Mega8 tournament – Memoirs of a LAN gamer

This past week I was lucky enough to be a part of the Mega8 launch tournament where I was on the panel with Mister Gareth “Lord Roshford” Woods and the learned Devin “HellbirD” Rigotti and while we were having banter during and after the panel it got me stuck in a segue. Stuck in a memory I fear never to be repeated.

The outset of this event and company, exciting and needed for our community, was grand. R600,000 video cameras, broadcast desk full of lights (I am easily distracted), screen larger than the Marianas trench; which I swear gave my neck a tan and I’m sitting with 1 of the funniest gents I know with the best Hellbeard in the business. Yes, Gareth he has beard superiority and you must now move from his path in doorways as I have to for everyone able to grow a beard. Feel my pain… but I digress. The feeling that I got talking with these two gentlemen on this panel reminded me so much of days gone by that I feel we are as a community becoming toxically devoid of purpose and have lost that personal feel. Which is weird for a nerd to say I know. Just stay with me here.

The online scene has done naught but give us anonymity, which has caused us to believe that it’s ok to be rude and condescending to one another. Guilty party included I am not casting stones. There was none of that back in the days of physical LANs.

People would sort their differences out, understand that not everyone is socially perfect and that we’re all just people trying to do our very best. This event reminded me of that positivity. From the people at Mega8 to the casters, the panel and everyone involved seemed to be doing their utmost because of who the Mega8 people are and the common goal. It was the most fun “working” I’ve had in a long while.

It is my firm belief that this event will bring about such a positive change within eSports that we all finally get what we are really after here which is feasible careers for gamers in South Africa as it is in the rest of the world. It was without wistful eloquence an honor to be involved.

Mega8 has started with a precedent to give us all a brighter dawn within South Africa. Let’s get behind them and push with all our might!