MIND SPORTS SOUTH AFRICA TO GROW ESPORTS AT SCHOOLS

The local body behind competitive gaming, Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) has said in a statement that in order for South Africa to truly compete at an international level in eSports, more must be done at a school level.

The MSSA believes that in order for eSports teams to become successful, a minimum of 24 competitive games must be played per year, and these must be played in a controlled environment.

This controlled environment should be used to properly prepare gamers for international competitions and put their heads in the space needed to properly compete in eSports, the organisation says.

As such, the MSSA has added a number of competitions that will give eSports teams at schools greater exposure to this process.

From 20th of February next year, the MSSA will run “Provincial On-line Championships” in which school teams that are registered with the MSSA will compete against other MSSA-registered schools in the same province. This Championship will take place on this one day in February rather than over the course of five weeks. The MSSA says that this is to lessen the workload placed on educators running eSports teams at their schools.

Another championship has been added to the calendar in the form of the South African National LAN Championships. This will run from the 30th to the 31st of July 2016 in Cape Town, and after competing the top teams in each game will be afforded the opportunity to compete against top high school eSports teams from around the world.

The South African On-line Championships will run in a similar manner to the Provincial On-line Championships, but this competition will be open to any school that wishes to compete. These competitions will also run on one Saturday, though at time of writing it is unclear as to when exactly the competition will take place.

In the statement, general secretary of MSSA, Colin Webster goes on to say, “When added to the existing calendar of Regional, Provincial, and National championships, it should be relatively easy, and cheap, for gamers to reach a total of 24 competitive games which will increase the overall standard of play.”