Padsoccer esports tournament dreams bigger after inspiring Lagos qualifiers

All hands will be on deck towards making Padsoccer esports tournament a big event across Africa and beyond, according to organiser and sponsor.

With almost 300 gamers pruned to 32, the Lagos qualifiers staged at Akoka’s Game Evo Lounge saw the quartet of Akintoye Arogunmati, Deji Opoola, Imaji Faruna and Nonso Odiaka make the cut for the national finals billed to hold from December 13 and 14, 2020 in Asaba, Delta state.

In a chat with Goal, CEO of competition’s sponsor Chijioke John Odum of Rocket App by Chiji14xchange explained his company’s motive for funding the interactive football contest.

“Esports is majorly for the youths and we as a company are trying to buy into the adoption of cryptocurrency,” Odum told Goal.​

“We are trying to help usher Africa into the digital age, so we believe aligning ourselves with esports which is patronised by young people will bring us closer to our audience.

“I am a gamer also and even in the last competition, I wanted to participate but because there were fewer space, I had to withdraw to allow one other participant. So, putting our resources into this will enable us to get closer to our audience in Nigeria and Africa at large.”

Also, he revealed that his brand would keep associating with the tournament as they are keen on seeing it become a flagship event across Africa and beyond.

“We were part of the sponsors last year and that continued this year, so, we hope to keep associating ourselves with this to make it bigger and take it to the rest of Africa because Padsoccer is the biggest in Nigeria.”

In the same vein, an elated Padsoccer boss Paul Chinedu Ohachu opens up on what the future holds for the annual contest and how that would be accomplished.

“I feel really good because when you put up for a project and you see it get to the right expectations, you feel so very good,” said Ohachu.

“On the standard, what we are doing is improve on what we did last year. All of us are working towards e-sports development in Nigeria and we follow the international standard, so we are exploring the new instructions and new development in the game towards making this competition world class.

“We are working hard towards taking the centre stage in Africa. And from the feedback we are getting from the tournaments we have organised so far, we believe we will get there [international standard] very soon.”

Unlike the 2019 edition where the winner walked home with half a million naira, the champion this term will be a proud owner of PlayStation 5, a home video game console which was released to the rest of the world on November 19, 2020.