South African high school students looking to make a name for themselves in the local competitive esports scene have another opportunity to do just that. Acer and African Cyber Gaming League (ACGL) have partnered up for a ‘new’ esports league, the Acer Nitro ASL (ACGL Schools League), proving you can never have too many acronyms in the same sentence.
The Acer Nitro ASL isn’t completely new, just the ‘Acer Nitro’ part with Acer joining the league’s second term as a headline sponsor. In return for naming rights (and that sweet sweet brand visibility), the company will be providing the prize pools for which our (potential) future esports professionals will compete.
While R70,000 might sound like a big total, it will be split up across five prize pool titles including Rocket League, League of Legends, Fortnite, FIFA 23, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. What’s a high schooler going to do with R70,000 anyway?
Acer and ACGL prove it’s not just a phase
Acer Nitro ASL will also host games without prize pools including Chess (yes, that Chess), Brawlhalla, Apex Legends, Clash Royale, Overwatch 2, and Valorant. These are supposedly “for the joy of competition and exposure”. Yeah, sure.
If you’re still in high school (or know someone that is) and want to compete against the 60 or so schools that have already joined, you can. If you can convince your school to enter, you and your team will get your very own ACGL page to track and showcase your progress. And as an extra selling point, participating schools can also run their own tournaments for free on the platform (without Acer’s prize pools, unfortunately).
Sign-ups for the second term of the Acer Nitro ASL close on the 23rd of April 2023 (this coming Sunday) so you better get the team together to work out practice times.
But first, you’ll need to register your school and team, which can be done here. If you (or the teacher in charge) have any questions, contact schools@acgl.gg (presumably via email) to straighten things out.
Now go and practice. That prize money isn’t going to win itself.