose it, it will be enforced.

Just how it is to be enforced rests with the 'Powers that are'.

Many sporting bodies have gone for the easy route of applying draconian quota systems and by writing transformation into their rules and regulations. Such moves have created a great deal of unhappiness among the sportsmen/sportswomen concerned as some have felt that they have been denied the opportunity to compete at the very highest of levels and feel that they have been denied selection to national teams.

Some  national federations have just buried their heads in the sand and have hoped that the problem would go away. However, that is not going to happen.....

Federations like Mind Sports South Africa have taken a very different approach. The MSSA is active in creating clubs that will cater for the majority of South Africa's population, and have active policies to promote a more sustainable form of development. The MSSA too has come out strongly against the imposition of quotas in the belief that the attempt to force quotas is actually illegal.

After all, development in sport is dependent on transformation in the economy.

It is not possible to get volunteers where people do not have enough money to feed themselves. Nor is it possible to get people to play games when they lack the basic infrastructure, and also lack the equipment that they need to play.

Unfortunately, most South Africans are born into poverty. While the government likes to claim that there is unemployment of 23%, I think that the figure is closer to 80% based on simple maths, being that there are 4 million taxpayers and that there are 25 million South Africans over the age of 18. Thus 4/25*100 = 16% employment.

With such high figures of unemployment, transformation requires an active mentor system by ALL.

Every clan and club should be concerned with transformation. Of course it can all be funded at club level by the National Lottery.

The biggest problem is, quite frankly, that if we do not see it as all of our duties, it may not be long before the rules change, and a form of transformation is thrust upon the gaming community.

Maryke leads yet another Tuks League of Legends team to victory!

Maryke Kennard - second from the left

There is no question about just how passionate Maryke Kennard is about the game of League of Legends, or LoL to some.

Maryke Kennard - second from the right

Maryke is the force that pushes and promotes the game in the Tuks Mindsports Club. Without Maryke's boundless enthusiasm and commitment, the teams from Tuks would certainly not do as well as they are.

Since 2014 Maryke has lead the Tuks Mindsports League of Legends to the following victories:

• The 2014 MWEB Gauteng Provincial Championships, 
• The 2014 MWEB South African National Championships, 
• The 2015 MWEB Gauteng Provincial Championships, and
• The 2015 MWEB Mapumulanga Provincial Championships.

For her efforts Maryke has earned both Gauteng Provincial Colours (in both the Student and Senior divisions) as well as South African Nationa Federation Colours (in both the Student and Senior divisions).

Should Maryke continue on this path, it is more than likely that she will become the first female in the history of the MSSA to be awarded the much desired Honours Award in both categories as well as in both divisions.

Such award will place her in among a very select group of people who have the Honours Award.

Kyle still at the top of his game!

Kyle Turnbull receiving his Protea Colours

Kyle Turnbull really does have a remarkable talent at the game of FIFA '15.

There is not an official MSSA championship in which he has played that he has not won outright. In fact it has come to our attention that Kyle is totally dominating the unofficial leagues as well.

This young player from HTS Witbank is as dedicated to the game of FIFA as one can imagine. His dedication and hard work means that for the third consecutive year, Kyle is at the top of his game.

At the MWEB sponsored 14th Mpumalanga Championships held on 23 and 24 May 2015, Kyle simply demolished all of his opponents. There were even games that Kyle won 17 - 2.

The only real competition that Kyle got was from Joline Pico (also of HTS Witbank) who at least held him for the greater part of the game. But even Joline crumbled in the end to Kyle's mastery of the game.

There is no doubt that Kyle needs international competition to further improve.

Tuks Mindsports Monthly Cup

Welcome to the second Hearthstone Monthly Cup. This cup is hosted jointly by eAegaming and Tuks MindSport Club.


The cup will span over two days, where the group stages are played on the 30th and the single elimination brackets are played on the 31st. We will attempt to have as many matches casted as possible, and we urge players to attempt to cast, or record, some of their own matches.

Registration for the tournament can be done on: http://eaegaming.challonge.com/HSMay

When signing up, select to use an alternative name and include your full battle tag as the alternative name when signing up. This is required so that the tournament can have a much easier flow.

Groups of 4 Schedule
Matches will be played on the 30th.
Each group has brackets with the titles of A, B, C, F, G. (It is the letter next to the bracket).
Bracket A and B will be from 17:00-18:00.
Bracket C and F will be from 18:00-19:00.
Bracket G will be from 19:00-20:00.

Single Elimination Rounds Schedule
Matches will be played on the 31st.
Round 1 will be from 17:00-18:00
Round 2 will be from 18:00-19:00
Top semifinal will be from 19:00-20:00
Bottom semifinal will be from 20:00-21:00
Finals will be from 21:00-22:00

Tuks Mindsports gamer dominates at Mpumalanga Provincial Championships

Erasmus Burger with medal

At the MWEB sponsored 32nd Gauteng Championships, Erasmus Burger dominated the championships from start to finish.

At such championship, held in March, Erasmus scored a perfect victory earning himself the maximum points that could be earned.

A number of critics started to claim that it was due entirely to the fact that the current SA Champion from St John's College ((Jason Batzofin) was not present.

Erasmus of course laughed off such critics, and to prove a point entered the MWEB sponsored 14th Mpumulanga Championships.

Erasmus on the attack

So, on a misty Saturday morning, Erasmus headed out to Witbank to do battle, and do battle he did.

Erasmus showed no mercy and attacked each and every opponent with passion.

None could blunt his attacks, and all succumbed as Erasmus again notched up not only another provincial title, but also a perfect win.

Obviously his seeding points reflect his win as he pushed his points from 668 to over 1,000 points, being the first South African in 2015 to cross such threshold.

