A pop musician, Dr Sid is leading the charge for more awareness and lucrative impact from e-sports endeavours in Nigeria, as he and other stakeholders in the sector believe the country stands to gain a lot from various ventures in the business of online gaming, megasportsarena.com reports.
The renowned dentist-turned-artiste, whose real name is Sidney Esiri aired his view as part of a panel of discussants under the theme ‘Africa, The Next Frontier For E-sports’ at Techplus 2019 Conference, which held at Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
He joined other stakeholders in decrying what they called the disturbing and lingering negative mindset especially among Nigerian parents that gaming is a waste of time, and pointed out that online games can be relevant to the country in various dimensions.
The music icon, who runs Sidizens Gaming, explained further that facts about Nigeria’s history and culture can be preserved and projected through various games, with additional impetus in the growth of e-sport, through which young people can get involved in online leagues at high schools and universities, before moving into higher leagues even as professional e- athletes.
Dr Sid added: “African can ensure that our story and history are projected in the right perspective in various games we develop, f we make the right investments in this direction.”
His speech served a befitting climax for Techplus 2019, which was another step forward for the project that has gathered great momentum as an authoritative platform of technology, a robust experience through its conferences, gaming structures as well as virile platform for knowledge sharing and networking among consumers, e-sport lovers and businesses.
A press release signed by Azeez Oluwaseun Adeosun disclosed that this year’s edition saw 13 winners emerge from hundreds of athletes that competed in the gaming tournament, in which players battled one another in FIFA Soccer, PUBG battle royal, card mode, Fortnite and MK11.
Adeosun added: “In the FIFA Soccer gaming category where 32 groups of 128 players played till the final two, Taiwo Adefularin defeated Akintoye Arogunmati to pick the top prize of N200,000. Akintoye went home with N100,000 as runners- up while third place winner, Adedeji Opoola received N50,000.
“In the PUBG category where 8 players played 5 games in the room card mode, a player named Sleek emerged number one and went home with N100, 000 being the star prize in this category. Otis Precious who came second won N50,000 while there was a tie in the third position as kida Burna and Ajayi went home each with N25,000.
“Ladi emerged tops in the Fortnite category where 2 groups of 8 players played 10 games each and and he received N100,000 while the second position went to Obinna who received N75,000. Anu who came third got N50,000.
“For MK 11 category where 32 players engaged in a knockout format, Ojeaga David Came out tops and won a cash prize of N100,000 while Chukwudi Okoli and Imasi Faruna who came in second and third respectively received N50,000 each.”
