CENTRESTAGE: Gaming going high tech in Kenya and region

Nairobi’s Sarit Centre was full of activity as Kenya hosted Africa’s first ever international multi player video game tournament. Regional teams, drawn from the East African region took part with participants in various categories battling for the Sh150,000 ($1,500) in cash prizes. 

A total of 16 PC and console gaming teams drawn from Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda participated in the tournament that also brought together more than 3,500 creative minds from the spheres of animation, gaming and comic books.

The 2017 multi-player video game tournament drew attendees from across all age brackets and social standing, most of whom were clad like their favourite superheroes, and villains, in a celebration that has recently become the trademark of comic and gaming galas in the world.

Comic book artistes had the opportunity to demonstrate their talents to fans.

The popularity of gaming in the region, particularly in Kenya, has seen hundreds of jobs created as young people move take up roles such as game designers, animators, audio engineers, and technical support specialists.

Founded in 2014, Naiccon held the country’s first successful gaming tournament in 2016 with eight teams participating.

The aim of the convention, the organisers said, was to provide a platform that brings together content creators and consumers in one place, and to inspire growth of the industry through collaborations, partnerships, mentorships and workshops.

The tournament reflected significant growth in the regional technology ecosystem, with participating countries providing easy access to gaming hardware and telecommunications services to gaming enthusiasts.

The global gaming industry has recently evolved from a dormant players-only sport into a spectator sport, with video gaming sites raking in millions of dollars every month. E-Sports and streaming gameplay are becoming the new frontiers for gamers, engaging more viewers and players at any given time.

Research shows that about 75 per cent of gamers now know about e-sports, with half of this group watching online gaming on a weekly basis.

It is estimated that 2.2 billion gamers will spawn $108.9 billion in game revenues worldwide in 2017, a 7.8 per cent increase from 2016, according to the latest Global Games Market Report.

The biggest driver behind the stratospheric growth of online gaming Kenya has been the deployment of high-speed internet infrastructure, a resource that allows gamers to watch and compete with each other across the country and beyond continental borders.

At the Naiccon event, US Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec was among the top personalities who graced the glamorous gig’s opening day on Saturday, July 29, 2017.

Apexx from Kenya won in the NEST PC category while Watchmen were the champions in the NEST PS4 category.

Morietz Muthui and Edward Gakuya of Vanguard Inc. won in the comic book category that also included artiste siblings Njogu and Joyce Kuria and Legends of Stone by Berta Comics.  

Xavier Wamitila, dressed as Deathstroke, prevailed in the cosplay category on Saturday, while Effie Wambui, dressed as Katsuki Bakugou, won in the same category on Sunday. 

Asgar Masud won the ticket to attend this year’s New York Comic Convention in an all-expenses-paid-for trip in the first week of October.

Shawn Kioko and Harto Muhato were the winners in the animation competition (Anicomp). The two will benefit from script development mentorship and access to sound recording facilities from Laugh Industry. Comedian and Laugh Industry CEO Churchill will provide voice-over for characters.

My Child TV will further mentor the two winners in character design, storyboards and animation. The pair will also produce a two-minute short animation video to be featured in the upcoming Azanian All Stars web series.

The tournament, organised by the Nairobi Comic Convention (Naiccon), was used to demonstrate the recent growth of the internet infrastructure in Eastern Africa.

Tens of business entities in the creative seized the occasion to exhibit and sell their wares to the hundreds of local gaming enthusiasts who thronged the two-day event that was highly successful according to the organisers.

Naiccon had partnered with Liquid Telecom Kenya, a subsidiary of the leading pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, to host Africa’s first continental multi-player gaming competition.

Liquid Telecom Kenya rubber stamped Kenya’s status as the region’s internet nerve-centre, providing a 200Mbps bandwidth of uninterrupted internet connection that enabled participants and spectators to stream the event on different sites within the event and host a LAN Party on the same connectivity.

Liquid Telecom Kenya, the official sponsor of the Ugandan and Rwandan teams participating in the championship, has sponsored Uganda’s gaming community, GamersNights, for the past four years. 

Kyle Spencer, the patron of GamersNights said:

“The partnership with Liquid Telecom has not only provided us with first-class connectivity and server hosting, but we have worked together on reducing network delay across the African continent and seen the numbers of international players participating in our gaming community steadily rise.”

PC gaming and console gaming have both gained traction in Kenya in the recent years, with video gaming bars popular with teens being opened up in most suburbs and shopping centres across the country.

On his part, Liquid Telecom’s Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Ben Roberts said, “PC gaming is not just a source of entertainment but also a highly educational competitive sport, a driver of internet infrastructure development, and a catalyst for local content generation.”

“The success of this event is a powerful demonstration of East Africa’s rapidly developing internet infrastructure landscape and an indicator of the promising future of gaming and other internet-based enterprises,” he said.