Author: Stefan ‘PhoenixTears’ Morris

eSports is growing so fast in South Africa. The number of LANs on a big scale are going up and more tournaments are being held weekly! Counter-Strike, Dota and Overwatch are growing exponentially in South Africa. On the other hand, the amount of StarCraft tournaments here are basically non-existent and most people would probably, when asked, tell you that the scene is dead. Well I am here to tell you otherwise. There is no way I can ever tell you it is as big as it was let’s say two years ago and while the scene is not really there for tournaments there still is a thriving community.

Being a player who only started playing SCII at the end of 2015 all I really knew about the scene here included my brother and my friend who actually convinced me to buy the game. After a year of knowing there was definitely other SA players out there it was not until I joined the clan Blue-Dragon E-Sports (3DE) that I realised there is a huge player base who still plays this game from South Africa. But more on the clan later.

I think when discussing a certain scene in a country it is important to explore the competitive nature of the scene. And by that, I mean at the highest levels of the game. We have three masters that I know of. Namely Allan ‘Kairos’ Mundy, Luke ‘Luke’ Pothier and Nathan ‘StatiC’ Anderson. All part of the Blue Dragon clan. The only GrandMaster South Africa has is Edwin ‘Drager’ Williams who is a Protoss player who recently qualified and played in the World Electronic Sports Games tournament that took place in China at the beginning of the year. He is the best player in South Africa and to see him travel to a tournament where he is on level par in terms of Ping, which you struggle to get here in South Africa, was a real treat for South African StarCraft fans! Hopefully Edwin qualifies for WESG 2018 and adds to the success of taking Stephano down at the 2017 showpiece. As well are hoping that one of our other Masters can make their way to the 2018 showpiece as well! glhf!

In all honesty, it would be unfair to say that the StarCraft scene here is competitive in that sense. Any tournament here would be taken by Drager with barely dropping a map. The community here is very different. It is basically monopolized by the Blue Dragon Clan! That is what makes it so different. There are a few stragglers who are not part of the clan but I can probably make a prediction that 80% of StarCraft players in South Africa are part of the 3DE clan. We are by no means a competitive clan. We are made of players from Bronze to GM with most of the Clan in Diamond League. We are now close to 100 members and most probably the biggest clan in South Africa for any eSport. I do not know much about other clans around the world but I doubt you will find such camaraderie and closeness in a clan more than 3DE. Every night a large group of us congregate on TeamSpeak to not only play games and discuss tactics and strats but to share stories, jokes, memes and most importantly banter. We not only play StarCraft but stick mostly to Blizzard games.

What is even more astounding about 3DE is the people in the clan come from many different walks of life of different ages that have come together over common ground that in turn transcends those ‘boundaries’. We are from all over South Africa and have recently enjoyed some membership from countries like Namibia, Germany, France and the UK which brings a breath of fresh air into our local clan. Some would say that the competitive scene defines a scene when you start to talk about eSport but in my opinion it is way more than that. In South Africa the StarCraft scene is very different and built on community and a group of individuals playing a single player game and coming together to join a very special group. Therefore, in my opinion, one cannot say the StarCraft II scene in South Africa is dead!

I know this article seems to lean to waxing lyrical about 3DE but to be honest its the only community I have known in the country. I do hope to do a future article with more information about the broader StarCraft community in South Africa through attending LANs around the country. I will get back to you guys! I am hopefully going to follow this article up in another way which would be more of a deeper look into the Blue Dragon Clan and the members in the clan! Until then PhoenixTears out!

PS If you are a StarCraft or any gamer for that matter who would like to join the 3DE clan do not hesitate to contact one of the admin on this page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlueDragonESports/?ref=bookmarks