By Dylan ‘Dib’ Brown Dreamhack is an event that started as a LAN back in Sweden and has grown to one of the most significant regular esports events across the world, and across different games. They have been running Hearthstone Grandprixs since 2015 as some of the biggest events on the Hearthstone calendar. For 2018 they also count as Hearthstone …

The world’s most popular esports boast millions of players and extremely healthy viewerships for their biggest tournaments. I’m of course talking about MOBAs and namely League of Legends and Dota 2. These games are amongst the most popular with viewers, mostly owing to the sheer scale of their gargantuan player bases - but they're not going to take esports mainstream. So what is?

Internationally, the world’s biggest brands are investing in esports. Locally, we’ve seen huge brand names like Samsung and Red Bull spending their marketing money on esports events. Can potential sponsors gain value from involvement in the South African scene?

Last week local South African streamer Francois “RustyPieLover” Botha announced a charity livestream partnering with CANSA, Exdee Gaming, and Major Gaming Studios. The idea is that all the proceeds from the livestream will be donated to CANSA. The stream will be an all-day affair on the 30th of June 2018.

Local tournament extravaganza Rush is looking to grow that mainstream appeal even further this year with a selection of tournaments that caters to the three biggest genres in the scene currently, but to do just that it looks like Rush will be moving to an even bigger venue.

The VS Gaming CS:GO Leg 3 could be the most exciting we’ve ever had. The field has never looked this closely matched since the inception of Masters. We always had clear stragglers that couldn’t quite match the better teams. This time around we’ve got a selection of highly competitive outfits. Not having the main Energy team is still a huge shame, but what we do have is the prospect of a terrific season of very enticing matches.

Games have gone mainstream, but we as players can still do more to make them inviting. If you see a new player in a competitive online game, cut them a little slack. Offer them five minutes of guidance and perhaps tell them not to worry.

While some of you were looking elsewhere this weekend, a couple of local Hearthstone players just happened to be in France. The DreamHack HCT Grand Prix hit France this past weekend and saw a total of 232 participants. Between the various international competitors sat South African players Dylan “Dib” Brown and Francois “Fafa” Mouton. The two did the country proud …