Top South African fraggers could be rewarded with national colours as early as next year if a plan by the Amateur Gamers` Association of SA (Agasa) comes together.
"Because gaming has now been recognised as a sport in this country by Mind Sports SA, we are in a position to offer provincial and national colours in gaming - the first country in the world to do so," says Agasa founder Johan von Backstr"om.
Von Backstr"om says Electronic Arts (EA) approached Agasa, which runs the largest online league in the country, to run a tournament for the PC game Battlefield 2142, which is being released in the country on Friday.
Agasa and EA will send the top Battlefield "clan" to Taipei in December to represent the country, and according to Von Backstr"om, provincial and national colours will soon be issued. Registration opened last week for the gaming tournament on the Agasa site.
"Gamers will have to play with a licensed copy of the game and will have until Friday, 3 November to register for the tournament."
The gaming roster will be available from noon on 4 November on the Agasa Web site and the round robin leg of the tournament will run online from 6 November to 19 November. The semi-finals will be held on 20 November and the final on 21 November, says Von Backstr"om.
Claire Gobey, EA marketing manager, says if the winning clan resides outside Gauteng, they will be flown to Johannesburg.
"The team will then be flown courtesy of EA to the knockout tournament in Taipei, which will take place on 2 December. There they will compete head-on with teams from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and India."
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