Nigerian e-sports team to participates in Saudi 2023 Championship

Nigeria’s national e-sports team will be making its maiden appearance at the prestigious Afro-Arab e-sports league championship taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Agbor Clinton, president of the Nigerian e-sports Federation (NESFED), disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

He said that the Nigeria national flag would feature in both the male and female categories at the e-sports world championship coming up between Aug. 18 and Aug. 22.

‘’I am glad to let you know that our country has qualified for the male and female e-football competition in Saudi Arabia next month. To this end, our team has since commenced preparation.

‘’We shall send a solid team to the 2023 Afro-Arab eSports League, and making Nigeria proud is our main objective.

‘’Let me also commend the organizer of the Afro-Arab League competitions for allowing the youths of Nigeria to compete in the international arena.

‘’We are also grateful to the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) for assisting the team with jerseys for the championship in Saudi Arabia,’’ Agbor told NAN.

The president of NESFED said that the NFF has also been supportive of the participation of the country in the tourney, adding that ‘’indeed they are the big brothers when it comes to the promotion and development of e-football’’.

eFootball is an association football simulation video game developed and published by Konami.

It is a free-to-play game after being completely rebranded from the original Pro Evolution Soccer (known as Winning Eleven in Japan) series to the eFootball series.

The game’s first year, entitled eFootball 2022, was released on Sept. 30, 2021, and was later changed to the game’s second year, eFootball 2023, on Aug. 25, 2022.

This game is part of the International Esports Federation’s World Championship and the North and Eastern Europa League (NEEC).

Agbor said that the NESFED has lined up a series of activities to keep the players in good shape ahead of the event taking place at the Riyadh Boulevard Challenge Arena.

‘’We have started talks with Play Box in Abuja to host the national team of the esports federation ahead of the international engagement.

‘’The facilities at the Play Box Abuja are good enough to serve as a preparation ground for the Nigeria eSports Federation team for the championship.’’