South Africa makes top 10 in global eSport rankings

Saint_Dee said:
I reckon we squash all this animosity in the ring, James and Gavin can decide what game they'll play.

Gamer Fight Club, they get to vent through the game and have fun while they're at it, we get entertainment :D (if they choose to make it public, of course).

Mygaming, Lazygamer, make it happen.
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A "VS" match in Tekken. That's what needs to happen.
 
Lazygamer said:
Just a correction to your sniping..

You changed your headline and then accused me of not being able to read :).. nice
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Yes, there was a mistake, which I admitted and corrected. You should try it sometime - like in this case, where you incorrectly accused us of something.

Lazygamer said:
You also just reposted a press release wthout giving it any substance which is pretty poor from someone who considers himself a journalist. You gave no context or logic behind it and that is why you were called out.
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Not sure when you became the paragon of journalistic excellence and in any position to criticise what I do. Sometimes, when you don't have a petty vendetta, you just post the news as it comes.

Lazygamer said:
oh and as for that traffic quip... when you actually get more traffic than us you can talk but right now we both know that's not true..
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We must be looking at different version of Effective Measure then. The last few months, your international traffic beat us, and our local traffic beat yours. Those are the facts.
 
i think going back to MSSA is still rubbish they dont know what they doing and are making SA esports a stuff up.
They dont have the players in mind nor the country.

I dont care for the fight between LG and MyG, but hate the fact that MSSA is not doing something with the gamers in mind.
That whole team is not even the best SA can offer. Its just like our SA soccor team thinking they good because they with MSSA. Why not take the top 3 teams/players from the DGL to rep SA in gaming over seas. O wait they not with MSSA
 
z1oc said:
i think going back to MSSA is still rubbish they dont know what they doing and are making SA esports a stuff up.
They dont have the players in mind nor the country.

I dont care for the fight between LG and MyG, but hate the fact that MSSA is not doing something with the gamers in mind.
That whole team is not even the best SA can offer. Its just like our SA soccor team thinking they good because they with MSSA. Why not take the top 3 teams/players from the DGL to rep SA in gaming over seas. O wait they not with MSSA
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DGL is a private commercial league and doesn't have anything to do with MSSA and its team trials.

Clans, clubs, and players that compete in the DGL must register with MSSA and then compete in team trials to be selected for the team.
 
James said:
Yes, there was a mistake, which I admitted and corrected. You should try it sometime - like in this case, where you incorrectly accused us of something.



Not sure when you became the paragon of journalistic excellence and in any position to criticise what I do. Sometimes, when you don't have a petty vendetta, you just post the news as it comes.



We must be looking at different version of Effective Measure then. The last few months, your international traffic beat us, and our local traffic beat yours. Those are the facts.
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James said:
DGL is a private commercial league and doesn't have anything to do with MSSA and its team trials.

Clans, clubs, and players that compete in the DGL must register with MSSA and then compete in team trials to be selected for the team.
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Dont get why they have to register with MSSA. I dont mind if they do more comps like DGL but i dont get why you need register with MSSA 1st to be able to compete in international games.
 
Wow, where is my popcorn. Personally I say don't throw rocks until you sure you have the right target and when I read the LZ article it was clear he took one line out of context and decided to have a mini rant.

Gret repli LZ, nize to c you take the hi road (I wrote that in my best LZ).
 
z1oc said:
Dont get why they have to register with MSSA. I dont mind if they do more comps like DGL but i dont get why you need register with MSSA 1st to be able to compete in international games.
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MSSA is affiliated with SASCOC (South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee), and SASCOC is granted power by the ministry of sport.

SASCOC can only appoint one organisation to be the official governing body of a particular discipline. The MSSA is that federation, and their mandate is to promote eSport, among other table top type games.

The MSSA is bound up by all sorts of red tape, and eSport actually makes up only a small portion of what they manage. Traditional African board games such as Morabaraba are very popular, and these help the MSSA meet various BEE requirements (eSport doesn't have much BEE representation).

One of the things SASCOC does is manage the "Team South Africa" brand. Just because you are from South Africa doesn't mean you can legitimately call yourself "Team South Africa". MSSA handles the handing out of national colours and is responsible for putting together the official South African eSport teams.

In order to represent South Africa as Team South Africa, you have to go through the motions. This means becoming a member of MSSA, or your club/clan becoming a member. Once a member of the MSSA there are some levels of assistance that can be granted, financial and otherwise, on the road to being a member of Team South Africa.

This isn't a strange situation - it's how every other sport is officially handled in SA. I see a lot arguments that DGL has better players - that may be true, but DGL isn't going to pay to send players overseas to compete in other leagues - why would they?

DGL can be a great proving ground for clans but if they want to officially represent South Africa, they must go through the official channels. It's also not a joke and there are responsibilities that come along with being a Team South Africa member; contracts in place to protect the country's image and require minimum levels of participation.

Sure, the MSSA might not be doing a perfect job, but they are trying, and they are sending teams overseas to compete. I don't recall any private commercial gaming leagues doing this.
 
Ike_009 said:
Wow, where is my popcorn. Personally I say don't throw rocks until you sure you have the right target and when I read the LZ article it was clear he took one line out of context and decided to have a mini rant.

Gret repli LZ, nize to c you take the hi road (I wrote that in my best LZ).
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Have some of mine...there's plenty as can be seen.
 
hmm ok. I dont expect DGL to sent players to play over seas by no means. I see DGL as a mini version of IEM,MLG, WCG ( not being active anymore ) ect ect. They then have the finals at the rAge expo seeing Telkom is there dont mind the finals at rAge. ( hope they do a better promoting job and spectating options this year in all games )

Now not looking at overseas esports i dont see the international countries doing the same thing. I get that MSSA is apart of SASCOC that just means that SASCOC is cock blocking it or MSSA is doing something wrong. I follow abit on what they doing but dont see alot of board games tournaments being hosted. Even when i was in school i tried chess but then it was still not what it could have been.

