{"id":87926,"date":"2016-04-20T15:01:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T13:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=87926"},"modified":"2016-04-20T15:03:23","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T13:03:23","slug":"meet-matthew-smith-south-african-world-championship-gamer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/87926-meet-matthew-smith-south-african-world-championship-gamer","title":{"rendered":"Meet Matthew Smith &#8211; South African World Championship Gamer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew &#8216;Feno&#8217; Smith is one of South Africa\u2019s top League of Legends players, who represented South Africa at the IESF World Championships in South Korea.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Are you a full-time gamer, or do you have a day job?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I currently work and study.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>How many hours per day do you practice competitive gaming?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It currently varies from 2 hours to 20 hours per week, depending on other commitments.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>How much money per year do you make from gaming \u2013 through prize money, sponsorships, and team salary?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nothing, other than being given the opportunity to go to the IESF World Championships in South Korea, and a few small perks.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Matthew-Smith-5.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-87934\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-87934\" src=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Matthew-Smith-5.jpg\" alt=\"Matthew Smith \" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Matthew-Smith-5.jpg 960w, https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Matthew-Smith-5-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Is it possible to sustain yourself financially in South Africa as a full-time gamer?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No chance whatsoever. The current state of the gaming environment in South Africa cannot support professional gamers.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Which games do you like to play, apart from League of Legends?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I love a good game of Fifa with the lads.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Apart from gaming, what activities do you like?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Surfing and socializing.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Can you share details of your gaming rig?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Intel Core i7 CPU<\/li>\n<li>GTX 740M graphics card<\/li>\n<li>8GB DDR4 RAM<\/li>\n<li>Basic Lenovo laptop keyboard with a Roccat Savu mouse<\/li>\n<li>Standard Lenovo 17-inch laptop screen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More gaming news<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to MyGaming under new management\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/87810-mygaming-under-new-management.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">MyGaming under new management<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Hitman Episode 2 release date announced\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/pc\/87808-hitman-episode-2-release-date-announced.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Hitman Episode 2 release date announced<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Oculus Creator warns developers about VR market\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/87730-oculus-creator-warns-developers-about-vr-market.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Oculus Creator warns developers about VR market<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MyGaming interviewed Matthew Smith, who represented South at Africa the IESF World Championships in South Korea, to ask him about gaming, money, and what his rig looks like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":87930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[4185,631,17710],"class_list":["post-87926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-iesf-world-championships","tag-league-of-legends","tag-matthew-feno-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87926"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89895,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87926\/revisions\/89895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}