Despite Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) having raised its concerns about only the server in Nigeria to be used for the 2025 edition of IESF’s African Regional Qualifiers – AEC25, IESF stuck to its initial decision. The AEC25 will be used to determine which teams go through to IESF’s prestigious World Esports Championships – WEC25 – to be held be held later this year.
MSSA had advocated the use of four servers so that all teams would be equally disadvantaged during the 12 game championship. However, the suggestion seemingly was not considered. Thus certain countries will have much worse ‘ping’ than others. The north and west African states are particularly hard hit with some countries looking at having ‘ping’ up to 300 ms.
A summary of the expected ping is as follows/l
| Country | Estimated Ping Lagos → Country Capital or Major City |
|---|---|
| Ghana | ~30–60 ms |
| Ivory Coast | ~60–80 ms |
| Senegal | ~80–120 ms |
| Morocco | ~100–150 ms |
| Algeria | ~140–160 ms |
| Tunisia | ~150–200 ms |
| Egypt | ~150–200 ms |
| Congo | ~100–150 ms |
| Nigeria | (Local) ~~20–40 ms typical within Lagos region |
| Somalia | ~200–300 ms |
| Djibouti | ~200–300 ms |
| Madagascar | ~200–250 ms |
| Mauritius | ~220–300 ms |
| Zimbabwe | ~150–200 ms |
| South Africa | ~77 ms (Johannesburg), ~172 ms (Cape Town) |
The ping will certainly affect the final outcome of IESF’s African Regional Qualifiers.
The top five countries in IESF’s AEC24 held on August 19th – 21st, 2024 in Complexe Sportif Mohammed V, Casablanca, Morocco were (in order) 1. Egypt, 2. Morocco, 3. Mauritius, 4. Madagascar, and 5. South Africa.
Even though South Africa seems to have an advantage compared to many other African states, the sheer skill of Egypt, and Morocco cannot be discounted, and those two countries are still favourites in this event. On the other hand, Mauritius and Madagascar certainly have their work cut out for themselves with the high ping with which they will have to deal.
Even still, all athletes are hopeful and determined to give their best.
The full South African Protea Esports Team for PUBGM is:
The event shall be streamed on: https://www.youtube.com/live/yoVHm3_8jAk?si=sYo0jXck7e6GXYVB
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