If you missed out on last week’s Gamr X Ghana Qualifiers, my God did you miss some incredible action on display as 34 of the West African nation’s top gamers gathered at the Otium Game Hub in Accra to battle for the chance to represent their homeland in either FIFA 23 or Mortal Kombat 11 (MK11) at the continental event to be hosted in Lagos, Nigeria.
From start to finish, gamers gave their all to earn their spot on a Ghana team with a lot of clout next to their name after MK11 gamer Mahadi “Assasin” Abubakar secured a bronze medal at the maiden edition of the event back in 2022. His brother Babyfox is set to follow in his footsteps after defeating Mr. APK in the MK11 Grand Finals to make the Ghana team, while Ruutz Africa’s William “Wisemars” Ampofo Ofei will represent the country in FIFA 23 after an incredible comeback to defeat Keissy “Pretty Boy Dells” Deladem Nyame in the FIFA 23 Grand Finals.
However, we are not here to discuss the Ghanaian delegation going to Lagos, Nigeria, in June 2023. If you’re curious, you can read our article about it by clicking on the link. We are, however, here to discuss what may have been the biggest upset at the 2023 Gamr X Ghana Qualifiers, as well as the reactions of the various gamers.
It all starts with PlayProvince gamer Pretty Boy Dells, who was killing it in the qualifiers, going undefeated all the way to the Winners Finals, where he faced off against Konka, defeating the Team Osmos gamer 3-2 after 120 minutes of fierce FIFA 23 action, to make the Grand Finals of the event as the favourite to secure Ghana’s sole FIFA 23 ticket to the second edition of Gamr X.
Next up is Ruutz Africa’s Wisemars, who would advance through the losers’ bracket by defeating Pretty Boy Dell’s teammate Alfred Kalu 3-2 in the Round 2 Finals before facing off against the defeated winners’ bracket finalist Konka, who he would defeat 3-2 to set up his encounter with Pretty Boy Dells in the Grand Finals as the underdog.
Looking at his form and the fact that Wisemars would need to defeat his opponent twice to qualify as Ghana’s representative for the Pan-African event, anyone observing the competition up to that point would have easily predicted the PlayProvince gamer to win. Even Wisemars, in an exclusive interview with EAN, stated that he did not expect anything from the competition: “You see they play the new gen, I don’t play the new gen, I still play the old gen console, so I just come onto the new gen and I just do what I do on the old gen.”
However, you should already know the result of the grand final from my second paragraph. (note to self: I really should start putting up spoiler warnings). Wisemars would come out on top, defeating Pretty Boy Dells 3-1 on penalties in the first leg and 1-0 in the second leg to secure his spot in Ghana’s team for the trip to Lagos, Nigeria.
But what caused the in-form gamer to collapse in the closing stretch? “I tried my best, the game wasn’t on my side to be honest, because some chances I relaxed, but still I wasn’t able to convert the chance, but yeah, GGs to him (Wisemars) because he also did really well in keeping that one-goal lead. Yeah, he really did well, so GGs to him.” Pretty Boy Dells explained in an exclusive interview with EAN.
“Earlier on in my interview with Alexander, I told him that it is about momentum, and when momentum shifts to the opponent’s side, it’s really hard for you to convert your chance, and I think that’s what happened, and yeah, I lost, but I’ll come back. Don’t worry, just relax.”
Wisemars also added his two cents to the result, stating that he believed he got lucky in the second leg, which saw Pretty Boy Dells miss chance after glorious chance. “I will say the second leg was a bit of luck, but it’s FIFA, it’s a game, anything can happen, but the first leg, I really dominated the game. We shouldn’t have gone to pens, but we take it and into Nigeria we go.”
So what next for Pretty Boy Dells after missing out on Ghana’s team for Gamr X? Well, according to the gamer, “Funny enough, it always happens, every tournament. Like, if I go into any tournament, I make sure I don’t lose my round-robin to the knockouts. When I get to the knockouts, or let’s say quarterfinals, then I lose haphazardly.”
“I don’t know why, but EA Sports it’s in the game, and that’s what we need: stay calm, come back better, and grind more. I don’t really care because I have lost in the finals twice this year. I think I am learning, I am mending, so yeah, when I come back, I think I will learn from those mistakes.”
Pretty Boy Dells appears to still be learning as he was defeated in the grand finals of another tournament, this time the Ultimate Battle Championship, held on April 1, losing to another Ruutz Africa gamer, John Kennedy.
