Yip, that’s another week in the rear view mirror of SA gaming, so how about you catch up with everything you may have missed out on right here.

Upcoming Events

The action is all about live local eSports it seems this weekend with events being a little thin on the ground. Not to worry though, there’s plenty coming up soon.

MAG Cup hits the business end of things this weekend with the final eight teams battling for seeding at the LAN final. Matches will be live streamed over the weekend, and we suggest keeping your eye on ACGL’s Twitter and Facebook page for details.

Eclipse Cup reaches its climax this weekend with the Dota 2 final between Bravado Gaming and Aperture Gaming on Sunday at 5pm. Stream details are to follow but you can keep your eye on the Eclipse Cup Facebook page for details.

Remember to keep these days open for some upcoming action a little further in the future:

Competitions & Giveaways

MAG Cup

This past weekend saw the 31 registered teams kick the action off in the Call of Duty World League affiliated MAG Cup. The double elimination tournament ended the first weekend of action with the final eight teams standing.

The top eight teams will now head into this weekend to play for seeding at the LAN final scheduled for rAge in October.

Those eight teams are:

This coming weekend’s action will be shown live via stream.

Predator MGMS

Another major tournament event had its run this past weekend with the Predator MGMS CS: GO second qualifier reaching its conclusion on Sunday.

Up for grabs for the top two teams was R10,000 in cash, as well as spots in the grand final in October where they would meet the two teams from qualifier one for the R22,000 in cash prizes.

The finals on Sunday saw Carbon eSports face Flipsid3 Tactics to determine seeds three and four, and it was the Carbon team that did the job 3-1 in the end. Both teams now join Bravado Gaming and Aperture Gaming in the October finale.

Coverage Elsewhere:

eSports Branding Summit

At rAge this year Global Assembly Marketing eSports (GAMeS) will be hosting Africa’s “first eSports Branding Summit” on Friday 7 October. The summit will run for a half-day and will look at the “opportunities eSports presents to South African business and how it can capitalise on the eSports phenomenon.”

The topics that will be covered and discussed at the event include:

eSports as a Global Movement
The South African eSports Landscape
Brands and Audience: Reaching a Millennial Generation
Media and eSports: Freemium Models of Reaching Audience

If you’re keen to attend the free summit, you can book your tickets here.

For additional information, hit the press release below.

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GAMeS and rAge Launch eSports Branding Summit

GAMeS (Global Assembly Marketing eSports), in partnership with rAge, will launch Africa’s first eSports Branding Summit at the rAge Expo on Friday 7 October 2016. The half-day event will explore opportunities eSports presents to South African business and how it can capitalise on the eSports phenomenon, which is taking millennial audiences by storm across the globe.

Mlondi Mashinini, GAMeS summit programme director, says eSports research from SuperData projects that the total worldwide market for eSports will reach $910 million in 2016. The largest eSports prize pool was US$20.77 million at this year’s The International 6 Dota 2 competition with the largest audience being the 334 million people who watched the 2015 League of Legends World Championships.

“Despite these impressive figures, for many, eSports remains the biggest thing most people have never heard of,” says Mashinini. “The goal of the Summit will be to unpack the trends which are happening internationally as well as locally and expand brands’ horizons around the potential of eSports in an African context,” he says.

eSports has until 2016 largely been an underground movement in South Africa. Having said that, PwC benchmarks the South African gaming industry at over R2.6 billion, estimating it will reach R3.6 billion by 2019.

“While millions of gamers across the country buy games every month and fill up local servers every night competing against their online adversaries, for the most part, they have remained a market segment which is largely unidentified nor targeted by South African business,” Mashinini says.

That’s fast changing with cumulative prize money at local eSports competitions nearing the R2 million mark in 2016, while international eSports competitions have for the first time appeared on local TV networks.

Representatives from the local eSports industry, as well as broadcasters and agencies working in the industry will discuss the size, activities and audience the local gaming community represents and how eSports is likely to become a household viewing activity in South African homes alongside traditional sport and entertainment in years to come.

