The tournament, a Riot Games official esports roadmap in partnership with MENATech (MTE) a GGTech Company brings together some of the best Arab players to compete for a chance to represent the MENA Region in Europe’s Last Chance Qualifier.
· The event will be broadcast in Arabic and streamed live on Facebook, Twitch, YouTube and NIMOTv
Dubai, UAE: Strike Arabia, one of the most anticipated esports events in the region, has announced that the tournament will run from 22 to 25 September, where esports fans from the region and beyond will be able to to watch the Arab world’s first Riot Games official VALORANT competition.
Throughout the four day event, top MENA teams will compete for a prize pool of USD$ 50,000, as well as a chance to qualify for the upcoming European Last Chance Qualifiers, making it the first Riot Games regional esports tournament of its kind linked to a global championship.
Parallel to the competition, viewers will have the chance to participate in online events and social media draws, all while following the live analysis and commentary from some of the regions leading esport casters.
Team Rundown: Insights from the experts
MENATech’s production crew will be providing insights and real-time analysis that will feature some of the best gaming talent in the MENA region. Among the line-up is famous Moroccan voice-over artist, Saad Melouki (@Raiizow), best known for his his infamous voice across multiple titles such as VALORANT and League of Legend; Karim Mellouli (@Smooth) from Tunisia, a veteran who has been covering VALORANT games since it’s launch; Ahmed Salaheldin Morgan (@Morgan) an up and coming young talent from Egypt; andAbdulrahman Al Mulla (@Tuxedo), an FPS specialist from Bahrain.
The Teams
With a central commitment to elevate esports in the region, the Emirati team YaLLa Esports, are certainly ones in contendership to be the next champion squad.. According to commentator Karim Melllouli (Smooth); “From the start they have been really tactical when picking their starting roster. Also, their playstyle is really unique. No matter what the objective is, they never falter from their unique “going silent” playstyle. This can be a weakness for other MENA teams but not for YaLLa, they know how to adapt their playstyle to their their advantage.”
Emirati owned Jordanian team NASR ESPORTS has been forging its rightful place as one of the strongest esports teams in the region. Betting on a long-standing VALORANT roster, NASR ESPORTS is making a name for itself worldwide with growing investment behind it, backed by a long history of wins in the past (Strike Arabia 2020). The team gathers 40 professionals from 15 countries and has won accolades in over 300 tournaments worldwide.
Moroccan team Fox Gaming is also showing a promising outlook on its competition run. Moroccan caster Raiizow said the following about the team; “the VALORANT team at Fox Gaming have won multiple tournaments in the region and qualified to Strike Arabia Finals through SAC North Africa season 1. They have been crowned back-to-back champions in North Africa and are closely becoming the undisputed powerhouse of that sub-region.”
From Egypt, Team RA’AD and Team ANUBIS will be competing for the championship. The former, one of the industry’s newcomers, has quickly become a formidable force in the region, combining fierce gaming strategy and growing the team into a gaming institution and a regional powerhouse. Similarly, Team ANUBIS has amassed wins in the Strike Arabia Championship. An esports pioneer, ANUBIS was the first of its kind when it was founded in 2015 in Egypt and has rapidly gained influence in the industry. Currently, ANUBIS is the Red Bull VALORANT world champion and has set its sights on the official MENA title.
Tunisian Team Majesty has been proudly representing the North African region with an all North African roster. They have been making waves in recent tournaments with a well-deserved victory during the second season of the Strike Arabian Championship.
Lastly, one of the most impressive teams on the scene, Geekay E-Sports, (formerly Team Duelist). As a team, and due to their recent performance, they are generating a lot of expectations in the tournament. As described by @Tuxedo: “Geekay has shown outstanding performance in past championships after amazing, sometimes unexpected, victories against veteran teams.” Since partnering with Geekay (one of the largest gaming retailers in the Middle East), it is poised to become one of the most successful esports teams in the region.
The role of Strike Arabia in promoting a booming MENA Esports Industry
VALORANT Strike Arabia is another step forward in the ongoing partnership between GGTech and Riot Games to develop esports in the MENA region. The response from the community across the region has shown anticipation towards the tournament and is a testament to a burgeoning industry.
On the rapid development of the industry, Moe A Zack (@MoeAZack), RA’AD’s VALORANT Manager, said: “With the scene evolving so fast, you can’t tell who will win the next big tournament. Every day you have a new underdog who is breaking new records. VALORANT has been a safe place to discover and promote new teams and talents. This will make a huge difference in the industry.”GGTech Entertainment Group brings the world of video games and electronic sports closer to society promoting values such as integration, sportsmanship, teamwork and the desire to improve, and using entertainment as motivation to learning. GGTech Entertainment is committed to interactive environments, specialized in the development, production and commercialization of video games. Also investing in generating content with new technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.
About VALORANT:
VALORANT is a competitive 5v5 character-based tactical shooter, developed and published by Riot Games. A precise and lethal multiplayer game, VALORANT features high-fidelity gunplay, a diverse arsenal of guns, agents with unique abilities, and competitively tuned maps for thousands of hours of play.
VALORANT is a free-to-play game and optimized to perform on a wide variety of PC hardware, allowing for a global audience to compete. Demonstrated by the game’s best-in-class game server quality, global infrastructure, and proprietary anti-cheat technology, Riot Games is committed to preserving the core tenets of the tactical shooter genre and upholding the competitive integrity of the gameplay experience.
About Riot Games:
Riot Games was founded in 2006 to develop, publish, and support the most player-focused games in the world. In 2009, Riot released its debut title, League of Legends, to worldwide acclaim. League went on to be one of the most-played PC games in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of esports.
As League enters its second decade, Riot continues to evolve the game while delivering new experiences to players with games including the widely popular first-person tactical shooter, VALORANT, as well as Legends of Runeterra, League of Legends: Wild Rift; bringing its popular Teamfight Tactics game mode to mobile platforms; and exploring the world of Runeterra through multimedia projects across TV, music, comic books, and more.
