Rinie Ramli (President / Malaysia e-Sports Federation)
The year of 2011 has been another great year for Malaysia e-Sports Federation as we were able to host our very own Malaysia e-Sports League last weekend(26-27 November). It was the first of its kind and we receive tremendous support from the gamers and all parties involve. Special thanks to AMD Malaysia and Cyberview Sdn Bhd who has been supportive of our noble mission. We are looking forward to host the next season in middle of 2012 as we are one step closer to make e-Sports a reality in Malaysia.
I would like to show my greatest gratitude to IeSF committees & its members for helping us and recognizing MeSF as one of its members. We are very humbled by this opportunity and we look forward to work together in making e-Sports a reality around the world. Thank you everyone and have a great happy new year!
Colin Webster (President / Mind Sports South Africa)
The 2011 year was by no means an easy year, The world-wide economic downturn seriously affected every country in the world and every sport known to man. However, not all is ‘doom and gloom’. The IeSF under the skilful management still held true to its course and even when all around there was a tightening of belts and a great deal of cutting back, the IeSF (under the astute guidance of Won Oh, Noha Park, and Alex Lim) still managed to show solid growth in terms of its membership and still held a first class world championship.
The growth of member nations is not just for the sake of growth. The new members that were admitted into membership met the exacting standards as laid down by the IeSF’s own Statutes as well as those as required by SportAccord. Thus not all applicants were successful in attaining membership on their first attempt. Some applicants were indeed not admitted into membership, but such applicants are encouraged to review the way they operate and reapply in future years.
In order to have a proper functioning IeSF, all the members must also hold themselves to the highest standards. However, anything of value does not come cheaply or easily ? and so it is with the IeSF membership. All applicants for membership are expected to have their own nations recognition, and to also be a properly constituted association. And this year, the following members were accepted into membership; Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Greece, Namibia, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, and United states. The IeSF as a whole heartily welcomes all the new members and hopes that they will all benefit from their association with the parent body.
Few could have imagined that the IeSF could have topped the championship at Taebeck (2009), and then in 2010 the championship was held in Daegu in 2010. Daegu was without doubt even better than the championship held in 2009, and all the gamers and officials on their return home longed to return to the next championship. Then there was the 2011 IeSF World Championship in Andong! The 2011 Championship exceeded all expectations.
Few realise the work that goes into running a successful championship, from finding sponsors, venue, accommodation, meals, happy helpers, etc., etc., there is also a great deal of work to do in terms of the ‘back-end’. For example, the development of suitable the rules, training of officials, etc. In other words, the ability to host a championship, does not start just a couple of months prior to the event, but is instead a reflection of the parent body as a whole. The championship is nothing more than the outward expression of the IeSF’s vision, dedication, good governance and proper administration.
Although there are still areas which can be improved upon, the commitment from all the members and the Secretariat will undoubtedly lead to an even better 2012 championships.
Thus, looking back at 2011, the IeSF has been able to further cement its foundations to create a fully accredited International eSports Federation that can proudly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the other international sporting federations. With such accreditation, the IeSF will lead eSports into the mainline sporting area and into a brave new world!
Steven Leunens (Belgian Electronic Sports Federation)
2011 was a fantastic year for eSports and the IeSF World Championships were the perfect apotheosis for this eventful year. Bringing together gamers from all across the globe and letting them compete at the highest possible level in perfect conditions is what eSports is all about and we have the IeSF to thank for that. I for one am already looking forward to what 2012 has in store for us
Dario Salice (President / Swiss E-Sports Federation)
From the perspective of the Swiss E-Sports Federation (SESF) as well as the eSports Community in Switzerland, 2011 has been kind of a restart. After a couple of years, where activity in the community of electronic sports decreased, this year first improvements have been visible.
The most visible improvement was the increase of players participating on tournaments and interested in competitive gaming. Like in other European countries, the release of Stacraft 2 had a positive impact on the community in Switzerland. Aside from the known players which left Warcraft 3 behind and found new motivation with the new Blizzard Title, a good amount of new players coming into the eSports Community have been noticed. This “new blood” has a very positive impact on the Swiss community and the way they behave and enjoy eSports. Starcraft also brought one Swiss player on the international stage. The very talented player biGs, with Korean roots, managed to get a contract with one of the major organizations in Europe: Mousesports. Various successes in online tournaments certainly made him the star of the Swiss eSports season 2011.
With the start of a new community site “thisisesport” a couple of eSport enthusiasts launched a new site to write about eSports in Switzerland. Surfing on the wave of Starcraft, they also managed to reach an audience beyond the RTS Genre and combine a part of the local scene.
Following this “rebirth” of Swiss eSports journalism, motivated clans and players to increase their activity thanks to the existing coverage of BYOC-Events and Online-Tournaments.
One of the most innovative events in Switzerland was the first Barcraft. A small group of motivated people reached to the SESF to ask for support. Together with the group called “Barcraft Switzerland” the SESF helped to put in place a “Barcraft” covering the MLG Event in the US (Providence, Rhode Island). This cooperation was successful and brought around 100 spectators to one of the most traditional pubs in the old part of Zurich.
The SESF also made a couple of small and large steps to be more prepared for the future. In 2011 the focus has been on the structure of the federation. In this process various new people joined the federation to improve it’s performance and support the eSports community at its best.
Benyamin Kury took over the role of the “LAN Ambassador”. His mission will be to support clubs, which organize BYOC-Events in areas like Promotion, finding suitable dates and all other questions, which come up. Thanks to Benyamin’s help, conflicts of dates between LAN-events shouldn’t happen anymore.
The role of the second ambassador, the “Clan Ambassador” is taken by Lars Vogtlin, which gained a lot of experience over the last couple of years with his own Multigaming Clan. This experience now will be used to support existing or new clans to improve their operation and structure.
One of the issues the Swiss eSports Federation faced, was the communication towards the community. This gap will be filled with Marco Juen, which took over the place of the “News Coordinator”. His job is to coordinate News with partner organizations through available channels. This way the SESF will be able to distribute relevant information trough different channels reaching a broader audience with its activities.
Looking forward to 2012, I expect the re-organization to proceed and finish. With that new structure the federation will be able much more to support the Swiss community and reach a sustainable growth in the eSport scene in Switzerland.