“eSports is growing at an unprecedented pace and the effectiveness of any attempt to reach an eSports audience rests on a brand’s ability to deliver a relevant message to a largely millennial audience, which is fast moving away from traditional media platforms.

“eSports provide brands with a huge opportunity to shift with this audience and connect with a passionate and digital audience that’s unduplicated against traditional media channels. The eSports Branding Summit will help brands understand and navigate this opportunity,” he says.

Michael James, rAge expo senior project manager, says over 33 000 people attended rAge in 2015, a clear indication of the high level of interest in gaming in this country.

“Our intention since the inception of rAge has been to broaden the gaming community while exposing consumers to the vast scope of entertainment and educational aspects of gaming. For 14 years we have introduced visitors to new concepts, products and culture. rAge has always been a place of discovery and our rAge eSports initiative falls in line with this approach. eSports has a definite place among general sports participation and spectatorship, with international cyber athletes setting the bar for future professionals. This is an opportune time to find out more – before the ‘eSports phenomenon’ becomes a reality in SA.”

The eSports Branding Summit provides an opportunity for brands to come to understand the biggest development in gaming in the last several years – the emergence of large scale crowds watching eSports in stadiums around the world and even larger audiences streaming it online, James concludes.

Seats are limited and can be booked here: https://esportsbrandingsummit.eventbrite.com/

Topics to be covered at the eSports Branding Summit include:

eSports as a Global Movement
The South African eSports Landscape
Brands and Audience: Reaching a Millennial Generation
Media and eSports: Freemium Models of Reaching Audience

Speakers and panellists will include several local eSports organisations, broadcasters and digital agencies.

About GAMeS:
GAMeS is an eSports consultancy and digital brand agency that provides a beachhead for corporates into the eSports landscape, giving strategic perspective and creative direction on how to use eSports to reach new audiences.

GAMeS deploys data enriched techniques to discover, quantify, predict and measure eSports strategies for brands using internet, social media and mobile platforms.

Formed as a partnership between FanBase Analytics and Intrinsic Media, GAMeS combines specialist knowledge and experience from professional traditional sporting codes in the United States and South Africa, with eight years of eSports implementation, to provide a unique offering to brands looking to reach a millennial audience.

About the rAge eSports initiative:

The rAge eSports initiative was formed by NAG and rAge to help build and nurture the emergent eSports community in South Africa and beyond. Our mission is to expand the growing eSports fan base as well as the local eSports community by promoting eSports tournaments, competitions and events to hard-core and casual audiences, as well as by bringing a level of professionalism to local events we host or are associated with.

GAMeS contact:

Steve Whitford: steve@gamesagency.co 083 4459 7755

Mlondi Mashinini mlondi@gamesagency.co 076 036 9407

NAG/rAge contact:

Michael James: rage@nag.co.za 011 704 2679

Lauren Das Neves: lauren@nag.co.za 011 704 2679

For more information go to www.rageexpo.co.za or http://gamesagency.co/

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Coverage Elsewhere:

WLU Roundup
by Weekly Level Up

Sunday Schooled 2 Recap
by Weekly Level Up

You can find out about even more events happening in South Africa in our events calendar. If you want all the news about goings on in South Africa, simply click on the SA flag to be whisked to the most comprehensive coverage of South African gaming that you will find on the internet. You may just be surprised by how much is happening around the country.

Know of anything gaming related happening or happened in South Africa? Drop us an email at info@zombiegamer.co.za and we will do our best to cover it.

Tags: ACGL, Black Ops 3, Bravado Gaming, Call of Duty Black Ops 3, Call of Duty World League, CS: GO, DGL, Dota 2, E-Sports, Eclipse Cup, esports, eSports Branding Summit, Events, LAN, MAG Cup, MGMS, Predator, rAge Expo, SA Gaming, South Africa, Weekly Level Up, Zombies

SA Gaming News Wrap

Upcoming Events

Competitions & Giveaways

MAG Cup

Predator MGMS

eSports Branding Summit

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