Winners crowned as E-sport tourney ends

The two-day Blaze E-sport tournament came to an end on Saturday with Jean Jelimo and Dennis Rogers taking first place in the girls' and boys' categories respectively at the Technical University of Kenya.

In the girls' category, Millicent Thuku and Maureen Mumbi took second and third place, while Ezekiel Karanja and Matik Nemanja took the same positions respectively in the boys' category.

Dennis, Ezekiel and Matik received Sh50,000, Sh30,000 and Sh20,000 respectively, while Jean, Millicent and Maureen received Sh10,000, Sh5,000 and Sh3,000 as part of the prize money reward sponsored by Safaricom.

"I hope that this tournament will attract more sponsors to help us get international recognition and develop a large fan base like any other sport," said Dennis.

Pro Series Gaming (PSG) communication manager Penny Njuma said the tournament was a great display of how the gaming community is growing in Kenya.

"We have had constant growth in the numbers, but I was really excited with more girls showing up and even taking the challenge of competing with the boys at Fifa 19."

The Blaze E-sport tournament was launched in August 2019 with the first tournament held in Mombasa for youth aged between 18 and 26 years as a career choice option.

In this tournament, 300 participants competed in the first day of the event, but only 64 made it to the finals.

Blaze communication manager Swaleh Mulinza said the tournament is a mirror to gamers to see how good they are and better themselves to create their own careers the unconventional way.

"Gaming is not your most likely career, but it has proven to pay with the continuous growth in technology and the youth can take advantage of this because they interact with," said Mulinza.

The tournament was conducted by Pro series Gaming company in conjunction with Safaricom's youth empowerment campaign dubbed Be Your Own Boss under the Blaze program with players competing in Fifa 19 and Tekken 7 for boys and girls respectively.