Published on : 12/10/2022 – 10:26
The practice of video games as a sport is on the rise in South Africa, and the Covid-19 has spawned many new players across southern Africa. At the end of September, the enthusiasm for the Comic Con Africa competitions in Johannesburg confirmed this trend.
With our correspondent in JohannesburgRomain Chanson
Willie Vermeulen’s team comes out of a Rocket League competition: a football game played with toy cars. They lost, but that’s not the point. They are still happy. » They were very close games and unfortunately we lost in overtime, but it was great. I wish I had these kinds of opportunities when I was young. Esports is booming in South Africa, it’s more important every year », rejoices Willie Vermeulen. Comic Con Africa, a major pop culture event, provided a great showcase for this booming sport.
The competitions are filmed by several cameras whose images are broadcast online and on giant screens, to the delight of the public who come to applaud the players in front of Counter-Strike. What a long way, remembers Wanda Mkhize, in charge of content for the telephone operator Telkom which organizes these e-sport finals.
« 13 years ago, it was almost nothing, we had less than 400 esports players at the beginning compared to several thousand in our leagues today “, he comments. And to add with delight: This is just the beginning and there is great potential for development. » The South African telephone operator Telkom supports the development of esports for ten years by hosting leagues and organizing tournaments.
This year matches were broadcast once a week on South African public television. E-sport thinks big, provided you have good internet connections. The rest of the continent is up for grabs.
► To read also: E-sport and video games, the new African passion
» We are only at the very beginning »
But if e-sport is growing, it’s only on American games such as Counter-Strike, Fifa or Rocket League. On the African continent, the development of video games is in its infancy. The rare studios are financed by European organizations, in particular German or French, such as the Digital Lab Africa, which supplies, among other things, the studio of Tristan Mocké, lecturer in video games.
There is an independent scene in South Africa, but it is very small. We see the emergence of small teams of two or three people, but we are only at the very beginning, like our company that we created two years ago and which is financed by France. Many of our talents are looking for work abroad and companies are canvassing here in South Africa. This is a problem for our video game industry since our best developers are recruited to go abroad.
Tristan Mocké, lecturer in video games
