From the creators of the rAge expo comes a new event for South African gamers – Rush. This inaugural event, sponsored by HP OMEN, is said to be a first for eSports in South Africa and is set to become an annual showcase of everything the gaming plaform has to offer, according to its organisers NAG.

Taking place over the course of three days, Rush will feature a variety of competitive tournaments from leading local organisations, hosted on dedicated eSports stages, with live shoutcasting by some of South Africa's top gaming commentators. The country's top gamers and clans will compete for the honour of taking the top spots, as well as for a number of noteworthy prizes. Perhaps the biggest draw for eSports 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.

At rAge last year, which is also handled by NAG, the live eSports stage they had setup inside the Ticketpro Dome was easily one of the best attended aspects of the expo. 

For Rush, NAG has arranged three main stages, each 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.

“Rush aims to provide a neutral and inclusive platform for all the local eSports 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 eSports talent, as well as provide a centre of activity where local eSports fans can gather to interact with and support their favourite teams and players. Rush is not another rAge, it’s something completely different”, she continues.

“We are proud to be partnering with Rush as the headline sponsor for this inaugural eSports 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. We have built PCs for gamers who need fierce performance out-of-the-box in a fully customisable chassis – something not typically available from traditional PC manufacturers,” 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.”

Along with HP OMEN, Orena will be one of the active partners at Rush, and 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 eSports 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.  

Tickets for Rush are on sale now at Computicket, and details for the event are as follows:

Dates: 21-23 July 2017

Show times: Friday (10:00-20:00); Saturday (09:00-21:00); Sunday (09:00-16:00)

Day ticket: R50

Weekend ticket: R100

NAG LAN ticket: R600

Venue: Exhibition Hall 2, Sandton Convention Centre, Gauteng