Locals make their mark in South African eSports

Writer & Photographer Taylum Meyer

Online gaming is not only a popular pastime for youngsters but has become an increasingly competitive – and lucrative – eSport. The inaugural Fortnite World Cup that was held in New York in July this year, for example, had a prize pool of a cool $30 million – the biggest in eSporting history. The winner, a 16-year-old from Pennsylvania, USA, took home the top prize of $3 million.

Here in Hermanus, three teenagers who only started playing competitively this year, recently proved their gaming mettle by making it to the finals in several big tournaments. The first one was the Fortnite National Online School Cup, the biggest Fortnite tournament in South Africa thus far, hosted by Maverick LAN Gaming.

The tournament was open to learners from all South African schools and the top 20 players from each of the four qualifying rounds were invited to the tournament final in Sandton on 7 December. Among them were 17-year-old James Coombe from Hermanus High, 15-year-old Kai van der Riet and 13-year-old Spencer Nicholas, both from Generation Schools Hermanus.

The final consisted of five games and the points accumulated over the five games made up their final score and determined their placements. All three boys managed to grab a spot in the top 50 at the finals, with Spencer placing the highest out of the three at 24th. The winner of this tournament received R25 000, plus a further R25 000 for his or her school, or charity of choice.

James, who will be in matric next year, has been playing Fortnite since October 2018 and was recruited by ATK Arena in June of this year for their Fortnite eSports team. ATK Arena has dedicated players and teams in various online games and is passionate about growing eSports in South Africa. James hopes to make a career out of gaming and would like to play internationally. Kai and Spencer both say that for now gaming is just a hobby.

After coming back from the school cup final in Sandton on 7 December, Kai and Spencer went straight into another Fortnite tournament in Cape Town called the ATK Fortnite Holiday LAN Cup. They took part in two of the tournament’s qualifiers where they both did extremely well and secured cash prizes. The results were as follows: U20 Solo Qualifier (12 Dec) – Kai 2nd and Spencer 3rd; U14 Solo Qualifier (19 Dec) – Kai 1st and Spencer 2nd (Kai was still 14 at the time). Both will attend the tournament’s final which will take place on 9 January in Cape Town, where the winner will be taking home R5 000. ATK Arena

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