THE CHECK: Maringo, Maseno, New Donholm pick up wins in the FIFA22 Ma Esto 2 League Weekend Opener

“Seems lounge managers need to recruit well.”

New Donholm Yankee Gaming Lounge posting a 3-1 win over Buru58 Qwerty Gaming showed us how deep FIFA Esports can be in Kenya. The boys from BuruBuru finished second place in the first season of the League now find themselves bottom of the group with a 1 Win – 3 Losses and putting up 11 goals. 

The League this season will see every operation move offline. So, what does this mean for the rest of the Game Weeks? 

End of Week One

Teams that opened up the weekend with wins have a certain comfort heading towards the second week of competition. With only three weeks of play in the Ma Esto 2 Rounds before entering the FAINALI event, teams will be fighting to enter the top position as the format will see all Lounges play in the final event depending on the place they finished in their respective groups. 

FORMAT 

The 7th/8th Playoff Final will be competed by teams that finished 4th in their respective groups. 

The 5th/6th Playoff Final will be competed by teams that finished 3rd in their respective groups. 

The 3rd/4th Playoff Final will be competed by teams that finished 2nd in their respective groups. 

1st/2nd Playoff Final will be competed by teams that finished 1st in their respective groups. 

GROUP A FIXTURES 

Ma Esto One Champions Horizon Gaming Lounge started the League just on a high as they ended the previous season. Lounge Manager Collins Oyindo fielded newcomers Makuer Machot and Leone Marlone in the teams’ 3-1 victory over Kahawa Wendani T.O.G Gaming Lounge.

Makuer Machot kicked off the fixture in a 2-1 loss against Wendani’s Andrew Nderi. The crew from Wendani happy with the result lost momentum in their second game that saw Maseno’s Leone Marlone net twelve goals against Noel Mwenda. Maseno continued to push their lead after Leone added another W over Andrew Nderi before Makuer Machot closed the deal with a 4-0 win over Noel. Maseno sits top of Group A with 3-1 W-L stats/19 Goals. 

In the next Group A fixture, Maringo BushHunters Gaming Lounge wiped Kahawa Sukari’s Sounds Palace Entertainment Gaming Lounge 3-1 with BadNews & ErickDemon Collins leading the way against Brian Okello & George Kimaru. Two matches in this fixture ended after Extra-Time and Penalties, ErickDemon v. George Kimaru (3-3) which was won (5-3) by Collin ErickDemon, the match between BadNews & George Kimaru (2-2) and won by BadNews. 

Maringo sits second in Group A while Shuge and Wendani sit 3rd and 4th respectively. 

GROUP B

Ma Esto One vets BuruBuru Qwerty Gaming Lounge kicked off their campaign in an unusual loss against New Donholm Yankee Gaming Lounge. The boys from 58 were up after the first match that saw Milito takedown Boniface Akenga 3-0. This match gave them psyche heading into the next match but New Donni had other plans, Klein Moseh Moke putting in 5 goals against Giddys 3 levelled up the fixture match win score. The fixture ended 3-1 to New Donholm Yankee Gaming Lounge.

In the last Group B match, Eastleigh’s Ushirika Gaming Crave up against season one vets Old Donholm LIMZ Entertainment Gaming Lounge saw our first fixture draw of the day as each lounge bagged two wins each. Eastleigh Ushirika Gaming Crave sent a message to the boys from Old Donholm after scoring eight goals in the first match (Ginimbi v. Larry 8-0). Duchi from Donholm came back and rescued the situation after beating Mustafa 3-1, he later took Old Donholm ahead with a 3-1 defeat of Ginimbi but his teammate Larry failed to capitalize on the lead losing 4-2 to Mustafa in the last game of the day. 

THE FOCUS: Towns, Local Leagues & Travel plans

“Long Journeys, Local Leagues, Local Teams.”

