By NDUMBE BELL GASTON
The finals of e-sports (video games) in three disciplines organised and sponsored by orange Cameroun takes place at the orange technical headquarters at Makepe on Saturday October 19.
Ahead of the finals there was a press conference that disclosed that 12 gamers, three each drawn from Baffousam, Limbe, Littoral and Yaounde in the disciplines of car racing, street fighting and football also called pre-evolution soccer of which each discipline will have a winner,and the three victors are expected to participate at the pan-African e-sport competition slated to hold in Tunisia on December 14 and 15 this year.
Camerounian youths of the age bracket 16 to 24 years, which is a precondition among others, have actively participated in these three discipline in international competitions in Senegal,Côte d’Ivoire and Maghrebian countries where e-sport is far more developed. In Senegal three Camerounians such as Tchiengoue T. who represented in street fighting and emerged third out of 120 African participants and was awarded 3 500 euros.
The Brand and Sponsoring Manager, Edwin EtoumboEselem of Orange Cameroun told media practitioners during the exchange that they have been observing the passions of the youth in Cameroun and management has decided to expand the frontiers of e-sport because it has now become a source of employment where the unemployed youth can earn a living. As for the worries and doubts of parents the Orange Cameroun representative said there have been cases where parents even came to Douala airport to know what was happening and to stop their children from going for competitions but were convinced from what they heard and saw all other evidences like flight tickets, lodging, feeding and the cash prizes in thousands of euros that were brought back.
Orange Cameroun has taken the bull by the horns. It was disclosed that the Director General of Orange Cameroun met the Minister of Sports recently to explain the details of e-sport and proposed to him if the minister could create a federation or league. However, before that proposal becomes a reality someday, Orange Cameroun has joined other countries to sponsor and promote the sport at the national and international level so that Cameroonian youths can benefits from a new form of employment.
Over two million applicants used social media to apply for participation. There is an average participation of 30 000 youths on social media watching this sports activity which was started by Orange Cameroun since 2017 and now growing from strength to strength.
The Brand and Sponsoring Manager and the Communication Officer at different times revealed that plans were underway to organize an e-sport competition during the all African Nations Cup competitions to be hosted by Cameroun where all the participating countries are expected to take part. Two opposing partners use what is called the joy stick to play.