Topline:&nbsp;With school closures, mandatory work-from-home policies and lockdowns taking place in the U.S. as a result of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, gaming has seen higher engagement, especially over this past weekend.



<ul><li>Steam, the most popular digital PC gaming marketplace, reached new heights Sunday, drawing a record 20,313,451 concurrent users to the 16-year-old service,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/SteamDB/status/1239180882826715136?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to third-party database SteamDB</a>.</li><li>Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, released by Steam-owner Valve in 2012, seems to be the top beneficiary of the increased engagement,&nbsp;<a href="https://steamcharts.com/app/730#48h" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">breaking it&#8217;s all-time peak on Sunday</a>&nbsp;with 1,023,2290 concurrent players, topping its previous peak last month by a million, which itself beat the record set in April 2016.</li><li>Like other esports,&nbsp;CS:GO&nbsp;has had to cancel events due to the virus, particularly the Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice earlier this month,&nbsp;<a href="https://escharts.com/tournaments/csgo/iem-katowice-2020-csgo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">though its peak viewership reached over a million</a>, making it one of the most watched tournaments in the esports&#8217; history.</li><li>Activision Blizzard&#8217;s new free-to-play battle royale spinoff&nbsp;Call of Duty: Warzone, launched March 10 on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, is also likely benefiting,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1238678829956247553" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">drawing in a staggering 15 million in three days</a>, besting the record 10 million in three days by last year&#8217;s battle royale sensation&nbsp;Apex Legends.</li><li>These new heights follows similar effects of the virus on China and Italy:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-12/housebound-italian-kids-strain-network-with-fortnite-marathon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Telecom Italia&#8217;s CEO told Bloomberg</a>&nbsp;it saw a 70% increase in traffic over its landline network, with&nbsp;Fortnite&nbsp;playing a significant part, while Chinese live-streaming service Douyu experienced increased viewership of the country&#8217;s most popular games,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2020/02/26/seven-surprising-facts-about-coronavirus/#226d2ea629d1">according to market analyst Niko Partners</a>.</li><li>While gaming was considered &#8220;recession proof&#8221; during the 2008 market crash, stocks aren&#8217;t immune to the current historic drops: software developers like Activision Blizzard are facing a 9% decrease in price year-to-date, while hardware companies that rely on Chinese manufacturing like Nintendo are seeing bigger drops of 24%.</li></ul>



What To Watch For: If these records keep rising as the closings and lockdowns continue. Arriving this week is Nintendo&#8217;s long-awaited Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Switch console, a relaxing &#8220;life-simulator&#8221; that&#8217;s set to have a big day with many fans not-so-jokingly asking Nintendo to launch early.



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Nintendo do the right thing and release Animal Crossing today, forcing people to stay inside and containing the coronavirus. You have the power to end this&mdash; Paul Ritchey (@PaulRitchey) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulRitchey/status/1237795309226524673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Surprising Fact: Plague Inc., a game that tasks players in creating a virus that wipes out humanity, surged in popularity late January, becoming the top-paid game on the Chinese app store at one point, but <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/02/27/china-removed-epidemic-themed-game-plague-inc-from-the-china-app-store/#10671abf4e50">the game has now been removed in China</a> at the direction of the government.



Further Reading: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/03/13/youre-working-from-home-and-want-to-try-gaming-heres-how/#53119614316b">So You’re Suddenly Working From Home And Want To Try Gaming? Here’s How To Get Started.</a> 



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/">Matt Perez</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/innovation">Innovation</a>

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Video Games Are Being Played At Record Levels As The Coronavirus Keeps People Indoors

Interest in eSports is rapidly picking up in South Africa, and Springbok player Ryan Kankowski is now fully into it, training and mentoring youngsters.

