Capetonian e-gamers have won the first national Electronic Sports (e-Sports) championship to take place in South Africa, following its recognition as a tier one sport.
Cape Town e-gamers beat Johannesburg participants in FIFA13 on both Xbox and PS3, as well as the Call of Duty Black Ops 2 match.
Streamed live through MWEB, Capetonians took on Johannesburgers for the first inter-regional competition online as hosted by Mind Sport South Africa (MGSA).
Dez Kurz, gaming manager at MWEB, said: “With e-Sports now recognised as a tier one sport, the online gaming community is now taken more seriously,” News24 reported.
According to Kurz, the worldwide trend is also expanding in the country, with the hopes of growing as strong as the United States’ e-sport community.
E-gaming is predicted to increase with 2.5 million players by 2017 to a count of 6.9 million, indicating a 32 per cent increase in market penetration since 2012.
“There has been a massive shift in the way gamers and games are viewed,” Kurz said.
“There used to be a preconception that people who played games were slackers in some way and should be out playing ‘real’ sports and we are thrilled to have been able to support driving the industry forward to the point where the hard work and effort gamers put into improving their skills is finally getting the respect it deserves and the games they focus on are recognised as sports in their own right.”
