Home Gaming An in depth look into the South African competitive gaming scene

An in depth look into the South African competitive gaming scene

2 min read
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Jaco Diedericks, a University of Johannesburg Honours student, has put together an in depth documentary investigating the South African competitive gaming scene.

With interviews from our sponsored team, Mint Gaming, along with representatives from NAG, DoGaming, Mind Sports SA and more it is possibly the most up to date and detailed report on where we currently stand as a gaming country.

It’s going to set you back about an hour in total so you may want to bookmark this one for after hours.

The full documentary and press release is below.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMPETITIVE GAMING SCENE IN FOCUS

A short documentary, tentatively titled GG, investigates the South African competitive gaming sub-culture, explaining the elements of e-Sports and revealing the difficulties gamers face in their day-to-day lives as competitive gamers. The film is produced by two students from the University of Johannesburg, and counts marks towards their Honours degree course for BA (Hons.) Audiovisual Production Management.

“The film examines the current dichotomy that exists between the so called unofficial and official gamers and attempts to offer solutions to problems that gamers face” says the film’s director Jaco Diedericks, alias entiRety. The film includes interviews from Mr. Johann von Backström, a Marketing and Advertising manager of Telkom Do Gaming, the president of Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA), Mr. Colin Webster, the Editor of NAG Magazine, Mr. Michael James, and owners and members of clans and Multi Gaming Organisations (MGO) such as Mint Gaming. In addition, the filmmakers propose to reveal the history of e-Sports in South Africa in the film.

“We travelled to the rAge 2010 expo for a few of the interviews, and with the hope that the event will provide exciting footage that signifies the hectic lives of competitive gamers” mentions Jaco Diedericks. The film draws inspiration from the documentary Frag (2008), which is directed by Mike Pasley, which investigates professional gamers, reveals the difficulties and rewards of e-Sports, and covers the history of e-Sports in the USA. “A comprehensive text that reveals the history of competitive gaming in South Africa is nowhere to be found, thus GG’s representation of the history of our e-Sports culture is wholly dependent on the help from gamers in the form of archive material, such as images, videos, and photographs of old events, clans, and organisations.

Thanks to Daniel from Mint Gaming for the details.

Last Updated: December 2, 2010

2 Comments

  1. Hadlee

    December 2, 2010 at 14:22

    Seems really cool. Although I cringe everytime I hear the narration.

    Reply

  2. Galen

    December 6, 2010 at 13:18

    After watching the first installment you have to laugh at the e-spot president’s commentary! I reckon the fact that gaming represents a level playing field and requires skill to master – coupled with the fact that games are played in just about every country in the world – should qualify it as a sport.

    With regards to government involvement, I imagine politicians would struggle to see the value in gaming. They should allow LANs during tea breaks in schools as a start in addressing the access-to-all requirement…

    Reply

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