The Mamelodi Sundowns FIFA 23 Championship recently kicked off in two different Provinces, the event took place at Puma stores in Menlyn and Cape Town respectively. A number of contestants took to the venues as they were chasing the big prize pool money that is up for grabs and a chance to see who will win the first ever title.
The qualifying rounds for the grand finale are separated into two sections, the Online and Live in-store. This past weekend saw the live edition taking place and the two winners who came from the Mother City and Pretoria were announced after some tough games played.
Dwayne Wolmarans from Mettlestate who are the organisers of the Championship, spoke about the event in Menlyn and said, “The players registered to play against the Artificial Intelligent ( Computer). They are playing on World Class level, which is the most difficult one in the game and the aim is to score more goals and the top player will win a ticket to the final which will be at Rage in December. We have seen a lot of participants coming through, the level of gaming is also on high and what we did also is to make sure that the teams used are mainly Mamelodi Sundowns as to celebrate the fact that they have been included in the game”.
After a gruesome day of playing two players emerged victorious and earned a place in the final, in Cape Town Aasim Lamara walked away as winner and in Gauteng Yakub Abdulla was the main man.
The interesting part about both winners is that to get to the final prize they had to come up against a family member and this shows how gaming brings people together.
“In the final I had to play against my brother, we always played against each other and this time the prize at stake was high. Coming against him is a bit tricky as we are aware of each other’s capabilities but there has to be a winner at the end of the day”, said Aasim Lamara.
Yakub Abdulla had to put family aside in the last four in Menlyn as he came up against his brother to book himself in the final. He shared what it felt like to be on the winning side and said, “I am very excited to be on the winning side, coming up against him I was a bit nervous. I won’t lie, I thought he was going to beat me as he always gets the better of me. I was thrilled to get one over him and in the final I came up against Tebza who I have crossed paths with in the past. He is a good gamer and to win in the final was the cherry on top and I cannot wait to go to RAGE”.
Next up on the Live qualifiers is Gateway Mall and Mall of Africa on the 3rd of December. The Online Qualifiers are still open till the 25th of November.
