PC Gamers to get Protea Colours
The announcement was made by AGASA and MMSA today along with details of AGASA school and university gaming leagues for 2007.
Colin Webster, MMSA president, says while MMSA has technically been able to award PC gamers Protea colours since 1991, it has never happened because the infrastructure has never been in place for a representative gaming league.
The closest PC gamers have come to national representation has been participating in the annual World Cyber Games (WCG).
“However, those organising the local leg of the WCG in South Africa chose to go the independent route with a profit strategy instead of an overall strategy,” he says.
As a result it is questionable whether gamers sent to the WCG and other tournaments have ever really been representative of gamers in South Africa. Webster says they certainly did not receive official recognition by the country.
AGASA’s approach:
Johann Von Backström, AGASA founder, says the problem with gaming in South Africa is that too many people have tried to make money off it.
AGASA has come with a different approach, allowing free registration for any gamer to its online league. According to Von Backström, the league is the first of its kind in the world.
Sponsored by AMD, who has supplied four AMD Optetron dual core processors which plug directly into SAIX Gaming Services, AGASA’s online league launched earlier this year and is now in the third phase of the inaugural league.
“With four hundred gamers playing across four games, by the end of the first season we will be able to begin ranking players and clans from next year. After the end of the 2007 season, gamers will be eligible for Protea colours,” he says.
International competitions in SA:
Next year, AGASA will go on roadshows to promote gaming in South Africa and its school and university leagues will launch enabling gamers to have a chance to receive their school, university or national colours.
“Given that gaming is not restricted by age, the best gamers in the country will receive national colours. Gamers will, however, also have the chance to get recognition at school and university levels as well,” Von Backström says.
The formalising of leagues open up the opportunities for gaming to grow into a national sport, Webster says. Down the line he believes South Africa could send gamers to the Olympic, Common Wealth and All Africa Games. “This is our ultimate aim,” he adds.
Von Backström says AGASA will also open the door for gaming in South Africa to be united to the point where it could begin to take on other countries either via online competitions or directly with those teams coming to South Africa.
“With the formalisation of mobile gaming in South Africa, Protea colours have already been awarded to the team of gamers who represented South Africa at the first WCG mobile tournament last year,” Webster says.
Tammy Brook-Smith, a 16-year-old Paarl Girls High pupil, won Gold at the event receiving her national colours along with her team mates, Werner De Lange, Ethen Reuben, and Christo Janse van Vuuren.
In 2007, as more leagues are opened and more games are included, AGASA will open the way for gamers across PC, console and mobile gaming to compete locally and internationally and be recognised for it, Von Backström says.
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