Imagine a Kenya Premier League promotion playoff game between fictional clubs called Turkana United against a relegation-bound team in the KPL from Mombasa. Imagine that the top two teams that earned direct promotion to the Kenya Premier League are Marsabit Soccer Club and Bunyala Town Club.

We cannot think of local teams earning spots in the top-tier competition, especially from various parts of the country. The 2018/2019 NSL saw Kisumu Allstars get automatic promotion to Kenya’s top tier league, this scenario should have you think harder and harder about the possibility that the image above can come true.

LOCAL LEAGUES

Kenya’s soccer system taps into different regions, communities, skill levels, and physical attributes. The system is not currently being used to its full potential but slowly moving in that direction.

A 47 County League structure that sees all 47 top teams from each county meet in regional leagues to fight their way up to the premier league, is what many Kenyans are missing out on. Strengthening the structures is more progressive and will boost all other levels in the pyramid system of Kenyan football.

Local leagues will not only expose talents across Kenya but will also improve the levels of sports development in these regions, in turn, shed light on economic and social growth in various towns.

TRAVEL PLANS

 If all clubs mentioned above got promoted, 18 clubs in the Premier League (Hopefully, it will be 24 in future), clubs & fans will have to travel to either of these towns for home games and so will these clubs travel for their away encounters.

A match pitting Bandari FC and Turkana United will see two clubs travel for hours from one part of the country to the other for a 90-minute game. Do we have infrastructure that will spur the growth of sports in the region? 

How about Bunyala Town Club? Is the club ready to travel long-distance, and get high mileage for away games? This is what sports development is all about. Just a few years ago, Mombasa RFC struggled in the Kenya Cup due to long-distance travel from the coast to majorly Nairobi for away games.

Are we ready for long mileage travel in the league? Are our small towns ready to host travelers from across Kenya? 

Ace Pro Gaming: Esports consumption continues to grow in times of major sports leagues suspensions and cancellations.

The suspension of local sports leagues such as Kenya Cup, Kenya Premier League, Championship Rugby, Inter-Varsity games, school games add to the list international leagues such as NBA, NHL, EPL, Marathons, Golf events due to the coronavirus is slowly giving Esports (online) a spotlight.

Athletes & celebrities are using online platforms such as twitch to connect with fans, followers and brands. Both competitive and casual play is taking over the social sphere as many people are on lockdown and isolation at home.

The US and Europe sports leagues have seen many athletes, clubs, organization and individual players take to their social media appearing in many video games streams and casual play of various title games.

The Australian Grand Prix that was cancelled got a great social content strategy with Veloce Esports driving a hashtag (#NotTheAusGP). This competitive racing simulation attracted Pro Formula 1 drivers, Esports drivers, Pro soccer players, Youtubers and many other content creators

Esports is slowly positioning itself as an alternative to traditional sports. Sports title games such as FIFA, F1 and Motorsports (WRC) are taking the opportunity to tap into the growing demand for live sports content during this lockdown.

Veloce Esports is organizing a second event to be streamed live on twitch titled (NotTheBahGP) positioning the cancelled live Bahrain Grand Prix.

The esports space will fill in the void left with the absence of daily weekend sports such as the NBA, NHL and soccer leagues across the world. Esports is seeing an opportunity to showcase its strength as an alternative to entertainment, competition and engagement.

“If there was ever a time in sports history that digitally-native forms of entertainment would be top of mind, it’s now”

Ace Pro Gaming will be launching a few numbers of online competition over this period to showcase Kenya’s Esports scene.

The Leyton Orient F.C organized “Quara-Team” challenge is seeking to connect over 70 teams across many different leagues and competitions to play in a FIFA20 Knock out the online competition.

ON THE FOCUS |AMANDA LIGHTS UP THE ALL-LADIES DIVISION WITH CLEAN FINISHES TO WIN WEEKEND TWO.

The new entrant into the All-Ladies Division Amanda lit up the division this past weekend with great play and clinical finishes. Amanda qualified for the final after a splendid play during the pools.

