rAge Expo 2016 – A geek’s heaven

Thabiso Moloi — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 17:03:49 +0000

This past weekend I had the opportunity to check the all popular rAge Expo which took place here in Jozi. A first time experience and long overdue one on my part, the event is one of the biggest if not the biggest gaming expo around. And for those who are confused as what it is, my only question to you is…where have you been?

rAge…explained

rAge is South Africa’s biggest annual video gaming, computer, technology and geek culture exhibition. Over the course of this past weekend tens of thousands of enthusiastic fans descended on the venue for three days of gaming, technology, gadgets, pop culture and geek lifestyle entertainment. If it sounds like geek heaven, then best believe that it is!

The rAge Experience

Being a first time attendee I had an idea of what it was about however having an idea and actually experiencing something are two different things. People attending had the chance to engage in a number of activities that included buying new games and consoles, chatting with the local comic book artists, and taking selfies with their favourite cosplayers. The show was a glimpse into the future, in fact it has always been about trying out new things and getting some hands-on time before you make your purchasing decisions.

Many call it the event of the year, where you can escape your reality for a single day or even the whole weekend. rAge provides a platform to touch and feel, try and experiment. It is the place to go each year to see all the latest gaming related goodies presented in an accessible way and be surrounded by people who all share the same passion.

eSports

One of the biggest draws at this year’s event was the launch of Africa’s first eSports Branding Summit GAMeS (Global Assembly Marketing eSports), in partnership with rAge. The half-day event explored opportunities eSports presents to South African business and how those can capitalise on the eSports phenomenon, which is taking millennial audiences by storm across the globe.

Mlondi Mashinini, GAMeS summit programme director, said eSports research from SuperData projects show that the total worldwide market for eSports will reach $910 million in 2016. The largest eSports prize pool was US$20.77 million at this year’s The International 6 Dota 2 competition with the largest audience being the 334 million people who watched the 2015 League of Legends World Championships.

Eight Multi Gaming Organisations (MGOs) took part in the Telkom Digital Gaming League Masters tournament, fielding different teams for the two games, competing for South Africa’s largest Esports cash prize pool in history – R1 million.

“Telkom is thrilled to be involved Esports – this weekend’s tournament has proven how its popularity is growing in South Africa. We are hoping this will only continue and the R1 million prize pool for the finals only shows our commitment to the industry and the sport,” says Jacqui O’Sullivan, Group Executive Communication & Brand Marketing for Telkom.

The prize pool breakdown is as follows:

CS:GO

First place: Bravado Gaming – R200, 000
Second place: CarboN eSports – R90, 000
Third Place: Damage Control – R50, 000
Fourth Place: Flipsid3 Tactics – R40, 000
Fifth and sixth: Aperture Gaming and White Rabbit Gaming – R35,000
Seventh and eighth: Veneration E-Sports and Xperts@Total.Chaos – R25,000

Dota 2

First place: White Rabbit Gaming – R200, 000
Second place: Bravado Gaming – R90, 000
Third Place: Aperture Gaming – R50, 000
Fourth Place: CarboN eSports – R40, 000
Fifth and sixth: Flipsid3 Tactics and Damage Control – R35,000
Seventh and eighth: Veneration E-Sports and Xperts@Total.Chaos – R25,000

The Digital Gaming Championship (DGC) also took place over the weekend, where 500 of the best competitors from the seven leagues have been invited to take part. The following teams and individuals secured titles during the DGC:

Counter Strike: Global Offensive: eN.Heat
Dota 2: EXDEE Dota 2
League of Legends: Ventus Gaming
Battlefield 4: Pulse.Evolve
Call of Duty Black Ops 3 (PC): cbN-Carbon-COD
Call of Duty Black Ops 3 (PS4): eN. eN F34R
Hearthstone: Alan “gas” Gaskon

Big money and big business this clearly is. Can’t wait to see what the next installment has in store.

No rAge liveblog, but we’ll bring you all the action in live tweets.

Papi Mabele — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 10:46:43 +0000

Its that time of the year again where gamers alike, from all walks of life gather in one big room and have fun (no puns intended) till dusk.

I’ll be a first timer at this year’s rAge and have asked a good gaming friend of ours, Maverick to company me to the world of wrath (World of Warcraft; Wrath of the Lich King, see what I did there? Ok). Truth be told, I’m quite excited to see what gamers get up to behind closed doors. While it’s sad that we won’t be live-blogging from the event (we’re working on updating our live blogging services) there will be tons of tweets from the expo. Starting with the Intel VVIP pressers at 10h00, Playstation 4 and Xbox One reveal (and hands-on) and continuing onto the floor where we’ll take a look at some of the insane console and gaming releases scheduled for this year.

What, where, how? You can follow the hashtags #SVatRage or #rAge on twitter, facebook or instagram for updates. During the Intel presser, we’ll use the #IntelrAge hashtag. Do join us!