Erasmus is now setting himself up as the undisputed champion in Ancients wargaming.

It will be interesting to see if he can maintain his form until the SA National Championships in December.

The rankings of the top twenty South Africans is as follows:

How cool is this?

Join us in May 29-31 when we travel to Bran Castle, Romania, for the third edition of Viagame House Cup -viagame.com/housecup

I came across this on the MSSA facebook page.

Even though I am an avid reader, I have not discovered this little gem on anybody else's site. Why should I, after all it is not an event being played in South Africa, even if, well, gosh, it is just so damned cool!

Imagine sitting in Bran Castle, thje home of Count Dracula while playing a Hearthstone competition.

Wow!

Talking about the fusion of the old and the new!

I wish I knew about it sooner - I would have gone just to watch.

How cool would it have been if the MSSA had sent a member of the MWEB Protea eSports Team to this?

Yet no-one other the MSSA has even mentioned this to my knowledge.

Is this really how far our eSports journalists are behind what is going on in the rest of the world?

Announcement of the official SA Counterstrike: GO squad.

Johan Heymans

With great delight, the MSSA is now in a position to announce the squad from which the official South African Counterstrike: Go teams will be drawn to represent South Africa at the upcoming E-FRAG.net World Championships as well as at the 7th IeSF World Championships later this this year.

Of course none of this would be possible without the continued support of MWEB. MWEB is the official team sponsor, and through their continued support, South Africa has been able to climb from being ranked 18th in the world in 2012 to be ranked 13th in the world in 2015.

The squad consists of nine of the finest Counterstrike players that participate in the official South African tournament scene.

To be selected or the final squad, each player qualified for National Team Trials at either a Regional, Provincial or National Championship. It was then at the official National Team trials that the squad was selected.

The squad has now gone through the full selection process and the Management Board has the pleasure of announcing the team.

Name	Club	Position
Heymans, Johan	BerZerK	Team Captain
Batzofin, Jason	St John's College	Player
Boucher, Michael	BerZerK	Player
Brown, Thomas	All Stars	Player
Krugel, Wilmar	BerZerK	Player
Nortjé, Thylé	All Stars	Player
Smale, Duncan	St John's College	Player
van Wamelen, Bastiaan	St John's College	Player
Venter, Cornel	BerZerK	Player
Boyes, Ryan	BNKR Gaming	Team Manager

The squad is now in full preparation for the qualifying matches for both championships.

The official award ceremony where each player shall be awarded his Protea Colours shall be done in due course prior to the first online qualifying match.

Tuks Mindsports club set to dominate Mpumalanga Championships in DotA 2

The Tuks Mindsports DotA 2 team with the spoils of war

The Tuks Mindsports Club is one of the newest clubs affiliated to the MSSA.

In its brief history since 2014, the club has been ably lead by Morne Snyman who has steered the club to become, without any doubt, the most promising eSports club in South Africa.

As such the Tuks Mindsports Club has totally overshadowed the once dominant Wits University Wargames Club as the leading university club in South Africa.

Already this year, 2015, the Tuks Mindsports Club has captured one victory after another.

Although the club did not attend the North West Provincial Championships in Klerksdorp, the club has won the following two official MSSA championships:

• The MWEB Gauteng Provincial Championships, whereat the team won all their games, and where all the players were awarded Gauteng Provincial Colours, and
• The MWEB Online DotA 2 Championships. At such championships, the team again won all their games and displayed to all their mastery over the game.

Thus the Tuks Mindsports Club's DotA 2 team has set themselves up as the team to beat, and is more than likely going to be the team that will take the honours at the 14^th MWEB Mpumulanga Provincial Championships to be held on 23 & 24 May 2015.

Clarification on the role of Ryan Boyes

Ryan "Snowflake" Boyes handing out medals.

On Thursday, 14 May 2015, E-frag.net put up the details of the 'captains' of all the national teams on their
site: http://www.hltv.org/news/14968-world-championships-captains-unveiled

It was very pleasant to see many of the old names there who would be 'captaining' their national teams.

Immediately though, some South African gamers went berserk. “Who are these people?”, and “I do not know any of them” were the general responses before any of the gamers even bothered to ask for an explanation or for any sort f clarification on the matter.

Indeed, this seems to be the South African manner, when instead of stopping to think, ask, and deliberate, our trusty keyboard warriors just 'fly off the handle'.

The MSSA calmly wrote to E-frag.net and suggested that Ryan Boyes was indeed not the captain but was instead the manager of the team.

A swift response was returned saying, “the word 'captain' is unique to our tournament. It refers to the role of possibly being both a player and manager – which is what some of the captains are doing!”.

However, the MSSA as the National Federation (in terms of the Sport and Recreation Act) has its own rules, and the roles of manager and captain are distinct from each other.

Thus all those gamers who were quick to respond before seeking any answers from the MSSA will no doubt be pleased to know that Ryan Boyes is only the manager.

But how is Ryan appointed as the manager, I hear you ask….

Simple.

The eSports Representative, by virtue of his position, is the manager of all the National eSports Teams. Likewise the Board Gaming Representative is the Manager of all the National Board Gaming Teams, the Figure Gaming Representative is the Manager of all the National Figure Gaming Teams, the National Schools Director is the Manager of all the National Schools Teams, etc.

However, it should be noted that the above-named office-bearers do have the power to appoint another fully-paid-up member to act in their stead.

And, this is important, only fully-paid-up Registered Players can act as office-bearers ((on any level) of the MSSA.

As soon as the team has been approved, the MSSA shall announce the entire official South African MWEB Protea eSports Team for Counterstrike: GO squad for the 2015 season.