The Telkom Do Gaming League (DGL) continues to expand as more and more gamers look to pit their skills against each other in South Africa’s largest and most competitive online gaming league.
Ricus Groenewald, Telkom gaming specialist, says the league has once again grown by 66% to over 4 000 entries, on the back of a very successful Telkom DGL 2012 Championships, which took place in the VIP section at the rAge Expo.
“Around 600 gamers qualified for last year’s Championships, making it the largest competitive LAN held in South Africa’s gaming history, which saw over half a million rand in cash and prizes given away,” he says.
This year the DGL, which remains free to participate in thanks to Telkom’s continued support of the local gaming community, has expanded even further with titles like DotA 2, League of Legends, Quake LIVE, Counter-Strike: GO and expansions to its 2011 titles such as Starcraft 2 and FIFA.
“This year, DotA 2 became the largest title in Telkom DGL history with 116 teams,” Groenewald says.
The Telkom DGL has a range of different types of games, including team and single player first person shooters, realtime strategy (RTS) titles, multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), FIFA (on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC) and two racing titles (PS3 and Xbox 360).
Not only are there different titles to choose from, but the league also caters for gamers at different skill levels.
“While the best gamers in the country will battle it out in the premier divisions of the DGL, games like Dota 2 and Black Ops 2 has over 100 teams, which will be split into several divisions, allowing gamers to compete against other gamers of a similar skill level,” he says.
Being online, the DGL unites people of different ages and races from all parts of the country, as the major requirements for competing are skill and a passion for gaming.
The teams are well organised, with clans often having several teams across different titles. Teams have captains, vice-captains, managers and reserves, should one member of the team not being able to play in a match.
Scores are logged on the Telkom DGL Web site, with a team of journalists reporting on the league at the Telkom Do Gaming Web site.
“The gaming community is a close knit group of people focused on a common passion, and we’re excited about supporting gaming as it becomes increasingly popular in South Africa culture,” Groenewald says.
Gamers will battle online throughout two legs this year, culminating in the Telkom Do Gaming Championships towards the end of the year.
