South Africa
Article 1
SA gamers brave world championships
By Alex Kayle, Senior portals journalist
Johannesburg, 11 Dec 2009
- Read in this story
- Improving e-sports
- Bandwidth challenges
- Olympic dreams
Colin Webster (president of Mind Sports SA), Ruben Jos휈 Brito de Freitas, Xola Magwaza, and Ryan van den Bergh (e-Sports Gaming representative and national team manager).
South African gamers Ruben Jose Brito de Freitas and Xola Magwaza are representing their country by playing Fifa 2009 on PlayStation 3 in the International e-Sports Federation Challenge (IESF).
Over 150 players from 20 countries have gathered in Taebaeck, South Korea, to compete in the e-sports world championships from 10 to 14 December. Electronic sports, also known as e-sports, refer to electronic games being played at a competitive level.
This week, Colin Webster, president of Mind Sports SA (MSSA), congratulated and awarded colours to the two national team players before the team headed off to South Korea.
Webster said participating in IESF will improve De Freitas and Magwaza’s chances of getting university sports bursaries and pave the way for success for them in the future. “It really opens the doors for them to a whole new world. We already have 14 MSSA players with sports bursaries.”
Improving e-sports
Webster says MSSA has embarked on a long-term strategy to improve standards and results in electronic sports. “We are putting in place systems and policies that will create better competitive players to improve SA’s competitive advantage. ”
Webster says competition at the IESF will be significantly more challenging than playing against local players, as the best in the world will be participating. Webster notes that players eligible for the national team have to win most of their provincial and national games and be in the top three positions or in the top 20%.
Bandwidth challenges
Ryan van den Bergh, e-Sports Gaming representative and national team manager, says SA is traditionally at a gaming disadvantage because of the country’s limited broadband, which leads to game lag. In addition, it can become expensive for local gamers to play bandwidth-intensive online games.
Van den Bergh points out international gamers, particularly in Asia and Europe, have had more opportunities to play against other international gamers, with SA falling behind due to cost constraints. However, he notes, this is changing as gaming gains momentum and broadband costs come down.
Olympic dreams
IESF plans to strengthen electronic sports among membership countries in order to bolster its chances for electronic sports to be played competitively at the Olympics. This is the first IESF world championships of its kind and the largest international gaming competition in the world.
Secretary-general of IESF, Oh Won-Suk, says in a statement: “IESF is planning to complete the standardisation of most international e-sports norms by next year.”
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Article 2
http://www.langames.co.za/
Video 1
www.vuzu.tv/Play/Play.aspx?vid=4226&ptype=3 – Cached
Video 2
www.vuzu.tv/Play/Play.aspx?vid=4225&ptype=3 – Cached
