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A few weeks ago, Chani_ZA told you a little bit about RUSH. A new Esports event that is being organised by the same folks who bring you rAge every year (i.e. they know what they’re doing and it won’t be sh*t). The idea is simple: a giant celebration of South African Esports under one roof and powered by HP Omen. That’s the abridged version on paper. In reality, this is going to be much bigger than just some competitive video games and possibly a DJ spinning some tracks. This is going to be a giant celebration of gaming awesomeness.
RUSH takes place from the 21st to the 23rd of July at the Sandton Convention Centre. You’ll pay R50 to get in for the day, R100 for the weekend and R600 for a NAG LAN ticket (I’ll get to that in a little bit). No matter your gaming interest, you’ll want to be at RUSH next month. To make sure you don’t miss the action, here are 3 things you have to see at RUSH this year as voted for by me:
The NAG LAN
The NAG LAN is an experience everyone has to have at least once in their life. Usually the LAN happens at rAge but you’re going to be able to take part in the first ever Winter NAG LAN this year. Basically how it works is that you arrive on day 1 with your PC and then you join 599 other rad humans and jam games ALL WEEKEND. That’s 53 hours of gaming awesomeness. So you’ll set up in a dedicated space at the convention centre and can still enjoy the rest of RUSH as well. If you’re new to gaming or just want to do something different for a weekend, this is one of the things at RUSH you need to try out. If you decide not to LAN then at least go past the space over the weekend and experience the awesomeness of the rubber ducks.
My favourite Esports players
By now, even if you’ve never watched an Esports event in your life, you’ve likely got some insight by visiting this blog regularly. Yay! Of topic, I actually received a message yesterday from someone hanging at the Nexus asking me if I was there because she saw some gents in Esports shirts. The assumption is that I’ll be around and this isn’t usually wrong! I’m a huge fan and I’m excited that RUSH is going to let you be a huge fan as well. This is the perfect opportunity to meet someone of the best players in the country. The CSGO gents will be at the event playing in the ESWC qualifiers. I’ve actually been toying with the idea of asking HP and the ESWC guys to let us have a Tech Girl meet and greet where you can actually meet some of my favourite CSGO Players face to face so you know who I’m talking about all the time. What do you think? Would you be keen to have something like that at RUSH?
CSGO isn’t the only Esports title on offer. I’m also really excited to check out the HP Omen League of Legends Challenge. I’ve not really followed League of Legends locally but after Constantine104’s introduction I’m ready! There’s been a bit of a slow sign up from local clans but hopefully we’ll see more entries as the RUSH dates draw closer. Rumour has it that we’ll also see a few fun and interesting titles added to the Esports list for this event. Think friendly PUBG tournaments and maybe even some Rocket League action – I’m hoping we can rope in some Esports stars for some friendly ass kicking during the down time.
Some rad YouTubers
In the last few months I’ve had the absolute privilege of meeting a crew of gaming YouTubers who not only create incredible content but are also amazing human beings who I’m honoured to call my friends. They’ll all be at RUSH running around with cameras ready. Chani_ZA, FrankyB and #DaneFromNAG (yes, that is a thing Chani has now started) will be creating amazing content for the NAG channel and Constantine104, Tiny and Geemax will also be all over the expo floor with their cameras ready. Find them, spot them and pinch their bums to make them uncomfortable (maybe don’t do that, it could get weird). Events like RUSH are a great opportunity to just meet up with these guys and have a laugh while creating incredible content. I’m so damn excited!
I’ll also be at RUSH for most of the weekend. I’ll be at the HP Omen store and stand at various points during the weekend for us to meet up and have some fun. So if you’re at RUSH be sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram (the stories feature) to find out when I’m at the stand. We’ll be doing some live video from there and possibly streaming as well. So it will be a great opportunity to meet up. There are a few other plans in the works as well, so I’ll keep you up to date.
Most important question now, who am I seeing at RUSH?
