BESF is founding member of CEFA

In an effort to strengthen its play and network with other countries, the Bahamas Esports Federation (BESF) has played a role in forming the Caribbean Esports Federations Alliance (CEFA) officially on October 28, 2020.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed with 10 other countries. Those countries are Jamaica, St. Lucia, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Suriname, Venezuela and Haiti.

The regional federation was in the works for about six months before all parties came to an agreement.

Leading the newly formed federation as president is Yaqui Nunez from the Dominican Republic and the General-Secretary is Gregory Moore from Jamaica. The headquarters are in Braeton, St. Catherine, Jamaica.

President of the BESF, Michael Armogan, said the formation of the CEFA will help to improve their sport locally.

“CEFA was created to combine the efforts of all federations and be seen as one united front. Not only will this help to create an economic linkage between countries, but also for our players to better train, our members to get certifications, and also for the overall improvement of Esports in the region as a whole.”

He continued: “Right now, CEFA is just starting out, but we’re proud to be one of its founding members. Our hopes and aims are that together, we are able to, as a collective, bring more to the region. Doing that will bring more attention to the individual countries. The end game would be the development for regional workshops, partnerships, job creation and training, tournaments, sponsorships and more.”

Federations around the region were in search for a proper voice in the region. All of that, coupled with the need to bring their players together, raise their play to a higher level and provide a sustainable model.

With the CEFA, there will be regional player rankings, so that local players have a goal in mind.

“Starting out with 12 countries already on board, with more in the works, we’re hoping that this opens up a lot of opportunity for them to not only see themselves from a local point, but also grow, network, and compete. An upcoming part of this will also be regional player rankings, similar to what we have here already in The Bahamas,” Armogan said.

One of the things that is high on CEFA’s agenda is staging an organizer certification workshop with member federations. Armogan said it’s an important aspect as federations must know how to host tournaments legitimately and set values which will be upheld. They are still ironing out the details for that workshop, but it will be held virtually.

Competitions have been ongoing between different CEFA members before but not under CEFA. As a newly-formed federation, CEFA is looking at staging a regional tournament in December. Armogan will provide more information as the competition gets closer.

The COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on sports here in The Bahamas as many sporting federations have had to cancel or postpone their plans for this year. The BESF was one of them. However, Armogan said that they had to find a way to keep the members engaged during this time.

“During this COVID-19 pandemic, member groups have held online tournaments, while we have run dedicated game nights for the community to come together and either try out a new Esport, compete against other Bahamians or work together as a team to take on others, with some taking these nights as a means of weekly practice to become better,” Armogan said.

The BESF has also started their national tryouts to improve current rosters and for new esports. Also in the pipeline are upcoming tryouts for Super Smash Brothers, VALORANT, Apex Legends, FIFA, and Mortal Kombat with more to come on stream.

A lot of the local players livestream their efforts on places like Twitch, Facebook Gaming, YouTube or Trovo, so they’ve been working on building up a national Streamer’s Directory – allowing for persons to be easily found, along with information on what they play and when they play.

The BESF have more regional and international tournaments coming up against other countries. They also have qualifiers for the international stage like the upcoming International Esports Federation’s World Championships or Global Esports Games events.

They will aim to work with both public and private schools on setting clubs and a curriculum that’s built around STEAM for the future of esports. This will foster the beginning of both a national and international league for schools.

In addition, they are looking to have competitions between constituencies and islands, and even hosting training camps.

Armogan and his team at BESF aims to ensure that the industry takes off not locally, but that the Bahamas become known for esports.

All of this will assist the BESF in being competitive in the CEFA as they look to sharpen the players’ skills. The CEFA member federations are still reviewing which games will be their first championship.

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