In the absence of Tuts, we might have missed a great matchup between her and Amanda because they both almost have a similar style of play execution. Amanda beat Bree and drew against Tamara. The final saw Tamara and Amanda face off in a match that ended 1-0 in favour of Amanda. Due to playing only one tourney, Amanda sits bottom of the table with 6 points. Tamara leads with 10 points, Bree(8 points), Tuts (6points).

ELIAS BAGS e-LIG WEEKEND TWO AFTER AN IMPRESSIVE COME BACK WIN AGAINST GEEMAJID

Horizon Organization player Elias beat GeeMajid in the final of the e-Lig series weekend two to bag himself the prize plus 24 points. Elias, who was a replacement for Pablo, came in and maneuvered his way through Conference A which was a tight group. He finished 2nd beating Technical University of Kenya player Malvin on goal difference finishing after Flossin Mauwano.

Elias qualified through Conference A and met Rockie in the two-legged quarter-final where he made a comeback win (4-3 aggregate score). He lost 3-2 in the first leg of the game and made a late comeback in the 2nd leg to book a semi-final after a 2-0 win.

Other Quarter Final results

Yardie v. GeeMajid (4-3 aggregate score to Majid)

Zack v. Kamal (4-2 aggregate score)

Mumu v. Kevo CK (5-2 aggregate score)

Semi-Final

Flossin Mauwano v. GeeMajid (3-4 GeeMajid win)

Elias v. Zack (1-0 Elias win)

The Final

GeeMajid managed to secure a place in the final after an impressive win over defending champion Flossin Mauwano. Elias, on the other hand, cruised past Zack in the second semi-final.

In the final, GeeMajid had a comfortable lead 2-0 lead up to the 85th minute where Elias pulled off two goals to draw the match with few minutes left. The game was seen to go for Extra time but Elias had other plans to close it just right before the whistle goes off. He pulled off a great goal in the 89th minute to close out GeeMajid and win Weekend two on a 3-2 score.

ON THE FOCUS |HORIZON ORGANIZATION MAKE ONE CHANGE AHEAD OF THE e-LIG FIFA19 SERIES WEEKEND TWO.

Horizon Organization, a University of Nairobi based FIFA19 team will go into Weekend Two knowing they have to defend their aggregate win as they did in the first Qualifier. The team currently sits top in the logs with 69 aggregate points. Joel led the team delivering 21 points during the Weekend Opener. Joel fell (5-4) on aggregate against Mount Kenya University Peter “Flossin Mauwano” Mumu during the opening weekend held at Kenyatta University. Horizon Organization manager Collins Oyindo made a change this week replacing Pablo with Elias Beast. The new player will play in Conference A which looks to be the group of death with heavyweight players such as e-Lig Weekend Opener winner and Mount Kenya University player Peter Mumu, Technical University of Kenya Epsilon Malvin, #Mo (Strathmore University), Max Murila from Kenyatta University and WekaMbali from (JKUAT). NEW RIVALRY Mauwano Organization Peter Mumu will open up a new rivalry with University of Nairobi Elias Beast who is considered to be a great player. They met this past weekend at a FIFA19 tournament held at KCB Sports Club where Peter Mumu narrowly won. We look forward to catching this matchup this coming Saturday.

KENYATTA UNIVERSITY TO HOST WEEKEND TWO OF THE e-LIG FIFA19 UNIVERSITY SERIES.

Kenyatta University will once again host the e-Lig series weekend two scheduled for 2nd March. The prestigious institution also plays host to one of the six organizations playing in the series called Horsemen Organization.

Horsemen Organization will again be playing to their home crowd this weekend and they hope they will perform better than the weekend opener. Horsemen Organizations sit bottom of the log with 22 points. Jumia Gaming tournament winner Phillip “Yardie” Kimani leads the organization with 4-3 Win-Loss record followed by Winchester (2-1-4), Max Murila (1-0-6) and Bruno “GrimReeper” Sorre (2-5). The home team will have to improve going into weekend two as other organizations seek to dominate this coming weekend.

