Yes, after a short leave of absence (or pure laziness) it’s back. The severed limb of Undead Ed. And the clan profiles in one week. The end is nigh.
Today we re-visit the Sector 17 chaps, who were only 18 strong less than a year ago. My, how they’ve grown…
We last caught up with Sector 17 around nine months ago. What have been the major changes in the clan?
We stepped it up a level since 9 month ago. We are now one of the first successful cross-platform clans in South African, with over 70 active members playing several competitive games.
Is the clan still heavily based in Port Elizabeth, or have the changes meant an expansion countrywide?
Yes, the core management team is based in PE but we have spread our wings to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
Are there localised – at least in terms of console – teams to focus more on the growing number of LANs happening?
Sadly not in PE. The demand for LANs in the Eastern Cape has taken a huge dip due to lack of finances and participation.
What is the clan’s organisational structure now, and each of the player’s roles in the team?
It has changed since the last time we spoke. Sector 17 has now only one Clan Leader: Coach Yankovsky (Charles Greeff).
And then there are these wonderful Division Leaders and Friends that look after the rest of the clan.
Xbox Division: Ninja Pete Za (Jaco Bruwer), Soldiersixty6 ( Zayne Rogers), Krisyren Za (Chris Puren)
Playstation Division: Slickrick777 (Ricky Du Preez)
PC Division: Xergxes7 ?(Robin Pretorius)
Communication guy: Ghost XVI (Mitch Stroebel) – he takes care of all the social media pages and creates some of our breath taking montages.
Sector 17 now has a PC division. What are the games the clan now focuses on over all the platforms?
Here is the list :):
Xbox: Call of Duty (Black Ops 2 going to Ghosts) Battlefield, Forza 4 and Halo.
Playstation: Call of Duty (Black Ops 2 going to Ghosts) and GT 5.
PC: Dota 2, StarCraft 2, Call of Duty (Black Ops 2 going to Ghosts) and Battlefield.
Sector 17 appears to try to stay active in as many tournaments as possible. From your tournament experiences, what do you think still needs to be done with regards to continuing the growth of console eSports in SA?
Consistency and proper structure.
There are too many grey areas in the eSports supporting system to actually grow this “sport” and we don’t have a strong enough organization to put down the “rules” on how this “sport” needs to be run in South Africa. If we can find a centre point, we will have less politics and actually have a structure in place that will assist us to compete on the same level as the foreign gamers.
Do you think there has been much growth in the last year or so?
Yes I do, the console community has grown a lot in the last year. More and more console clans have entered local tournaments and we are seeing more organizations supporting the community by hosting LAN and online tournaments.
It’s still tough for (especially) console clans to get sponsorship deals. Does Sector 17 have any plans to really push themselves and their marketability to appeal to sponsors?
Well if you look at our stats, we are very busy on make it as attractive as possible for new sponsors.
- We are the only South African console gaming clan that has grown from 4 gamers playing in someone’s garage to over 70 active member’s country wide.
- We are one of the first cross-platform clans in South Africa with a proper management structure in place.
- We are the only clan in South Africa that has played over 500 clan matches, competed in 12 local tournaments, 1 international tournament, competing in 7 different games. Achieving this in less than 2 years.
- We are probably the only clan that have the opportunity to send 2 Dota 2 teams to compete at this year’s rAge after only competing in our first DGL winter season, and who have 2 members selected to compete in a 1v1 tournament to play alongside Dendi in an exhibition match at this year’s rAge. [Please note, interview was conducted before the weekend of rAge. Dendi did not make it due to illness. – Undead Ed]
What is it that most clans actually expect sponsors these days? Private jets and limos?
Ha ha ha you are not far off the point there. Clans, especially console clans expect that from sponsors. Console clans expect if they have some skills and a YouTube channel that sponsor must give them Scuf controllers and laptops. This is also one of the reasons why it is hard for any console clan to get a proper sponsorship.
What do you guys think the sponsor expects in return from the clans? The danger is that many clans can’t stick around or change players too regularly. Surely that makes any sponsor nervous?
Yes it does. Sponsors in general looks at their return on investment and at this stage the only thing that console clans can return is …………
We assume you’re off to go and dominate someone, somewhere. Anything you would like to add before you do?
To clear up the uncertainty and people still asking:
Yes!!!!! Coach Yankovsky is moving to America 🙂.
Yes, He will be competing next year in Dallas at the MLG.
No!! Sector 17 Gaming will not fall apart. This Corporation has a strong management structure. As a matter of fact, we will become the first South African based clan that has clan members in the USA that will represent their clan at MLG on a regular basis.
Thank you Zombiegamer for the revisit and here is a tribute montage for our Sector 17 members:
Website | Facebook Page | Twitter | YouTube Channel | TeamSpeak | Steam Group | DGL | Email: sector17@live.co.za
Please note: Clan Q&A’s can be conducted up to five weeks before they are published so some information may already have changed.
If you are keen to feature in this column in the future, please feel free to contact us at info@zombiegamer.co.za and we’ll think about – after you’ve sent us a sample of your braaaaaaiiiiinnnnsss.
