South Africa’s official governing body for mind sports, Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA), may not be too popular amongst certain competitive gaming communities, but nobody will argue against the choice to team up with local StarCraft II event organizers PolarfluKe to hold the next national online StarCraft II tournament.<\/p>\n
Polarfluke has been holding monthly StarCraft II tournaments since shortly after the game came out last year, and has been instrumental in growing and increasing the profile of the local StarCraft II community. This month Polarfluke gave away over R9,000 in cash to winners of the PolarfluKe August Rush event, and R8,000 was given away in July.<\/p>\n
Later this month PolarfluKe will be organising the 2011 MSSA Online StarCraft II Championship. The event will carry national championship status, which means that players may be awarded provincial colours, and could ultimately qualify to participate in national team trials.<\/p>\n
The top four percent of players from this event will qualify to take part in national trials on 4 September.<\/p>\n
MSSA is sending a StarCraft II team to the IeSF World Championships in October 2011, so if you like the idea of an all expenses paid trip to South Korea to play against the world’s best StarCraft II teams, then this is a good place to start.<\/p>\n
We caught up with PolarfluKe founder Matthew Merks to find out a little more about the partnership.<\/p>\n
“The MSSA traditionally has a very bad reputation with competitive gamers in our community,” said Merks.<\/p>\n
“I believe they do have the best intentions regarding taking eSports forward as a viable sport, and PolarfluKe’s involvement is aimed to make sure the best players in South Africa get the opportunity to compete in official events.”<\/p>\n
“With that said, I make decisions for PolarfluKe based on what I think is in the community’s best interest looking at the long-term viability of eSports in South Africa.”<\/p>\n
Registration is free, although you will need to be registered with an MSSA affiliated club.<\/p>\n
To find out more about the event and how to enter, check out the official PolarfluKe event page. <\/a><\/p>\n