This site was previously known as LAGza.co.za . It was built by fans ...for fans of popular fighting games .
Here is some of the history behind it. Please keep in mind that some of this may be out of date, but is nevertheless still relevant history.
Enjoy...
Tekken and the HS Dojo in South Africa [narrated by HotShot ]
Ohayo gozaimsu mina-san (that’s Japanese for ‘Sup’)
What is the HS Dojo and where did the idea come from?
To put some perspective on the HS Dojo, we are and have been the premier Tekken player group in South Africa since 2007. I decided to create this Dojo after living London and training in London with some of the top European players the world has to offer while participating in tournaments all over Europe.
The most important lesson in learning the way of European Tekken was understanding how important it is to have a healthy active Tekken community. If there is no community and no healthy rivalry, growth is limited.
While in London, I had been monitoring the South African Fighting Game community and was not surprised that there was nothing happening here due to our limited internet connections and lack of fighting game forum structure.
Upon returning to South Africa, I had the idea of creating a Tekken Community for Cape Town initially and then expanding the scene as much as possible for South Africa.
The reason why LAGza and MrSpidey hold as much weight as they do with the HS Dojo is because they supplied the forum platform to create the Home of the Digital Dojo over these past five years. A lot of time and effort was spent ensuring that LAGza was always up and running so that I would be able to keep an active Tekken forum and update the growth and activity of the group as the new members and challenges from other Provinces in the country started coming in.
I have had over 50 students since starting the HS Dojo in 2007 come and go for many different reasons and circumstances that life sometimes brings along.
At this moment in time, I am proud to say that we are a small, but very tight group of nakama (comrades) that believe in our Dojo and have been cleaning up the Tekken Tournaments in South Africa with no less than 1 st place at each legitimate event.
Dojo Sensei:
HotShot (known internationally as FoxSteve)
Senior Members:
Regular Members:
Junior Members:
Lance
Today, still thanks to MrSpidey and LAGza , we have sponsored prizes for our Tournaments and this website although not used so much as a forum spot anymore still holds all the information on how you can get in contact and follow the movement of the HS Dojo and the South African Tekken Community.
HotShot is proudly sponsored by LAGza
Where have we been?
Firstly, the legendary ‘FoxCam’ follows me and my Dojo on its travels to make sure that we cap as much of the action as possible.
Here is my YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/FoxSt3v3
Nationally, the HS Dojo members have travelled and participated in Death Matches and Tournaments all around the country. Making stops in Johannesburg/Pretoria, Durban, Mpumalanga, Bloemfontein and of course always playing and training on our home turf in Cape Town.
Internationally, the HS Dojo has made appearances in the following tournaments:
Snake Pit Tournaments 2004-2005 London (HotShot):
http://www.youtube.com/user/snakepitlondon and
http://www.tekkenzaibatsu.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=123713
Saulabi Tournament Holland 2004 (HotShot)
Neo Empire Tournaments 2004-2005 London (HotShot)
Bare Licks Tournaments 2005 London (HotShot)
Ultimate Tournament IV, XII and XIII Paris (HotShot)
http://www.tekkenzaibatsu.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=122266 and
and
MAX DamaGermany 2011 and 2012 (HotShot and Stuyvesant)
http://www.tekkenzaibatsu.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=120062 and
Evolution Gaming Series (EVO) Las Vegas 2011 (HotShot)
This year (2012), I will be looking at participating at SBO (Super Battle Opera) in Tokyo, Japan, to add to the list of prestigious Tournaments that HS Dojo members have had the chance to attend. The tickets are already booked, so I am looking forward to the event whether it be as a last minute participant to qualify or even just as a spectator.
http://www.tougeki.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/TOUGEKI
What is happening with the South African Tekken scene at the moment?
A lot, actually.
The HS Dojo has come quite a long way since a HSS (HotSpot Session) was the highlight of the weekend’s Tekken action. As a result of the HS Dojo’s consistency and dedication to Tekken in South Africa, there have been some spin off groups/dojos created across the country.
Worcester Dojo
The most noticeable group that was formed around 2010 was the Worcester Dojo, led by Ryno, they had 5 regular members, Alvin, Carlo and the twins Oliver and Ewan.
Team Battles of a 5 v 5 Format became quite a special and enjoyable event thanks to these players, but now that their leader Ryno has had to leave the group, it seems that they have disbanded or their Tekken activity has decreased drastically.
