![ESWC[2]](https://media.criticalhit.net/2018/11/ESWC2.jpg "ESWC[2]")
South Africa has been excluded from ESWC Africa. Despite being arguably one of the strongest CS:GO nations on the continent, South Africa has been left out of ESWX Africa, and fans are both confused and angry. Right now, the eligible countries are Algeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia – leaving South Africa conspicuous by its absence.
Registrations for the #ESWCAfrica with @inwi ? are opened for the 7 countries involved in this 1st edition:
?? Algeria
?? Egypt
?? Ivory Coast
?? Morocco
?? Nigeria
?? Senegal
?? TunisiaRetrieve details + rules for each at https://t.co/ykSzha479d and https://t.co/IsaNuwFR3y
— ESWC (@eswc_en) November 11, 2018
It’s a curious omission, given that South Africa does have a history with the ESWC. Orena has run qualifiers for the ESWC is 2015, 2016 and also last year. According to ViNCO Gaming CS:GO player Matthew Maselle, ESWC owner Webedia has confirmed that the 2017 South African ESWC qualifiers were neither sanctioned nor approved by ESWC.
This email was sent on Monday, 16 April 2018. pic.twitter.com/J0bUC7Biw6
— Matthew Maselle (@HashimotoZA) November 13, 2018
Now, Orena Director Luca Tucconi has admitted that no agreements or contracts with ESWC were in place at the time. Responding to our own queries, Tucconi said:
“There was no signed agreement for 2017’s Qualifiers. We were still in discussion with ESWC on how the final would be held, with the possibility of even having it brought to South Africa. During the time we were in a difficult period where Orena was in the middle of a majority buyout with the owners of Nu Metro, which brought about a lot of issues.We hosted the 2015 and 2016 qualifiers and sent teams over, so at the time we weren’t concerned about having anything signed due to our past relationship which so many players have mentioned. After our 2nd qualifier would have taken place, there was the eventual announcement that there would be no international event for us as an alternate option to send a winner to as the CS tournament was a 4 team EU only event at PGW for 2017.
We took a massive hit from the public, last year was just a terrible occurrence, we have apologized for this previously and have happily gone through the issues with anyone who contacted me privately.”
While it’s an admission that the 2017 qualifiers weren’t sanctioned, it doesn’t explicitly mean that this is why South Africa has been excluded. We’ve contacted ESWC for more clarification on that front.
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Last Updated: November 13, 2018
Geoffrey Tim
November 13, 2018 at 15:36
That’s a yikes from me, dawg.
Gavin Mannion
November 13, 2018 at 15:37
Honestly why is South African esports such a joke? Corruption, fraud, drugs, assholes, egos… it’s got everything except proper hardwork and honest love for the industry.
Everyone just appears to be out to make their quick buck and pretend they are the latest hotshot.
I don’t know the backstory behind this article and I literally don’t care, it’s just yet another massive SA failing that makes local esports a joke
Magoo
November 14, 2018 at 08:11
Guys local esports is impoverished but nowhere near as bad as Gavin makes it sound ^
Geoffrey Tim
November 14, 2018 at 08:27
Fiscally or morally impoverished? 😛
Magoo
November 14, 2018 at 10:51
More fiscally than morally. But I was trying to say that it’s lacking in all aspects. Finances, structure, playerbase, audience. Everything that established regions have, we have considerably less of.
Still, I’m confident we have a great ratio of “hardworking” and “honest loving” entities that are driving it forward more than the few who are holding it back. The complete opposite of what Gavin’s perspective would have you believe. Between these controversies there is a lot of success that goes under the radar.
Magoo
November 14, 2018 at 10:51
More fiscally than morally. But I was trying to say that it’s lacking in all aspects. Finances, structure, playerbase, audience. Everything that established regions have, we have considerably less of.
Still, I’m confident we have a great ratio of “hardworking” and “honest loving” entities that are driving it forward more than the few who are holding it back. The complete opposite of what Gavin’s perspective would have you believe. Between these controversies there is a lot of success that goes under the radar.
WhyTHo
November 13, 2018 at 15:51
So teams/MGO’s were lead to make financial commitments to travel to an event that was never even contractually confirmed (which was never disclosed to them beforehand). People wasted tens of thousands of rands on someone else’s assumption… what is the legal repercussions for false advertisement on this scale?