Follow the table for full rankings:

Kenyatta University with a vibrant FIFA community playing both online and at various gaming lounges in its environs such as Kahawa Sukari, Kahawa Wendani offers a unique spot for FIFA competitions. The huge population also plays a big role in the series by attracting spectators for this great series.

Kenyatta University Business & Students’ Service where the competitions will be held has a sitting capacity of up to 250 people giving it a fabulous location for the event. The centre also offers great amenities such as eating spaces, restaurants banks and conference halls for students and visitors to access. We welcome you all to come to enjoy great music from Homeboyz Esports and fabulous University rivalry competition.

e-LIG University FIFA19 Series

March 2nd 2019 Kenyatta University Business & Students’ Service Centre 014

Horizon Organization sit top of the log after the first leg of the e-Lig University series.

Horizon sit top of the log after the weekend opener held at Kenyatta University Business & Student Service Centre. Horizon Organization had players finishing 4th, 5th, 7th and 15th where they earner 21,20,18 and 10 points respectively to total up to a 69 points lead against all other five registered organizations.

Joel helped lead the way for the University of Nairobi students with 21 points finishing the weekend opener with a 5-2-3 record. Other notable players in this organization were Zack who finished one place behind Joel with a 7-0-2 record having being beaten in the quarter-final by Peter Mumu whereas Yobra who finished 7th place with a 6-2-1 record and Pablo who finished week one at 15th place with a 2-2-3 record.

Team Alpha sits at second place with 64 points just 5 points behind the leaders Horizon Organization. GeeMajid leads the team with 22 points finishing 3rd place. Kamal contributed 19 points to the team, Rockie pulled in 14 points and #Mo with 9 points.

Kevo CKs team from TUK (A-Team) sits third in the log with 55 points. Kevo CK raked in 23 points for his team, Steve pulled in 16points, KingSlayer brought in 15 points whereas Epsilon Malvin was a no show in the weekend opener giving out walkovers and finishing with only 1 point.

Mauwano Organization led by the e-Lig weekend opener winner Peter Mumu sit fourth place with 52 points, JKUATs team Elite Organization is at fifth place with 38points whereas the weekend opener tournament hosts Horsemen sit bottom with only 22points.

The series takes a break and will be back in February at a location we will communicate soon.

Elite Organization Sheila “Tuts” Nduta shines in the All-ladies category beating Horizons Tamara in the final.

The e-Lig All-Female series went down this past weekend at Kenyatta University and saw three of the six participants play a round-robin competition where the top two in the group went for a final at the main stage.

The participants that showed up included Sheila Nduta (JKUAT), Bree Obea (K.U), and Tamara (UON)

GROUP STAGE

(Sheila Tuts v. Tamara)

Sheila took control of the game from the start scoring a goal against Tamara in the first minutes of the game. The Elite player is well known for her great passing and hard shots towards her opponents.

Horizon player Tamara later took the game even with a goal but could not hold against Tuts attacking knowledge who sealed the game with a goal to end the score 2-1.

(Tamara v. Bree)

Kenyatta University player Bree failed to match against UONs Tamara losing the game 2-1.

(Tuts v. Bree)

JKUAT and Elite Organization player Nduta found it easy to net in three goals passed host Bree Obea.

Tuts and Tamara proceeded to the final

THE FINALS

The All-female series also went down as one of the best matches of the day aside the semi-final that saw Flossin Mauwano go against Joel. Tuts v. Tamara game final had highlights from goals scored, chances created and great interplay skills especially from UONs Tamara.

Tamara fell short on capitalizing her great chances created. Tuts on the other hand finessed her way scoring 5 goals on aggregate to win the final and walk away with the prize.

Peter Mumu secures the e-Lig weekend opener beating Kevo CK in the final

The e-Lig weekend opener held at Kenyatta University Business & Students Service Centre showed a great and vibrant competitive nature of Esport, especially in the Kenyan FIFA Community.