HS Dojo vs Worcester Dojo Team Battle Part 1 of 5.
JHB
The new age of Team Battle was born at the latest GetHype Event called Sodium Overload II. HS Dojo (CPT) went up in a 5 v 5 Team Battle against the JHB Dojo.
The JHB members that took part in the team battle are:
DarkSideX
Shafiq
ShadowJoe
Clayton
HS Dojo vs Team JHB 5v5 Team Battle
The other regular members of the JHB group are:
Austin
Sameer
Andre van Drake
Get Hype’s - Sodium Overload Tournaments
http://www.youtube.com/user/GetHypeSA1
This is without a doubt the Premier Tournament for South African Tekken. Run by Tournament Organiser Paul Delargy and his video tech genius Ross ‘Woofels’ Mallinson, this tournament is beautiful and structured from its announcement until the finalised footage is uploaded.
The sponsored prizes for Tournament Winners, prize draws for participants, venues and general orginisation of these Tournaments always ensure that the top players from all over the country are sure to attend.
HotShot-Sensei is proudly sponsored by Get Hype Gaming Events
Main Gaming Tournaments
Main Gaming Owner Mikkaeel/Abu has been hosting well run Tournaments for Tekken in JHB and now in CPT as well. With great sponsored prizes and organisation, this double elimination tournament is a must for every serious Tekken player.
MSSA - Mind Sports South Africa
http://www.facebook.com/mindsportssa
In 2010 I did enquiries on how to register Tekken as a National Mind Sport and found myself working with the MSSA in order to make this happen. Now in 2012, Tekken along with Star Craft II have become the main focus for the 2012 MSSA International Championship roster.
Provincial Colours, National Colours and Protea Colours are awarded for participants that place well in their respective Provinces, at Nationals and that represent South Africa at the overseas championships.
The no.1 National Player will be heading to Kushan, China to take part in the WCG (World Cyber Games) Tekken World Championships to represent their country. There will be one male and one female player representing South African Tekken this year thanks to the IeSF (International e-Sports Federation) and MSSA.
Local Web Sites to stay up to date with the Tekken happening around you
SAGamer Forums and News
http://sagamer.co.za/forum/forumdisplay.php?17-PS3-Online-Matches-amp-Events
International Tekken Websites for reference, news and training information
Tekken Zaibatsu Forums and News
Avoiding the Puddle Forums and News
http://www.avoidingthepuddle.com
--- end of HotShot narration ---
GetHype and the South African Fighting Game Community [narrated by Ibuki-Lord ]
First thing is first a quick background on GetHype:
What is GetHype and where did it come from?
GetHype started when I came to realize that there was very little happening in the South African FGC *Fighting Game Community*, I have always loved fighting games and have always been passionate about them, I wanted a way to bring people together from all over the country and to get the information out to people of upcoming games and what’s happening in the community. Throughout the years I have always had friends over playing and getting interested in fighting games, but it got to a point where I really wanted to take that out and expand it to more players.
GetHype Gaming Events really started with the Launch Marvel vs Capcom 3, I had a mini launch party for the game on its release day at my place, managed to get some great little freebies for people that attended such as MvC3 T-Shirts and art books courtesy of Animeworx. After the success of that I realized that people really are willing to come through and support events based around fighting games. So I decided to push the idea further. On April 29th we held a launch tournament in Brightwater Commons, Randburg with Animeworx and Maingaming, we managed to pull in 82 participants from all over Gauteng as well as a few out of towners. The event was great and showed just how much support there is and how many FG players there are.
Ever since then GetHype has been growing and growing to the point where we now have monthly tournaments with full prize support.
GetHype now consists of myself, Paul Delargy and Ross Mallinson. Together we organize the events and make sure everything runs smoothly.
What have we done?
I am happy to say that GetHype has done a lot since its first MvC3 launch party. We now have monthly tournaments consisting of a variety of games, each tournament usually has between 2 and 3 titles and we rotate this each month from Tekken 6, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, SoulCalibur 5, Street Fighter x Tekken etc. We have managed to secure some great sponsorship deals with various sponsors such as Animeworx, EA Games, Lord Prawn and Comet Computing.
