BOITUMELO KOKWE

TuksESports is the Esport club at the University of Pretoria. The club’s main objective is to promote Esport through the various leagues and tournaments that the club has. The competitions held by the club help prepare individuals who would like to compete in the provincial and national tournaments. The club is open to anyone who is a competitive gamer living in Pretoria, or surrounding neighbourhoods. Esports involves players competing in different electronic games.

The two popular electronic games offered by TuksESports are; League of Legends and Call of Duty. Other games include: Dota Two, StarCraft Two and Counterstrike. TuksESports also participates in the University Sport South Africa (USSA) Esports Tournament.

” An article by The Guardian titled “Esports ride crest of a wave as figures rocket”, showed an increase of Esports popularity by 75 percent since the beginning of the pandemic.“

In 2019, the USSA had its first annual Esports Tournament, held at Stellenbosch University (SU). In which eleven universities took part. Namely, SU; Cape Peninsula University of Technology; Central University of Technology; Durban University of Technology; Mangosuthu University of Technology; North-West University; Sol Plaatje University; Tshwane University of Technology; University of Cape Town; University of Witwatersrand, and University of Western Cape.

The winners were Maties Esports from SU. In 2020, TuksESports will be participating at the USSA ESports Tournament for the first time. The first E-sport competition, the ‘Space Invaders Championship’ was held in 1980. Other international video game tournaments include the World Cyber Games, The International, and The Final Match.

COVID-19 has led to traditional sport games being postponed – one competition being the Olympic Games. The postponement of traditional sports has led to an increase in the popularity of Esports. An article by The Guardian titled “Esports ride crest of a wave as figures rocket”, showed an increase of Esports popularity by 75 percent since the beginning of the pandemic.

“TuksESports: Tuks director says eSports popularity can’t be ignored“

In the article, “TuksESports: Tuks director says eSports popularity can’t be ignored” the Acting Director for TuksSport, Toby Sutcliffe, said “there is no getting away from the fact that Esports is going to become more popular”. He also mentioned the increase in the profit made by ESport world-wide. He said,

“[the] global revenues from esports, or professional video game competitions, have come close to 1.1 billion [dollars] in 2019. It is 27 percent more than in 2018”.

More information about joining TuksESports is given on its official website at https://www.up.ac.za/tuksesports.

Photo : Mashudu Madzhiga