Shooting for glory
SA gamers aiming for world domination
IF you walked into Ruan van Wyk’s home in Port Elizabeth any time between 6pm and midnight you would find the engineering graduate hunched over his keyboard, clicking away furiously.
On his screen you’re likely to see well-trained military men strategically moving and shooting their way through various environments. He will be talking to his teammates, as far away as Johannesburg and Durban, over a headset as they plan their next assault. He will be playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive, known more widely as CS:GO, on his machine.
The 24-year-old is in training, and with as much as R5-million up for grabs in prize money this year alone, CS:GO is something he takes seriously. This is his sport, and it doesn’t matter that it’s on a computer.
Such is the rise of eSports that Van Wyk and his team, Bravado, hope that their skills could lead to fame and fortune. Apart from one player, who is still in high school, every Bravado member is a full-time gamer.
“Our aspirations are to go overseas and to compete, and to get to the point where we can earn a salary and make a name for South Africa overseas,” Van Wyk said.
While they aren’t yet able to earn salaries for being pro gamers, they make a living from prize money.
Just two weeks ago they pocketed a cool R350 000 for winning the Mettlestate Samsung Galaxy CS:GO Championship, which, with a total purse of R1million, was the richest singletitle eSports tournament in the country’s history.
Exactly how big the eSports industry in South Africa is is anyone’s guess.
But the prize money now becoming available begins to point to something that is increasingly lucrative to gamers and to the brands that want to back them.
Barry Louzada, who ran the Mettlestate tournament, said there was about R5-million in prize money available for various eSports tournaments across the country this year.
“There are two other tournaments, one of them a R1million CS:GO tournament and another R850 000 one. Then there’s the Telkom one [the Digital Gaming League] that’s R850 000. So, that’s almost R4million in prize pools for just four tournaments. Last year it was R500 000, total. eSports’ potential is exponential,” he said.
And prize money aside, there’s even the chance of becoming gold medallists, what with a global push for eSports to be declared an Olympic discipline. As weird as this might sound, eSports will be an official gold medal sport at the 2022 Asian Games in China — a move described by the Guardian newspaper as the “boldest step towards mainstream recognition of competitive gaming”.
But for that to happen, teams like Bravado will have to put in hours of work.
“If you’re going to commit to eight hours a day, which we do, you have to split it into individual practise and team practise. During the day . . . it’s individual time, where the guys are putting in two to three hours.
“From between 4pm and 6pm, until about 10pm to midnight, we’ll be playing and practising as a team. We do this five days a week, from Sunday to Thursday,” said Van Wyk.
Andreas Hadjipaschali, who manages the Bravado team, said that, internationally, gamers — who often live in “gaming houses”, play around the clock, have coaches and team psychologists — could earn as much as R300 000 and R400 000 a month, excluding prize money.
While South Africa wasn’t anywhere near there, he said it’s not far off.
“It’s starting to reach private investors [and] larger corporates. It’s a matter of time before we get to the level that the international teams are on . . . we’re still getting there,” he said.
Samantha Wright, a gamer and editor of Tech Girl, said people still mocked the idea of competitive video gaming.
“To be that good, it takes hours and hours of practice. There’s a stigma of a gamer as a fat lazy guy in his mom’s basement with a pizza, but that’s not actually the case,” she said.
Van Wyk added: “eSports has a physical aspect to it . . . You still have to train arms, fingers, eyes . . . I’ve played squash, rugby and chess at a high level, but it doesn’t really compare.”
eSports has a physical aspect to it. You have to train arms, fingers, eyes