What i see is less skilled Gamers are representing SA if even at all. Iesf i dont see alot of it so not even sure what of it.
Im not saying that the gamers representing MSSA-SA are bad I find it cool that they doing something and must be epic to represent SA in something they love. Hell if i had the skill and chance to do it in gaming or cycling i would. I just feel that MSSA dont have the gaming community behind them at all. I get emails and posts on what they doing but from the website, not only being off and the back round out dated. It feels as if this guy has no clue whats going on.

I dont know how others feel about this, but I feel that MSSA could do alot more than just force people to sign a contract with them and then have to be bound to it, with the stupid rules they have.

If there was a esports board that needed a year subscription to be able to further esports in SA I would be 100% for it. But what MSSA is doing is not the way to go. Half the teams playing is not what SA has to offer and why is that, Im sure its due to the contract that MSSA makes you sigh and pretty much makes to sign your gaming freedom away.
 
Well, I'm not sure what the general attitudes are of the pro gamers out there. I do obviously follow the news around it and sometimes see the little issues that arise.

Playing for Team South Africa is a commitment, and the MSSA has certain processes to follow in this regard. It seems that some SA pro gamers want all the perks of the trips to compete overseas, but none of the responsibilities (both time and effort) toward the Team South Africa brand that comes with it.

Let's keep it all in perspective; sport is seen as a societal transformational pastime under our constitution - an upliftment activity. This is why MSSA tries to get involved at the school level, and this is why various sports get the help of government funding.

Our constitution and SASCOC are actually quite progressive in this regard - for example, USA doesn't have any government support for eSport - it is not recognised by their Olympic committee. The only US eSport stuff we see is all private commercial operations. It's not the MSSA's responsibility to form teams to compete in these private professional leagues. That would be like SAFA funding the South African football team to compete in EUFA. This is where the private sponsorships and player ambition are required to get SA players into these leagues, and even then, they won't be competing as Team South Africa.

One of the things MSSA must do (as per SASCOC regulations) is compete in globally recognised events where nations go head to head. The IeSF is pretty much the only organisation that fits the bill, especially now that WCG is on ice. It's much like how SAFA must register with FIFA to compete (of course there are many more choices for nation-on-nation contest in football).

As far as I'm aware, the only real restriction on the team members is that they must be paid members of MSSA, or a member of a clan that is a member of MSSA. The reasons being that the fees go toward the administration of the federation, and there are various stakeholders that need to be protected. You can't have Team South Africa pitching up at a world championship, and then they all ditch their Team SA sponsored gear and wear gear from a club and sponsor that isn't even a member of MSSA.

Again, this is common in all professional sport. You can Google the player contracts the SA rugby team signs - many, many more rules and restrictions. I'm not sure why gamers feel entitled to special treatment in this regard (i.e. not having to sign a contract).

Basically, what I'm getting at, is that professional eSport in SA isn't entirely about the MSSA - they are just the route you must follow if you want to represent the country. It seems that the gaming community is laying the blame for the entirely lacklustre eSport scene at the feet of the MSSA, when it really should be a collaborative effort between players, sponsors, and MSSA. It's going to be really difficult to get there if everyone just slags off MSSA all the time and refuses to work with them, and then (ironically) turns around and says MSSA didn't field the best team possible. MSSA isn't going anywhere, so people can work to improve it from within (and maybe get some new perspective) or contribute to eSport in other ways.

One last note for perspective; eSport is insanely niche in SA - I don't mean the kind of eSport where buddies get together, form clans, and enter DGL for weekend battles and a grand outing at rAge once a year (and a few more organised clans making a moderate success out of the pastime). I'm talking about dedicated eSport professionals who want to make a career out of it, much like people make careers out of rugby and football. It's a time consuming and expensive thing to achieve, and in SA, eSport just doesn't attract the glamour and sponsorship money that other sports do (e.g. cricket, rugby, football). Go look up some stories of what people go through to get to the Olympics for their niche sports - often their campaigns are self-funded because they are passionate about what they do, not because they want a free trip overseas to play bit of StarCraft.

The fact that the MSSA struggles to promote eSport in SA at levels we would like to see isn't a cause of the problem, its a symptom of the overall eSport milieu.
 
James said:
The only US eSport stuff we see is all private commercial operations.
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*cough* http://www.lazygamer.net/pc-gaming/...ficially-recognised-as-an-athlete-by-america/ *cough*

To the rest of the responses,

Some of them have been thought provoking and can be seen as valid, we offer a different experience to the other local sites and we are happy about that.

To the guy who said welcome to a real forum, thanks for the invite. Our site doesn't have a forum as we prefer to focus on the news... *lowblow*

As for the stats.. we get more uniques in a day than your local count for a month. So yes you, or should I say your forum and ADSL articles, are leading the way locally but we're playing in a different league.

We can all live together in harmony in our seperate houses.

Oh lastly, someone asked why I even brought mygaming and el33t up, simply because I believe the people posting press releases as news should be called out. If you are happy for MyGaming to be that place then cool.. But when you want the real news, and yes some rumour and gossip, then you know where to find us :)

We also have cookies...
 
[video=youtube;VgSMxY6asoE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=VgSMxY6asoE[/video]
 
Cicero said:
What? He just got a visa...that is all.

Stop tricking me into being one of your unique visitors...dammit!
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The government officially viewed him as an athelete and now he's got a high performance visa.. as can anyone else..

They are pretty progressive on that front.. I'll make sure to -1 from our report this month :)
 
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