Meet Matthew Smith – South African World Championship Gamer

Matthew ‘Feno’ Smith is one of South Africa’s top League of Legends players, who represented South Africa at the IESF World Championships in South Korea.

While the South African League of Legends team did not make it out of the group phase, they did notch up a win against Iran at the event.

MyGaming caught up with Smith to find out what he does for a living, how he funds his gaming habit, and what his gaming rig looks like.

Are you a full-time gamer, or do you have a day job?

I currently work and study.

How many hours per day do you practice competitive gaming?

It currently varies from 2 hours to 20 hours per week, depending on other commitments.

How much money per year do you make from gaming – through prize money, sponsorships, and team salary?

Nothing, other than being given the opportunity to go to the IESF World Championships in South Korea, and a few small perks.

Is it possible to sustain yourself financially in South Africa as a full-time gamer?

No chance whatsoever. The current state of the gaming environment in South Africa cannot support professional gamers.

Which games do you like to play, apart from League of Legends?

I love a good game of Fifa with the lads.

Apart from gaming, what activities do you like?

Surfing and socializing.

Can you share details of your gaming rig?

Intel Core i7 CPU
GTX 740M graphics card
8GB DDR4 RAM
Basic Lenovo laptop keyboard with a Roccat Savu mouse
Standard Lenovo 17-inch laptop screen.

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Forum discussion

Justin

This guy goes and play’s lol internationally and he didn’t make a single cent throughout the year? That’s really not fair to him at all.
BEANIBIL1TY

This is why E-Sports in South Africa won’t improve
Matt Merks

Looks like the interview was akin to drawing blood from a stone. Maybe our international gamers should partake in the events where actual money is up for grabs.
Alexander Smith

World Champion gamer……. with 2 -20hours a week of gaming….. dont fool yourself… it takes more than that to even call yourself a good player. Welcome to the world of MSSA. Not even the best players in the country went over. And every time its the same thing , they tell you you should enter MSSA and “qualify” . its not worth it.
Matthew Smith

Mate, I played for a top 10 challenger team in England. I’ve come top 3 for dgl with teams I don’t quite agree with. Unfortunately I don’t have time to game anymore but from 12-20 I did nothing but play games.
Matthew Smith

League isn’t big here due to ping related issues. I love a game of csgo but unfortunately I don’t enjoy it. I made supreme pretty quickly with 0 game knowlege. We can talk about money when we actually love what we’re doing. There’s no chance to support yourself in any game month to month anyway.
Matthew Smith

It’s a travesty
Shamrock

? He’s like, high Gold.
Matthew Smith

Now China, bordered challenger seasons ago.
Shamrock

Aight aight respect. Playing on EUW?
Dravidian

Why don’t we see such great stories in main stream media?
disiza

Corporate Sponsors, that’s the key, once you obtain or pull some sponsors into the world of gaming they will see the [email protected] Smith thumb up for repping SA and more importantly bring a bit of light to this underexposed world of competitive gaming. This industry has huge potential in SA
Maxill

Hey matthew: since you are replying in this thread: Where are you based in the country? What internet connection do you have at home? What are you studying? How much time per year do you spend overseas for gaming? Do you sometimes log on with an alternate account and just SMASH noobs?
Axon1988

Yeah CSGO isn’t really that great in my opinion. Either way, I mostly stick to cooperative games due to how our high latency here.
bengine

Not a gamer myself – was interested to gain some insight into the scene and mindset.

Still in the dark – bit of a damp squib article – makes gaming look a bit like doing the laundry ….
Matthew Smith

Cape Town, 10meg, software Dev, I spent a year living and working in England which I did a lot of gaming in. I do that on my main 😉
Ouboet

Respect for making IESF on only 2-20 hours per week. Some of the top teams play LoL in their team houses for 8-12 hours a day. Good on ya, mate.
Jacobus Pienaars

King of the nerds.

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