I know I’ve been rather quiet on the blog over the last few weeks. I’ve been SUPER busy with a stack of esports broadcasts and so a lot of my time has been tied up prepping for these events and broadcasts. However, I do freelance for Red Bull Gaming and have been making sure to keep Red Bull up to date with all the going ons in South African Gaming and Esports. I usually try share these posts individually but I’ve been off for a bit so I thought I’d put them all together for you.
All these images link out to the relevant content. I’ve given a brief explanation of each beforehand, so if you’re looking for content or wanting to learn about the local gaming and esports scenes this should help you along.
Also the header image of this article was taken by the incredible ByJono a few years ago.
Some fun stuff
I had the opportunity to sit down with the creative director, Igor Manceau, of Riders Republic – a new game coming in 2021 from Ubisoft. In the last few years, some of my best memories have come from being able to interview and chat to those involved in making the games we love so much. Their passion and insight into how my favourite games come to life, are extraordinary and stick with me. I love the games MORE after chatting to them. This interview was no different. Needless to say after Manceau and I’s chat I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this game.
It was an absolute honour to get to be on the first episode of #RedBullConnect. This is such a rad series that you can watch on Red Bull TV. The first episode features Thabo “YvngSavage” Moloi and DJ Ankletap – chatting about the future of gaming in South Africa. You can also watch it for free.
FIFA
I’ve really enjoyed exploring and learning more about the South African FIFA scene over the past few months. I’ve really had the chance to get to know the players and tell their stories. There are some good ones! This month though, I chatted to two of my favourites about their thoughts around FIFA21 which they had a chance to play early:
I also explored something a little different – how to convince your parents to let you explore competitive gaming. Parents are weird right? They don’t get it. I had a really well known FIFA player walk me through how he was able to show esports to his parents in a way they understood and also, how to ensure you meet their expectations and grow in your competitive gaming career:
Overwatch
While FIFA took up a lot of my time this month I also found myself doing a lot more Overwatch content – which was fun. One of my favourite pieces was chatting to the composers responsible for the Overwatch soundtrack. I’d never really thought about the challenges that come with creating music for an FPS game. This is a cool piece if you have any interest in gaming development:
Finally, I had a chat to one of my favourite players: Twenty. We spoke about Overwatch in South Africa in 2020 the effect of VS Gaming removing their yearly league. An interesting read for competitive players:
