Events News South Africa

Rush event, first for e-sports in SA

From the creators of the legendary rAge (really Awesome gaming expo) comes the next evolution in South African gaming - the dawn of Rush! The inaugural Rush event, powered by HP Omen, is a first for e-sports in South Africa and is set to become an annual showcase of everything that e-sports has to offer. This unique event will offer aligned partners the opportunity to affiliate their brands with one of the world's fastest-growing competitive spectacles.

From the 21-23 July at the Sandton Convention Centre in Joburg Rush will feature a variety of competitive tournaments by leading local organisations hosted on dedicated e-sports stages, with live shoutcasting (commentary) by some of South Africa's top shoutcasters. South Africa's top gamers and clans will compete for the honour of taking the top spots, as well as for a host of incredible prizes. Perhaps the biggest draw for e-sports is the spectator value – fans and supporters will be able to watch the competitions live on big screens with dedicated seating areas at all the stages.

Rush event, first for e-sports in SA

Three main stages have already been confirmed, showcasing popular titles such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), FIFA 17 and League of Legends. In addition, there’ll be a Street Fighter V tournament where casual as well as professional gamers can take part. Games such as these, with their dedicated fan bases, will showcase the best local talent that e-sports has to offer.

“Rush aims to provide a neutral and inclusive platform for all the local e-sports organisations to host their respective events under one roof,” said Lauren Das Neves, marketing manager for Rush, Nag and rAge. “We want to foster an environment that will not only benefit local tournament hosts, but encourage new e-sports talent, as well as provide a centre of activity where local e-sports fans can gather to interact with and support their favourite teams and players. Rush is not another rAge, it’s something completely different.”

Partnerships with HP Omen and Orena

Rush is also thrilled to announce its headline partnership with HP Omen. “We are proud to be partnering with Rush as the headline sponsor for this inaugural e-sports event. We said we would re-enter the high-end gaming PC market and we are back with an impressive line-up of Omen PCs,” said David Rozzio, managing director of HP Inc South Africa. “This partnership shows our interest to help gamers dominate games. Through the Omen brand, our engineers combined a unique design that maximises thermal management with support for industry standard components so that the true enthusiast can always be up to date with the latest hardware to maintain peak performance.”

Orena, one of the active partners at Rush, will be offering gaming opportunities and technical support across the spectrum at the event. “A highlight of Rush will be the chance to qualify for ESWC for CS:GO at one of the main stages,” says Luca Tucconi, operating executive at Orena. “We’re looking forward to seeing SA’s best e-sports teams fighting it out in an epic arena for the chance to qualify for ESWC.”

As part of Orena’s Fight Night, there’ll be a casual Street Fighter V tournament, with a not-so-casual R20,000 up for grabs at the end of the Fight Night Season in October. Orena will also be running the tournament for HP Omen’s League of Legends stage.

What else will you be able to do at Rush? Not only will visitors be able to see and experience all the e-sports action live, they will also be able to meet their favourite players and teams as well as purchase merchandise, hardware products and accessories in the retail section.

More big news for gamers is that Rush will also be supported by Nag's ever-popular signature event – the Nag BYOC Lan. Tickets for Rush and the Nag BYOC Lan are on sale now at Computicket.

For any enquiries please contact Rush on 011 704 2679 or via email. For more info, click here.

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