Former South African Springbok player Ryan Kankowski has displayed his prowess in the open on rugby fields around the world.
Now, inside a closed room, the October-born 32-year-old is playing a different game – and winning.
Kankowski welcomes FORBES AFRICA to the digital world of gaming at Nexus, a gaming hub situated in Randburg, northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s the rugby union player’s home from home surrounded by posters and the latest gaming memorabilia. This is where he really lets loose.
The square-shaped building we are in resembles a Tetris block, and in the center is the Nexus café.
Enthusiastic gamers rush in and out of the retail store to either purchase the latest games or just catch up on the latest gaming trends.
Kankowski, dressed comfortably in a red sweater and grey pants, orders coffee.
“Getting on the field, you feel the atmosphere. But once you are there, you don’t see what is around you. You focus on what is happening in front of you. It’s the same with eSports. You are watching on a big screen, when you do something right, the people cheer for you. You can see and feel the excitement. It makes you want to get bigger and better every year,” he says, as he sips the hot beverage.
<blockquote>“I once played for 20 hours non-stop. You don’t do anything in between. Once you start playing, you just don’t stop.”</blockquote>
Coming from a competitive contact sport such as rugby, Kankowski uses the skills he learned on the field when he is in front of a computer screen. Balance and discipline is what he takes pride in.
Kankowski, who says he is currently on a break from professional rugby, now spends his time offering mentorship to school children interested in eSports. He also trains with the Energy gaming team.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/09/03/building-blockchain-tech-with-the-world-as-their-official-address/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Building Blockchain Tech With The World As Their Official Address</a>
Aware of the importance of maintaining a professional attitude, both on and off the field, Kankowski advises professional eSport players on representing their respective brands at gaming events.
eSports is a competitive online, electronic or video game played against teams or individual players. These competitions commonly take the form of organized, multi-player video games.
“Rugby had been my entire life. I played professionally for 15 years, I always loved gaming. If I wasn’t on the field, I’d probably be at home playing games. It seemed like a logical choice for me; it is a part of my life so why not go into something that is growing rapidly in South Africa,” says Kankowski.
Kankowski started his rugby career at the age of 17. He played for major teams like the Golden Lions, Cell C Sharks, and the South African national team. He traveled the world for rugby tournaments but always made time for e-gaming with teammates whenever they needed a break from the adrenaline rush on the field.
“Sports guys do play. A lot of them travel with Xboxes, PlayStations and laptops. It is a nice thing to switch off to forget about life. I have traveled for many years with my laptop. In my first year, I ended up traveling to Japan with my entire desktop. I carried it overseas with me.”
“The atmosphere is really different. In rugby, you have like over 60,000 people watching you. In South Africa, the eSports meets are not as big as it is in the rest of the world. There are close to a 1,000 people. Most of the guys you meet there are guys you’ve played against or even played with them at some stage,” he says.
He recognizes the importance of management and professionalism in all aspects of life. eSports and rugby, the two are worlds apart, but are heavily dependent on the character of the individual players.
Kankowski uses his experience as a benchmark when coaching youngsters.
<div id="attachment_37569" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37569" class="wp-image-37569 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ryan3-1024x851.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="615" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ryan3-1024x851.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ryan3-300x249.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ryan3-600x499.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ryan3-768x638.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ryan3.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />Ryan Kankowski at his first virtual reality gaming experience at the Nexus gaming hub in Johannesburg. Photo by Gypseenia Lion.</div>
“You have kids who are brilliant in sport but do not understand life. You can’t get on the stage and swear at somebody. You are representing a company. We get taught that in sports – how to handle the media, how to speak and how to navigate different spaces. There are a lot of them stuck in a room playing games, they don’t get the interaction between people. But that is changing now. The more professional the teams get, the more professional the players become. If I can bring a little bit of the rugby professionalism into eSports by showing them how the professional set up actually runs…If you are part of a team you represent something. There is a bit of professional etiquette that comes with it,” he says.
Reflecting on how much he misses his former rugby teammates, he adds: “If you don’t respect your team, they will not work with you. It doesn’t matter how good you are.
You may be the best scorer, but you will lose. You will eventually get kicked out of the team because you are just not a good player. It is about the team. They are like a family; they know everything about each other.”
Kankowski, who like his father spends most of his time gaming, enjoys playing mystery and adventure games. Amongst his favorites are PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, an online multi-player battle game and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, an action-adventure stealth video game.
So whether you are spending endless hours in front of the computer or sweating it off in the sun, the principles of sportsmanship remains the same.
Take this from a national rugby player who keeps it professional on and off the field.

