Towards the end of February, ATK Arena announced the launch of a new Overwatch tournament in hopes to fill the lack of local season-long tournaments available to the South African Overwatch Community. With a substantial prize pool as well as the popularity of ATK Arena, a noticeable excitement has filled the air in the surrounding community. The deadline for signups ended on Thursday (26th March) and the games will commence from Wednesday (1st April) with teams playing a different opponent each week. Lizelle “VirgoLiz” Smith, a prominent ambassador of the COWZA (Competitive Overwatch South Africa) community, has taken it upon herself to oversee preparations for the upcoming tournament. We managed to rope in VirgoLiz for an interview to give us insight into this upcoming tournament.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your involvement within the South African Overwatch Community?

I started as a player at the end of 2017 when COWZA (Competitive Overwatch South Africa) basically started up. I then joined a team called 2CP who became my close friends and we were also quite successful as a team. From there on I got very involved in the community, an example was PUGs (Pick Up Games that happen every Friday as a way to connect the community). Later on, I became an admin for COWZA as voted in by the community. I feel I’m a natural leader, a specific kind of leader that is straightforward and wants to get stuff done. I have an aggressive approach to things, in a way that I like to have things in order and done properly the first time. When I started playing I was more focused on my team than the community, however, the more I started getting involved in the community and the more comfortable I became, COWZA basically became my second home.

From there on, I got this passion that started growing in me for the community and wanting Overwatch to be something more in South Africa. That’s why I focus so much on tournaments, I feel like if there are no tournaments for a title in South Africa, you lose players and interest and no one even knows that you exist. Even a small tournament, brings viewers. When looking at the first Talon Cup, it was successful, with many viewers and people loved participating in it. In mid-2018, I got involved with ATK. I spoke to the managers there on starting the Spotlight Takeover tournament, we really wanted to help the lower tier teams to have a chance to win prizes. It can be really demotivating for these teams entering other tournaments and knowing that there is such a big gap between the top three teams and the rest. We really wanted to give these teams a chance, place in the top four and win prizes.

Then last year we had the Overwatch World Cup where I got voted in as the community leader. The OWWC was a huge step in the right direction for South African Overwatch and it placed us on the map.

How was your experience with the Overwatch World Cup?

I loved doing the Overwatch World Cup, even though it took a lot out of me while still having a full-time job and being a player for 2CP, the experience I built is something I will never trade for anything. The ping difference was a big factor there, it feels like a different game. Heroes like Mei, McCree, and Tracer stood out the most for me in regards to ping. Two days prior we took the OWWC team to an Esports lounge so they could get used to the ping but even then it was extremely difficult to adjust in such a short time. It was, however, an amazing experience and that is what you have to take from it. We learned a lot and it was a really good test run.

In your personal opinion, what do you think individuals, teams, organizations within the South African Overwatch Community can do to help grow the scene and increase the level of play?

The level of play is such an individual thing that it has to come from a player base within a community that wants to become better. People should have the drive within themselves. If organizations can provide the right coaching, environment and the right support system, then players can thrive. A support system such as a coach, a manager and a captain who they can trust to do their jobs while the player focuses on his/her own gameplay and getting that W. Mentality is a very big part in Esports and that is why we must create a good environment for the players. We took a hit this year with TO’s (tournament organizers) dropping Overwatch and I understand people go where the money is, but this is where we as a community need to come together and pump new life into it (like we’re doing with the ATK OW Tournament).

What gave ATK the idea to want to do their own year-long tournament?

We started the ATK Overwatch Tournament because I didn’t want us to not have a ‘yearly long’ league with a LAN final. The tournament has motivated so many teams to participate, even getting new teams to sign up because they want to be part of the tournament. It has motivated people and breathed new life into the South African Overwatch community.

What impact do you think this tournament will have on the community moving forward?

This tournament has already grown the community by three teams which is great to see. When the ATK tournament was announced I had many people messaging me and thanking me for doing it. It is motivating people and bringing back that passion. This is sometimes all that people have, this community is everything for them. From a competitive point of view, we have a huge prize pool, fourth place also gets a portion, so it is very motivating for the lower tier teams to fight for those spots and fight for that prize pool at the end of the year.

With new teams emerging this year as well as old ones leaving, how is ATK going to go about placing teams in their correct divisions?

We’re gonna have the calibration tournament, where everyone plays everyone so we can see where teams will end up in Stage One. We will decide how many teams will be in each division once we have finalized team entry numbers. So the calibration will show us who belongs where and how we move on from there. We will announce the number of teams in the brackets on the 27th so no spoilers!

It’s obviously too early to speculate but, assuming the tournament goes well are there any plans to make it an annual event?

It is definitely too early to tell, I have no idea what that would entail right now. The reason Warren “Flea” Barkhuizen supports this tournament is that he has an extreme passion for Overwatch. When I went to have a meeting with him after VSG (Vs Gaming) dropped Overwatch and told him that I’m willing to run a tournament for ATK he jumped at the idea. In my opinion, If ATK can see that the community is backing this tournament and if it’s successful then I think yes they will do it again and I believe this tournament will be very successful so I think the chances are high that we will do it again.

Will viewers at home be treated to casted and streamed games on a regular basis? If so, where?

Yes! We are definitely going to be casting and streaming games through ATK or the COWZA community production. CloudBurst is handling that for us so we will most certainly try to have as many games casted as we can.

ATK has stated that there will be a LAN, can you explain in your own words why hosting a LAN is so crucial?

I think its the high point for a lot of the players, the whole year is a build-up to that LAN. To face the people irl that you’ve been playing vs throughout the year. The community is so close, and its exciting to see everyone, your teammates and friends that you chat to every day on discord. It creates such hype, and that feeling is felt among many players within the community.

Where can we go to get updates and get the latest news?

The COWZA discord in the ATK category and definitely the ATK socials (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram), we will be posting all the updates but all the finer details will be in the ATK category in the COWZA discord.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I would just like to give a massive shoutout to my admin team that has been helping me out with this whole thing. I would not have been able to do it alone. it’s a big tournament to organize, its a lot of money on the line and it has to be done perfectly the first time. I’d like to thank SunPheonyx, Deffect, SpacePanda, BLuR, and ThePeachZA, they have helped me out so much. Then I’d like to thank ATK for everything they’ve done, helping us out with the graphic designs and a HUGE thank you to Warren for making this possible because without him we would not even have this tournament or this interview.

Overall, the ATK Overwatch Tournament fills a very prominent gap within the South African Overwatch community. Players, teams and organizations alike are all looking forward to competing in the next few months. Thank you again to ATK, Warren “Flea” Barkhuizen and all the admins that work tirelessly to make this tournament a possibility! We are really excited to see how this all plays out!