Era

South African Call of Duty enthusiast

[eraathings]

Confidence

I’ve been playing CoD for around six years. Over this period I’ve learned the do’s and don’ts of competing.

Recently I have noticed a lot of the newer players trying to show their competitive worth by boasting on twitter. One of the things you should never do, is trash talk before you have anything noteworthy to back it up.

Often I see the reply “we will see”, and although you might actually show people your worth in a tournament - people still will not respect you. Why is this? Because you have shown your poor attitude on a social platform.

New players must realise, that although this community is still small - competing at the highest level will leave a footprint of your actions. There will be many others who admire your skill and determination to compete and will strive to achieve what you achieve.

An example of such behaviour is the recent trend of hate towards IW. Many of the pros expressed their dislike of the game - the majority of the community followed in their stead. The growing dislike of IW was sparked by the pros. It is why competitors must be careful to voice their opinions on social platforms.

One’s reputation is paramount in any aspect of one’s life. Yes I have been the cause of a few outbreaks on twitter and I’ve been working on controlling the voicing of my opinions. Moving back towards confidence - players must understand the difference between being confident, and being arrogant. In many occasions there are fine lines between the two.

[eraathings]

Outlook of 2017

Looking back at last year there are a few things that I should have spent more time planning.

Call of Duty

College

Call of Duty

I returned to competitive with the release of Black Ops 3. It was the first title I had played since I quit in the beginning of Ghosts and I refound my love for the game. However looking at this year, the release of Infinite Warfare and the prospect of having to play this game competitively has left a sour taste in my mouth.

I believe the game to be THE worst title released in Call of Duty history. The last two titles Infinity Ward have released have been pretty poor when compared to Treyarch games. Black Ops 2 and 3 were superb titles and should be used as benchmarks for competitive and public titles. Ghosts and Infinite Warfare were two stellar examples of what not to do. Admittedly Ghosts grew on most people as the year progressed, but it still falls short of the masterpiece that was Black Ops 2.

Honestly, I cannot see myself committing as hard to this title as I did Black Ops 3. If it were up to me CoD4 would fall as the replacement title for all competitive players. That being said, it is unlikely to expect this. General improvements I would propose for the game

-Locking custom lobbies

-Leaderboards

-Connection fixes

That’s really all I have to say about Infinite Warfare.

College

The last three years I have spent my time balancing playing video games as well as completing my BComLaw degree. Now that I have finished my degree I have the option of pursuing a career in eSports (pretty unlikely in South Africa - however being a successful team owner is a more feasible approach).

Looking at further studies has been on my mind recently. I want to finish my law degree - it’s only two more years of studying. The question is how can I properly balance the above-mentioned concerns. Gaming and studying aren’t exactly compatible and therefore finding a compromise in order to be successful in both can be difficult to achieve.

Goals

Looking at the year ahead, I want to either get a full-time job or continue my studies. Studying holds a higher priority right now, however.

I want to continue competing competitively. I enjoy the competition. I like the pressure, and I hate losing. If I had to make a choice between studying and competing, then competing would need to take a backseat - this might be the case this year. A post graduate law degree is not easy.

Summary of my goals

-Build Hi5 into a successful brand

-Study a post graduate law degree

-Compete competitively

-Grow myself as a person

Growing myself

I know it seems as if I have been pretty negative this year. Truth being told is my sense of humour is pretty dry and sarcastic, so it comes off as negative. 

I’ve been told that I’m against growth of the South African eSports scene. This is untrue - I would never have committed around 6 years of my life to something I did not believe in. I’m all for growth, but critical of some things which need to be done correctly.

Good luck in 2017 guys.

[eraathings]

What SA’n eSports needs in 2017

What we need in SA'n Call of Duty eSports

Majors.

Four LAN tournaments throughout the year, scheduled every 2-3 months, with dates given in advance.

Scheduling events such as this with players understanding all the dates of the events allows for better preparation heading into the tournament. Eventually this will increase the standard of play of competitive within South Africa.

Teams will have the ability to practice for around two months before each event to fully adapt to the metagame and strategise for their opponents.

One thing I recommend against is too many LAN events, or even tournaments. The US Advanced Warfare season saw too many tournaments and as a result players began to consider playing the game more of a chore than anything else.

[eraathings]

The importance of loyalty

Recently Fearless made a post talking about eSports in connection to loyalty.

“1st and foremost I really don't see a reason of loyalty in eSports, it's a business and there's no space for loyalty in business”

This is wholly untrue. Loyalty is one of the most important factors in growing any brand. Why would any business hire an employee who feels that they owe nothing to that business? It simply cannot work. Loyalty is imperative and is essential for the success of any team.

Looking at Renato’s situation, he left Hi5 around 3-4 weeks before the start of the MAG Cup, we had been practicing with him for over a month before that. His departure meant that we had to find a suitable fourth 3 weeks before we were supposed to play the MAG Cup. Essentially we only had 2 weeks of practice as a team.

Yes his move worked out for him and they beat us, but we came second under the circumstances, which isnt too bad.

We made such a big deal about Renato leaving not because he was essential to our team, but because we had planned weeks in advance money for trips, accommodation and all other expenses to keep him happy. Ethan, Andrew and myself have been teaming since the beginning of the Black Ops 3 season. We developed fantastic synergy and it showed at the MAG Cup - where, although we arent known as fantastic individual players, we always manage to clutch up and place well when needed.

Loyalty in Hi5 is one of the most important factors in our decision to choose you as a member of our team, why should we spend time teaching you the way we play and all our strategies for you to leave a month after and tell them to your new team? 

The foundation of eSports in South Africa, and notably, competitive Call of Duty in South Africa should be placed around loyalty. Which brings me to an issue which I have raised before - everyone wants to join success, they dont want to make their own. eN has been using their status this entire year to pick and choose any player within the scene no matter the consequences. They have managed to take 3 Hi5 Players, a krypto player, and have looked at various other players from top sides. People need to look at what this means within their organisation, why should any player join their squad if their position will be compromised in the next couple months because the players aren’t happy with you as a player?

This isnt a session to bash eN, but i need to express my frustration with their power to acquire any player they so choose within any team - with no repercussions. With that being said, Hi5 will be developing player contracts to stop this ease of player transfer within the community. There needs to be a structure put in place to stop this sort of behaviour, which will ultimately grow the community in the long run.

[eraathings]

Turnaround for Hi5 Gaming

Over the past few months, Andrew, Dastrix and myself have been looking into developing an MGO. We want to invest further into South African eSports. With that being said we are proud to announce the acquisition of our new Halo roster.

@H5_Irish @H5_Swift @H5_Present @H5_Meister

Please give them a warm welcome

[eraathings]

Use for Tumblr

Hey guys,

Ive decided to use Tumblr to portray my thoughts on the local South African Call of Duty scene, and shall be using this platform for any longer posts I wish to make. 

I’ll be using this to post articles, comments and my own thoughts on how we can improve the scene. Feel free to follow me.