Ryan

No Play Like E-Play For Former Springbok Rugby Player

When a 10-year-old Dimitri Hadjipaschali started playing computer games his parents scoffed at the idea. Hadjipaschali was housebound, after breaking his ankle skateboarding, when he discovered his brother playing a game called Counter-Strike. This proved to be an existential moment on crutches; gaming became Hadjipaschali’s life.
“I just needed a crosshair and Counter-Strike was the game I kind of stuck with. I decided I was going to be a full-time gamer when I joined [eSports team] Bravado in 2008&#8230; I was doing it full time, trying to win competitions. Every time it came to a tournament I was trying to win. Every time I would come in second or third it was the worst day of my life for me. That’s when I knew,” he says.
Eight years later, Hadjipaschali is one of the rising stars in the next online craze in Africa. In bedrooms across the continent a generation of professionals is playing electronic sports, or eSports, for a living.
Competitive online gaming draws millions via streaming websites and where as much as $20 million can be at stake. It’s a bit like the Olympics for geeks and eSports has its own disciplines. Hadjipaschali is the captain for Bravado’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, or CS GO, team.
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This is a first-person shooter game where a team of five tries to thwart bombers. In tournaments, teams play off in a best-of-three taking turns to attack and defend. The more games you win, the stronger your team becomes.
CS GO is one of the most popular games in South Africa. Globally it is the fourth highest-earning eSports game, with 5,396 professional players competing for $19.16 million in prizemoney at 1,710 tournaments, according to esportsearnings.com.
In Africa, this multi-million-dollar eStory is just beginning. The competition in South Africa is fierce. For years, gamers have battled for a few spots in international competition. That’s where the money is.
This is why Hadjipaschali is at a team boot camp in the cold hills of Meyersdal, south of Johannesburg. The team is here to train for the Electronics &amp; Gaming Expo (EGE) in Cape Town. On the line is a shot at the international arena – an all-expenses-paid spot at the Electronic Sports World Cup and a chance to win $75,000, in Paris at the end of October.
“If we don’t take first place [in Cape Town] we don’t know when this opportunity will come again,” he says.
It’s going to be a long night for the team. On any given day, Hadjipaschali practices nine hours a day, often finishing at dawn. This weekend, with the promise of Paris looming, they will push even harder.
“A boot camp is for us to be more focused, to get more work done. It forces us to work when we are next to each other.”
It has been an historic and lucrative year for eSports in South Africa.
From Johannesburg is Barry ‘Anthrax’ Louzada, one of the old hands – which doesn’t take too long in this business. Involved in the industry since 1999, Louzada is called the South African godfather of eGaming. He slogged it out for 10 years as a competitive gamer around the world.
“Two years ago, you were at maybe a R100,000 ($7,000) total cash prize money for an event, because there was only one event a year. Now you are looking at over R2 million ($142,000) in just one year,” says Louzada.
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These days Louzada is a shoutcaster, in English that means he gives live commentary on the sport.
“When I started out, it was a case of people driving around going to each other’s houses [barbequing] and LANing (network gaming). The internet wasn’t workable in this country for us to actually do any sort of online competing or playing. Now you have got hundreds and thousands of people coming to conventions,” he says.
As Louzada’s days as a competitive gamer are ending, Hadjipaschali’s are just beginning. If you saw Hadjipaschali walking down the street you wouldn’t think he was one of the top online gamers in the country. But those in the know ask for his autograph. For Hadjipaschali it’s more about the rush than the cash.
“In the beginning you can feel that pressure, that big match temperament, where you are not at the comfort of your own home behind your computer at your desk. When you are at home your hands aren’t shaking and it’s easier to play.”
Hadjipaschali’s next step on the road to fame and dollars was at a tournament in the cavernous Cape Town International Convention Centre on July 29. The team strolls in with the ease born of years perfecting their craft. They set up their computers, log in, huddle, and put on their headphones. Once the headphones are on, says Hadjipaschali, they won’t see anything but the screen.
