What We Did in 2016

We really planned to release this wrap of our 2016 before the year ended, but as things go, we were just a little... well, busy doing a few things. We're still a little proud of what we achieved, and wanted to share it with you, because without you, these things wouldn't have happened.

ACGL - and the individuals and family organisations that make up ACGL - had a particularly pleasing 2016, and looking back, we realised that we were part of all three major gaming expos of the year, as well as being involved in some other very varied events.

Of course, without the support of the communities, we wouldn't be able to talk about what a great year it has been, so thank you to every player, supporter, sponsor, box carrier, admin, behind-the-scenes operator and person that helped us make 2016 only the beginning.

This was our 2016...

GAMING4CHARITY

5 and 6 March 2016 saw us host a variety of tournaments for Gaming4Charity at Grand West Casino. Call of Duty, Halo, FIFA and fighting all featured and saw over 120 players compete over the event's tournaments.

ASTRO GAMING CUP

We were back at Grand West Casino later in March when rAge hit Cape Town. There we ran the ASTRO Gaming Cup featuring four invited teams. It marked the first time Call of Duty on console had featured on the rAge expo floor. It wasn't clear at the time, but the event proved the catalyst for what was to come.

MWEB MASTERS SERIES

Photo Credit: Geeknode

2016 marked the second year of ACGL operating the MWEB GameZone Masters Series for Call of Duty and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The series ran from April until October with two online qualifiers per title and a LAN final for Call of Duty, while the CS: GO played out online.

TRENCHTOWN BLACK OPS 3 2v2

Our sister organisation Zombiegamer kept things going in the Call of Duty scene with a 2v2 Black Ops 3 event at Trenchtown. 20 teams battled it out in the June event which was in preparation for two major Call of Duty tournaments to follow.

EGE 2016

The Electronics & Gaming Expo returned for year two at the CTICC and we again saw ourselves fully involved with the July event. On offer was the second of our major Call of Duty tournaments of the year, as well as Halo 5, FIFA 16, various fighting titles, king of the hill tournaments for Dota 2, League of Legends and more and school tournaments for FIFA 16 and Street Fighter V.

NEW SITE

In August we launched the new ACGL Beta site which is now our home for tournaments, leaderboards, player and team profiles, news and more. Without revealing the news, it was another step towards preparing for our most exciting announcement yet. It also marked the roll-out of more regular online tournaments across multiple titles.

ESWC FIFA 17

In September our sister organisation Zombiegamer assisted the Maingaming crew by hosting the Cape Town qualifying leg of the ESWC FIFA 17 South African qualifier. The winner plus the other top four from Cape Town were invited to Johannesburg where they played against the top players from the Gauteng qualifiers to determine the player who would head to France in October for the finals.

MAG CUP

Possibly our own personal highlight and triumph of 2016 (and the event that others had built up to), the Call of Duty World League affiliated MAG Cup kicked off in September with 31 teams in the online qualifier. The top eight teams went on to rAge in Johannesburg where they played for South Africa's biggest console prize pool yet. The LAN finals in October saw the local casting team joined by Ben 'Benson' Bowe and make international news. The tournament saw Energy eSports walk off with R60,000 in cash and products worth over R20,000.

CALL OF DUTY LAUNCH PARTY

In November, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare (and Modern Warfare Remastered) arrived and to celebrate, the local distributors held a launch party which was organised and operated by ACGL at the MWEB offices in Cape Town. It was all zombies and 80s all night in an event that celebrated both the game and the community.

CAPE GATE GAMING EXPO

Photo Credit: Chené Taljaard Photography

Zombiegamer were on hand to host gaming and tournaments at the November event at the Cape Gate Shopping Mall. A number of titles were operated over the four day event including a FIFA 17 tournament, Street Fighter V and PES 2017.

XP Fest

In December, we were just not ready to take a break and decided more is, well, more. To give the site a severe stress test and to start our expansion into more titles and on to more platforms we hosted XP Fest. Once the dust had settled, we had completed 39 tournaments in around 16 days. We also added more people to the team to ensure that 2017 starts the right way.

AND MORE

Alongside all that, you would've spotted members of the team at other events like the MSI DOOM launch event, a variety of FIFA 16  and other Tournaments, an ASUS Event at MWEB, Soccer Warriors  soccer clinics, the Battlefield 1 launch event at MWEB, while Zombiegamer spent a month at Tyger Valley hosting FIFA 17 tournaments and general gaming.

2016 was a great year for us and we hope to continue onward (and upward) in 2017. If you were part of anything we did in 2016, feel free to let us know your highlights in the comments below.

And please do remember to keep up with what we're doing in 2017 and beyond by following us here: