President of the Esports Association Ghana (EAG), Kwesi Hayford, says he is looking forward to the challenge facing the association in regards to the Commonwealth Esports Championship (CEC) set to be held alongside the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Kwesi was speaking exclusively to EAN following the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and the Global Esports Federation (GEF) reveal of the titles set to be at the championship.
“This is an emerging space for us, the opportunity shown is a [unintelligible]. You see somebody travelling all the way to go and play Rocket League or PES and comes back gives an opportunity [to say] 2022 we were there,” Kwesi said
The titles which are Dota 2, eFootball™ series – previously known as Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) – and Rocket League will feature a women’s and open category and Kwesi revealed that Ghana will be participating in both eFootball™ and Rocket League.
“We needed to choose two games for the Commowealth [Games], so we chose PES and Rocket League I can’t say logistically we would want to raise a team for Dota when we do not have a team for Dota.”
“I know there are players who play Dota but how many are they we are not prepared enough for me I think that we need to grow where our community is.”
“We already have a small community for PES so it’s okay, we have a small community for Rocket League so it’s okay because I know we’ve done tournaments in these titles so we can do it even if we have to call players put them together and train them instead of doing qualifiers there is always a way around.”
Watch the full EAN interview below:
The EAG President confirmed that the nation will be present at the CEC stating that “We know we will be there, the reason being that it is being managed by Global Esports Federation for which we are a member so automatically Ghana is in there.”
The CEC is set to be held alongside the Commonwealth Games – which is due to open on July 28 and conclude on August 8 – but will not be a medal sport.
The Commonwealth Esports Championships is set to kick off from August 6 to 7 and will also feature demonstrations showcasing active esports and technologies that support the convergence of sport and esports.