With a crowd of almost a hundred cheering them on, it takes two hours to win their quarterfinal against a team called Energy. The players get up, shake hands and then make their way back to their hotel for some rest.
Hadjipaschali isn’t the only professional gamer in his family. His older brother Andreas, who founded Bravado, also had his shot. Now the team’s manager and coach, Andreas is even more determined to see South African gamers on the international scene.
“You only have one or two options, to make do with what qualifiers we have got [in South Africa] or we go overseas and we try qualify over there, but it gets really expensive. To go overseas, for five days with five players with accommodation, food, drinks we spent easily over R150-R170,000 (around $12,000). It’s different if you are living in Europe and there are qualifiers there all the time.”
Although the industry is booming, it’s not easy for the players of Bravado to play professionally. The team practises online every night. This is to accommodate players like 17-year-old Aran Groesbeek, who is still in school. His parents will allow him to play only once he has finished his homework. Ashton Muller, 24 years old, works part time as a manager at his father’s construction company. He dropped out of university to focus on gaming.
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Robby da Loca spent a year in Sweden, the mecca of CS GO, trying to make it. But, with the high cost of living in Europe and having to work part time, he fell short and returned to South Africa. Da Loca is so captivated that when he first started playing, he would sneak onto his brother’s computer to play with his earphones off, so he could hear if his brother came home.
The final member is Ruan van Wyk, a qualified industrial engineer living in Port Elizabeth.
In Cape Town, the competition moves on to its final day. The atmosphere is intense as Bravado huddle before their semifinal. The auditorium is packed with fans. Shoutcasters blast their commentary. Behind the players is a giant screen, where the action is shown. Thousands more watch online. Bravado scores a crushing victory to get to the final.
South Africa has drawn the attention from teams around the world. One of those is Anthony Nell, manager of the South African branch of international brand Flipsid3 Tactics.
“What [Flipsid3 Tactics] are interested in is the player development in South Africa. They are looking for good players that are from parts of the world untapped by the rest of the world,” says Nell.
If you thought that gamers couldn’t earn a salary you would be wrong. Nell says even basic salaries for a player in a reserve league and lower would be around $5,000 a month, excluding prize money and endorsements.
The most lucrative eSports game is Defense of the Ancients 2 (DOTA 2). It attracts total prize pools of $86.7 million. At The International 4 in August, the crowdfunded prizes locked at $20.7 million and the winners, Wings Gaming, from China, walked away with $9.1 million for a week’s work.
Africa might not have as much cash to spare, but the pressure in Cape Town’s final is intense. Hadjipaschali and his team win a contested first set against their rivals, Carbon eSports, from Cape Town, who are playing at home.
Bravado suffers from nerves in the second set, throwing away an eight-point lead as Carbon force a decider. Ten minutes before the crucial final round that will make or break this team, Hadjipaschali gathers outside for a pep talk.
“Play calm and play smart,” he says.
The talk pays off and Bravado wins the final round clinically. The team leaps from their chairs shouting. The elation on their faces is priceless. It’s not the Olympics, nor the World Cup; but for these players it’s just as important. Hadjipaschali is so overwhelmed he cries.
“This is unreal. It may not seem like a lot to people, but this is what most of us do full time,” he says.
Ahead of Hadjipaschali and his team lies Paris and a possible $75,000, and that’s just the start.
How many more young men and women from Africa are going to go out on the international stages in search of millions, earning a living in a way their parents would surely fail to understand. Check your kids in the bedroom.

Tag: E-Sport

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Video Games Are Being Played At Record Levels As The Coronavirus Keeps People Indoors

No Play Like E-Play For Former Springbok Rugby Player

You Can’t Get The Kids Off The Computer