Our players base a gradually grown over the months and more and more people are getting to know who we are and what we do. In an effort to grow the community and expand the FGC we created a GetHype website and youtube channel. We invested in some capturing equipment and recorders. Not only does GetHype do tournaments now but we record all of our major matches and upload them to our Youtube channel. This includes all winners, losers and grand finals matches as well as player interviews. We have also done a first in the South African FGC and have now started doing and experimenting in Commentary for our videos. Our first commentary video was done at Sodium Overload 2, in GetHypes eyes the premier fighting game tournament in the country. This was part of the JHB vs CPT 5vs5 Tekken 6 round robin exhibition match. Our players did the commentary and made it one worth remembering; it was a big step for us and showed us what direction to take for the future.
Our tournaments are now talked about all over local forums including LAGza , PS3za , AWX , NAG etc. We are covered in local gaming news site LazyGamer and have also managed to attract the attention on some international sites such as Shoryuken.com and Eventhubs . It’s great that the name is getting out and expanding as it has.
What is happening with the local fighting game scene?
A lot actually, since I started doing this I can see how much the community has grown and how friendships and bonds have come about due to this. Nothing like some good competition to help grow a friendship.
Each fighting game has its own scene and provided the players are willing to support that scene and game GetHype will be willing to put in the time and resources to grow that game and the community and to get tournaments organized for those games.
We have run a slew of tournaments over the last couple of months and at the beginning of 2012 we decided to go really big and created an event called sodium Overload. This is the premier tournament in South Africa, the tournament to outdo all tournaments. I got the idea for sodium Overload from the biggest fighting game tournament in the world, namely Evolution . Any fighting game player knows about this tournament and just how big it is, Sodium Overload was something I wanted to create in an attempt to have a tournament in South Africa that everyone wants to attend. GetHype would like to hold 2-3 Sodium Overload events per year, since the beginning of the year we have hosted 2 very success Sodium Overload 2 events that continue to grow.
This event brings out the best of the best from all over the country; we have players coming from all over Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town. It is the event to be at and has the best competition South Africa has to offer. This is where any gamer comes to test their skill and get their name out as someone to watch out for. It’s also a great event for casual players who have just started in the scene who want to come out and meet to players and get some tips to help improve their game for future events.
GetHype has done fund raiser with the help of our sponsors and players and has allowed us in raising funds to help players come up to our events, namely Sodium Overload2 2 where GetHype raised over R2000 to help put towards the plane ticket costs for the HS dojo players. We hope to be able to continue this in the future and give our support.
GetHype and the Future?
I hope to continue growing the GetHype name and help in growing the FGC in South Africa and supporting the players and games.
GetHype has also just recently gone into sponsorship with HotShot *FoxSteve* as our first sponsored player and hope to expand this to more players and help out where we can.
GetHype already has tournaments planned for the future as well as talks of Sodium Overload 3 so keep a lookout for that and we hope to see all the new and old players at future events.
You can find out more about future and previous tournaments on our website, www.gethype.co.za and can find our recorded footage of previous tournaments as well as player interviews and matches on our youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/GetHypeSA1
--- end of Ibuki-Lord narration---
CapeTown Scene and CapeTown Showdown [narrated by Ennohex ]
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cape-Town-Showdown/
Why fighting games?
Something went missing during the 90's here in South Africa. Does anyone that wasn't born in the age of the cell-phone remember the Arcades as they used to be? Loud, filled with the sounds of buttons being mashed, tokens being spewed out in return for currency and the theme tune of Mortal Kombat 2 and Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition playing in the background.
I miss those days.
At the arcades you had different types of competition appearing. You would make friends... and sometimes enemies. There would be people from all walks of life, different ages, different views and as a result, the play style was kept fresh and creative. The console scene replaced much of the games that we used to play, but it wasn't the same. It was restrictive, in the sense that you would not get to play as many different people. The same “Here comes a NEW challenger” phrase meant much less than it did before.
The scene has died down, but the gamers were left with a yearning for those challenges and challengers. It was as if there was a void that needed filling. On-line infrastructure attempted to fill the void for competitive fighting game play, but, it fell short of being a “True Arcade Perfect” transition.
The Arcades themselves had stagnated due to bad management/greed/complacency or just the fear of trying something new. The gamers got bored with having to deal with the arcades not moving forward with the times, and so have taken it upon themselves to re-invent the fighting game culture..
The gamers that belong to Cape Town Showdown have done just that.
We are a group of individuals that have that need. The need to find worthy opponents, better challenges and the thrill of the battle. For us, it's about the close calls, the stolen victories, the trash talk, the hype moments and the unbelievable circumstances.
...and if by chance we make friends... or enemies in the process. So be it.
--- end of Ennohex narration---