Notable competitive players such as Peter Mumu, Kevin Omondi, Phillip Kimani, and KingSlayer were present on that day competing for their various varsity sides.

CONFERENCE A

This conference saw Zack win all his five games with a notable win against foe Kevin Omondi in the most anticipated game that ended 3-1. Kevo CK still managed to book himself in the quarter-finals finishing the second spot with a 2-2-1 W-D-L record. The hosts Bruno “GrimReeper” Sorre did not play to his expectation finishing last in the pool. Rockie, Rio, and Chrispee finished 3rd, 4th and 5th in that conference.

CONFERENCE B

e-Lig Weekend Opener winner Flossin Mauwano pierced his way out through this heavily loaded conference finishing 2nd in the group. MKU Flossin Mauwano finished with a 3-1-1 W-L-D record. He managed to qualify to the quarter-final stage through group stages after a loss against Steve from the Technical University of Kenya. The conference saw the University of Nairobi Yobra finish top of the conference with 4-1-0 record drawing one game against Flossin Mauwano. Steve, Strathmore’s #Mo, Kenyatta University Winchester and JKUAT’s Osnet finished 3rd-6th in that order.

CONFERENCE C

The conference saw the biggest upset in the opening weekend. Kenyatta University’s Phillip “Yardie” Kimani who had recently won the Jumia Gaming Tournament failed to qualify for the knock-out stages but also finishing 5th in his conference of 6. He only won 2 matches and lost the rest failing to qualify for the quarters. This conference saw Horizon Organization Joel finish top of this conference followed by Alpha Team GeeMajid. MKUs ju88oi, JKUATs donuts, K.Us Yardie and TUKs Malvin finished 2nd-6th in that order.

CONFERENCE D

Alpha Teams Kamal sat at the summit in this conference after a brilliance performance. He finished with a 4-1-0 record drawing a game against 2nd seeded WekaMbali from JKUAT. TUKs KingSlayer, Pablo, Max and Soka finished 3rd-6th in that order.

PLAY-OFFS

Main Series Quarter Final Pairings

(Flossin Mauwano v. Zack)

Flossin Mauwano easily passed Zack with a 5-0 aggregate. Flossin powered his first match with a 4-0 score and only managing a 1-0 for the second match.

(Yobra v. Kevo CK)

In a tight match, Horizons Yobra looked to create a great match against A-Teams Kevo CK. With a 1-0 win in the first match, Kevo CK managed to get a lead over Yobra. Yobra came back for the second leg managing a draw to end the game 2-1 on aggregate in favor of Kevo CK.

(Joel v. WekaMbali)

Horizons Joel shot passed Elite Organization WekaMbali with a 2-1 aggregate score to book a spot in the semi-finals.

(Kamal v. GeeMajid)

The Alpha Team derby had GeeMajid easily book a spot in the semi-finals against Kamal. GeeMajid beat Kamal with a 5-3 aggregate score.

SEMI-FINALS

(Kevo CK v. GeeMajid)

Kevo CK cruised passed by GeeMajid on a 7-3 aggregate score to book a place in the finals.

(Flossin Mauwano v. Joel)

The most heated match of the day saw Horizons Joel going up against Mauwano organization team leader Flossin Mauwano. Joel made a comeback in the first leg to even the game at 2-2. Going into the second leg, Flossin Mauwano composed himself to take another lead but Joel equalized and took the game to Extra Time.

An error by Joel awarded Flossin Mauwano a penalty in the second half of the game to end 3-2. Flossin Mauwano took the game 5-4 on aggregate.

THE FINAL

The final saw two of the most decorated FIFA players in Nairobi Flossin Mauwano and Kevo CK continue to grow their status of best players in Nairobi. Flossin Mauwano managed to win the game 3-1 going into the next round top of the table and contributing 24 points to his organization Mauwano Organization.

The second leg will be played on the 16th of February in a location we will communicate this week.