Safaricom Senior Manager Youth Segment Angela Githuthu (Left), Battle it out in a combat play station game with Blaze mentor and professional gamer Brian Diang’a during the Safaricom Blaze e-sports tournament launch.

Safaricom’s sub-brand BLAZE was created to give youth aged 26 years and below products, services and benefits tailored specifically to meet their everyday needs. Well, the sub-brand has today launched an e-sports tournament in partnership with Pro Series Gaming (PSG) and Standard Group. Pro Series Gaming will manage the running of the tournament, while Standard Group will be the tournament’s official media partner.

The tournament is open to youths between the ages of 18 and 26 who are looking at gaming as a career choice.

A total of KES 100,000 is up for grabs in each region with winners taking home KES 50,000, second position KES 30,000, and third position KES 20,000.

The e-sports tournament will consist of FIFA 19 and Tekken 7 knockouts running on Play Station 4. The competition will be broken down into 10 grassroots knockouts and 5 regional finals. At least 64 players will enter at each knockout round, which will happen the week of every BLAZE BYOB Summit.

The regional finals will happen at the regional creation camps where champions from the knockouts will battle it out for the regional title and prize money.

In addition to the tournament, the gaming session will have gaming mentors such as Brian Diang’a alias Beast, who will speak on their journey to becoming professional gamers and share knowledge and opportunities in the gaming world. They will also advice aspiring gamers on what they need to do to be part of the eSports movement.

Safaricom Director Consumer Business Unit Charles Kare (Middle) in company of Standard Group Senior Business Manager Kevin Gicheru (Right) enjoy their combat skill lessons from the grim-reaper represented costumer (Left), during the Safaricom Blaze e-sports tournament launch held at Safaricom headquarters.

“People from all over the world are making a living out professional gaming, which is why we have introduced an e-sports Tournament, to affirm to the youth that you can commercialize whatever skills and talents you have. Our commitment is to support the youth in their journey to economic empowerment, however unconventional it may be,” Acting Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph, says in the official press release. “Sports is one of the major events that define Kenyan culture. With the introduction of the BLAZE e-sports tournament, we want to provide a platform for our youth hone their talents talent and possibly earn a living from it,”

How to participate in Safaricom BLAZE e-Sport Gaming Tournament:

The tournament is open to youth aged 18-26, ID will be required.
Registration and participation will be free.
Look out for press and posters for more details or visit www.blaze.co.ke to see when BLAZE will be at a gaming den or campus near you.
You will also be able to sign up during BLAZE BYOB Activations in towns around you.
You DO NOT NEED to be a qualified video gamer. The tournament will involve both casual and avid gamers as it seeks to motivate and inspire young Kenyans who would like to take up video gaming as a career