Mind Sports South Africa Unpacks Schools League
by Steve Whitford, Do Gaming editor
Tags: Mind Sports South Africa, MSSA, ASUS, Colin Webster, provincial, national team trials, Protea Colours
Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) today meets with some of the teachers from 23 schools who have provisionally signed up for its ASUS Schools League. Telkom Do Gaming caught up with Colin Webster, MSSA President to find out more about the league, which was recently announced.
Webster says the development of the league has been two years in the making with the plan to hold the first official schools league in the country in order to get government buy-in.
“Because we’re the national federation, we’re guaranteed support from the Department of Sport and the Department of Education through legislation,” Webster says.
The challenge however is now to get the headmasters and the schools to buy in to the concept.
“Parents need to see the benefits of gaming so that any fears they have can be addressed. Gaming is built on mathematical principals and teaches pupils skills like problem solving and so on,” he says.
School development
The MSSA’s aim is to credit school children for their efforts in gaming and move gaming out of the “nerd realms” and into mainstream school activity.
A total of 23 schools have signed up to date including:
- Bryanston High School
- St John's College
- Harriston College
- Eden Glen High School
- Pretoria Boys High School
- Potchefstroom High School for Boys
- Verits College
- Maritzburg Christian School
- Paul Roos Gymnasium
- Northcliff High School
- Kyalami High School
- Beaulieu College
- Sutherland High School
- Willowridge High School
- Marais Viljoen High School
- Wartburg College
- Vryburg High School
- Paul Pietersburg High School
- Hoerskool Uitsig
- Glenwood High
- Crawford College
- Benoni High
The closing date for schools to enter is in June and the MSSA plans to work with schools in both a more formal and less formal context.
Webster believes it is important to work with schools with LANs and the spending power as well as schools working with previously disadvantaged communities.
“We’ve already spoken to the City of Johannesburg about them allowing us to utilise community centres, which can become hubs for gaming. This could see pupils from St John’s College for example interacting with pupils in Diepkloof,” he says.
Why the MSSA is going the LAN route
The MSSA has chosen not to utilise an online element for the league, and will roll out with LAN-based competitions.
Webster readily admitted this is far more expensive, but believes the benefits of the approach are worth it. Reasons for the approach include:
- Facilitating school and player interactions in formalised events.
- Incorporating the social element of pupils connecting with other pupils at schools.
- Skills transfer at schools.
- Develop camaraderie.
While Webster acknowledges that the use of the Swiss system does not fall in line with local or international competitions, nor does a LAN based system tie in with the competitive gaming community, which is based mainly online in the country, he advocates that the MSSA has different goals.
“Developmentally we’re trying to improve the average standard of play and the Swiss system assists with that. Furthermore our LAN based strategy assists with growing the average level of gaming in schools,” he says. (Webster adds that no member of the MSSA board of control has ever asked for a double elimination format and the federation would consider it if the point was raised.)
The MSSA will therefore group schools into districts and clusters and teams will then be able to move on to provincial tournaments and national team trials. Schools from Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape have already signed up.
The challenge is in the beginning if that a school in say Graaff-Reinet or Port Elizabeth join the league, then they will have to travel to play each other, which is a drive of several hours. Webster says despite the obvious advantage of playing online (where it is available) the MSSA remains committed to the model and claims that in no other local amateur sport do people complain about having to travel at their own cost to sporting events.
Webster believes gamers have to see that they need to play for the love of the game and out of that, other benefits will flow.
The games
In terms of the games being played, Webster says Counter Strike 1.6, Warcraft III and DotA are the games being considered as that is what is being played internationally.
“We’re also considering FIFA, although it will depend on whether schools will purchase consoles,” he says.
The choice of games is based on international standards, says Webster, and the games list has yet to be finalised.
The MSSA will also be sending two Warcraft III and two FIFA Online 2 players to the International E-Sports Federation tournament later this year.
Funding
As part of the schools league, schools will also be able to apply for funding from the Lotto. Webster says the MSSA has received money from the lotto before and one of the MSSA clubs has received R100 000 from the Lotto in the past. The club covered all disciplines within the MSSA.
“However, schools can apply to upgrade their computer rooms and could receive up to R750 000 in funding from the Lotto,” he says.
The league is expected to kick off in July after the 2010 FIFA World Cup and run for two months whereupon things will move into a provincial and national team trials scenario. Gamers will have the chance to be awarded various levels of colours, including Protea Colours for gaming, depending on how far they progress.
| Article Comments | |||||||||
| Im glad they are sending ''two Warcraft III and two FIFA Online 2 players to the International E-Sports Federation tournament later this year.''To gain some much needed rep  Go pwn!! | ||||||||
| Agreed  This seems awesome! | ||||||||
| Quote: Webster adds that no member of the MSSA board of control has ever asked for a double elimination format and the federation would consider it if the point was raised I tried to change it for 2 years and he knows that. So did other people before and after me. | ||||||||
| Websters adds nothing. | ||||||||
| Spammed \ / | ||||||||
| why does this have to be closed to ceertain schools??? cant any1 pitch, and play??? (being a school team) | ||||||||
| @|R3v07v3R.UbS| Please note that any school wishing to participate may. Should your school wish to enter the ASUS Interschool League, please contact myself at mindsportssa@iafrica.com. For more information, you can also go to www.facebook.com/mindsportssa | ||||||||
| lan lan lan lan. i like lan. i also like lanning in a club! stay tuned lol.i wonder what the first-try result will be for this league. "go" prg ^^ | ||||||||
| I know I've been a vocal critic of the MSSA in the past but this really seems like a good idea. I would just have to disagree with the choice of games. CSS and CoD4 would make more sense. I doubt there's anyone still in school that plays 1.6 You have to be born around 1992 to be in matric this year, CS came out in 2000 and has been replaced by CSS on the local scene almost completely. Further, legally acquiring this game is going to be hard unless over steam which is going to make a LAN a nightmare. I think CoD4 would be the best game Well known, easy to get, easy to learn. If any schools in the Joburg area are looking for a CoD4 coach I'm jobless and epic pro | ||||||||
| @ Cobolt As the article mentions, when I asked Colin Webster about the games, his response was: Quote: In terms of the games being played, Webster says Counter Strike 1.6, Warcraft III and DotA are the games being considered as that is what is being played internationally. | ||||||||
| cobalt has a point though. i guess it depends what you're aiming at. but maybe cod4 and source would be more widely played already. the 1.6 community for example hasnt changed that much. new faces are scarce. | ||||||||
| I'm not sure where the competitive CoD4 community stands on the MSSA after an unofficial boycott which saw no national team trials happening in 2008. Brazen played in 2009, but are not playing this year as Bravado. This year they only have three CoD4 teams in their online league. | ||||||||
| totally true. I guess in my opinion I've assumed they are reaching a lot of gamers not already invested in an online community. | ||||||||
| I agree this is a super awesome step up in the schools syllabus I wish I was still in school now so I could also play in such tournaments, however, unfortunately this here opportunity from MSSA does not apply to us seasoned gamers long out of school  man I wish I was still in school! | ||||||||
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