SA Fairs Well at Texting WC
– Written by Mind Sports South Africa
South Africa’s first all-girl team to qualify for the 2010 LG Mobile World Cup, Tuks University students Natalie Witoslawski and Kgothatso Moerane, performed well for an overall fifth place, with Witoslawski placing overall in the numeric competition division.
The South Korean team eventually claimed after a hard struggle where 26 contestants from 13 countries battled it out for national pride and the US$100,000.00 prize money, while second place went to the USA, Argentina claiming third place, and fourth place to Brazil.
Witoslawski excelled in the numeric section, and she and her Portuguese counterpart fought for 1st place throughout the competition. However the format of the competition was a team event where one participant used her skills on the numeric keyboard and the other used her skills on the QWERTY keyboard.
Korea and the USA absolutely dominated the QWERTY component proving to be undisputed leaders in such section.
Upon arrival home, even though both Witoslawski and Moerane were delighted to be home, both contestants vowed to win back their places in the team for the next LG World Cup.
With the Guinness Book of World Records having listed 42.22 seconds as the fastest time that a 160 character text message has ever having been typed, LG Electronics put the challenge to the world to see if the record can be broken at the LG Mobile World Cup in New York.
With the accreditation of Mind Sports South Africa, the South African leg of the LG Mobile World Cup started in September 2009, with regional events taking place across Gauteng and the Western Cape over a five week period, while other regions participating via the www.lgmobileworldcup.com website. The huge entry was narrowed down to 200 finalists, undoubtably the fastest texters in South Africa.
Players had the choice of using either numeric keypads or QWERTY keyboards. The numeric keyboards were the most popular and contributed 150 of the finalists, while the remaining 50 opted for the for the QWERTY keyboard option. The 200 finalists competed at the official South African National Championship, at The Piazza, Montecasino, Fourways Johannesburg on 24 October 2009.
Even though men and women were equally represented, it was the women who proved their dominance. None of the men were able to stand up to the skill of Witoslawski and Moerane, with the Tuks University students dominated the event.
While each winner received R30,000.00 in prize money, as well as a fantastic new LG mobile ‘phone, and were also selected to represent South Africa at the World Cup.
