Rwandan e-sports athletes are eager to take part in Africa’s first ever professional gaming tournament slated to commence this February, 2021. The tournament, dubbed Afrika E-sports Series, is a continental competition that will bring together teams of video gamers from 16 African nations. The teams will contest in four games, namely PES 2021 Mobile, FIFA21, Call of Duty: Mobile and PUBG Mobile. PES 2021 Mobile and FIFA 21 are e-football simulation video games while Call of Duty: Mobile is a free-to-play shooter game available for Android and iOS. PUBG Mobile is a type of battle royale simulation game, heavily action-packed. E-sports is an emerging form of sports competition in video games. It often involves competitive, multiplayer gaming contests. The large-scale league is a brainchild of the World E-sports Consortium (WESCO), Enter Africa and E-sports. Country tournaments will be handled by the Rwanda E-sports Association and Enter Africa Rwanda. In three stages, the competition will launch in February. Registration of teams is ongoing via https://esports-series.net/ while a date of the initial round is yet to be announced. The teams will compete locally for the top title who will then represent the country in the continental championship. The main rounds are slated in March and go through May 2021. Other countries expected in the tournament are Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Republic of Guinea, Uganda, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Ethiopia, Mauritius, South Africa and Togo. The tournaments will be held virtually using Passport.gg. This is a professional gaming platform which provides a gamer ID and a ranking system that will help to determine the best players for each city and country. Gaming in Rwanda Although gaming is a relatively new phenomenon in Africa, and in Rwanda particularly, its industry is ever growing. Globally, it has surpassed the film industry in terms of worth. “I’ve been in the gaming industry for more than five years here in Kigali. To this day, the esports industry is at a fast pace and we hope our players will be among the top in this upcoming Afrika E-sports Series,” says Robert Mugisha, an e-sports enthusiast and founder of DopeApps, a game development company. Rwanda is home to approximately 500 active gamers on various platforms like consoles and mobiles. The competition will focus on mobile games as the number of gamers and internet usage surged due to lockdowns that were imposed to combat the spread of Covid-19. “We are glad to be participating in this competition. Esports will be in the next Olympics so we need all the support that we can get,” Mugisha announced. Mugisha also added people should not look at video games as something for young children as it usually is the case, but an accredited sport like football. Today, there are more than 2 billion gamers in the world and about 200 million in Africa. Afrika E-sports Series poses an opportunity to attract attention, investments and talents needed to build a sound ecosystem on the continent. “This event gives a massive push for the development of e-sports infrastructure and opens up new opportunities for gamers in each country,” said Ignat Bobrovich, Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships and Events at WeSCO. There are over 1000 semi-professional participants expected to take part in the competition. As part of the project, prizes will be given and players, managers and referees will receive training programs.
