Rabat – The e-sports sector is gaining increasing popularity in today’s tech-driven world, particularly among Generation Z. While some might only consider it a hobby, others are generating money out of the relatively new field and making a professional career out of it.
Even as esports is steadily growing in popularity in Morocco, the older generation, strong advocates of the traditional nine-to-five jobs, continues to frown upon the multi-billion dollar industry. For most older Moroccans, the very notion of embracing e-gaming as a professional career is essentially the latest fashionable expression of youthful abandon and idleness.
Though there aren’t exact numbers on how many Moroccans are active on e-game streaming platforms, the industry has in recent years seen an upward trend overall in terms of audiences — especially during the COVID-19 lockdown. It is believed that there are approximately three million esports enthusiasts in Morocco.
Esports is considerably developing in Morocco due to the ever-increasing digitization and mobile games that have notably contributed to the growth of the gaming business. With many young Moroccans aspiring to pursue a professional career in online gaming, the industry still requires much more professionalism and structure.
As of 2021, the esports market revenue worldwide amounted to $1.08 billion, with China leading the industry in terms of revenues.
East Asian countries are set to take off esports to the next level in the coming years, with Korea expecting to reach $72.5 million in esports revenue by 2024, while Japan will open its first-ever esports high school “Esports Koutou Gakuin” in April this year.
Where will Morocco stand in this innovative industry with a promising potential in creating more career opportunities for youth?
FoxGaming, a leading team in Morocco
As the gaming community continues to grow in the North African country, Morocco World News (MWN) reached out to FoxGaming Team, one of the most successful Moroccan esport teams, for their perspective on the current state and future of e-gaming in Morocco.
Sharing the story of their own rise as one of the go-to esport teams in the infant but promising Moroccan gaming market, the group spoke notably of the challenges facing this fast-growing industry in a relatively conservative country like Morocco.
The FoxGaming Team represented Morocco in the Intel Arabian Cup (IAC) in 2020. Amine Touzi, the founder of Fox Gaming, and also known as “Islero” in the gaming world, said, “After winning the Moroccan grand finals we had won all the games for two months straight.”
Amine Touzi during his speech at the 2021 LGaming Awards ceremony.
The team played Inwi and Eswc tournaments simultaneously and won both without failing in a single series.
Touzi stressed that the team has six rosters so far: League of Legends, Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, Wild Rift, Rocket League, and Arena of Valor.
Players usually join Discord servers – a chat application widely used by gamers worldwide – to meet like-minded individuals and esports enthusiasts to exchange gaming tactics. Other players also use platforms such as YouTube or Twitch to livestream their game-playing sessions with an audience.
Of the many wins the group has secured since their debut, Touzi recalled their first win at the Africa Game Show in 2017, arguably the biggest gaming tournament to have taken place in Morocco. Now as then, the team’s primary goal is to continue to represent Morocco in world-class tournaments, Touzi stressed.
The team’s solid — and growing — reputation in the industry is not only because they are among the first in the Moroccan video gaming industry. Outside of the still infant Moroccan gaming landscape, Fox Gaming has won both the Valorant and Legends in North Africa, two regional triumphs that have effectively put the Moroccan group on the coveted map of the top-ranked teams in the MENA region.
With a focus on improving their skills to meet international standards and compete in renowned competitions, Fox Gaming members are mentored by the Brazilian coach Gabriel Garcia Negreiros, an athlete and former goalkeeper with 16 years of experience in sports.
Persisting challenges in the industry
With the older generation being less welcoming of emerging jobs that are more online-oriented, many Moroccan families perceive e-gaming as a hobby that cannot become a “real job.”
But the younger generation has been standing its ground in the face of society’s lingering stereotypes about what should be considered a “real” or “proper” job. When asked about his family reaction after they learnt about his job in Esports management, Touzi said they didn’t take it well at first but eventually became supportive as they saw the great efforts and sacrifices he was making to lead his team to victory in several tournaments.
Unsupportive parents and constant pressure from society are indeed a concern for professional gamers, but among other obstacles in the way of esports-enthusiast young Moroccans are the expensive gaming equipment, slow internet connection, and the lack of regional servers in the MENA.
Of Moroccan society’s failure to acknowledge esports as an actual career, Touzi stressed, “Whether people consider Esports as a sport or not, it doesn’t matter because people are training everyday for hours and hours, having an athlete routine, and on top of that, making a living from it.”
So what can be done to positively promote the gaming culture? For Touzi, the answer lies in organizing tournaments and offering gaming equipment in youth centers as well as dedicating the appropriate gaming activities for both primary school and university students.
“Ori And The Blind Forest are very good video games for primary school students to develop their artistic skills, problem solving, and reflex,” he explained. “Video games are a great educational tool if used well. And so on, future naturally talented players will emerge, and that will lead to a huge number of skillful players.”
On March 2, Morocco’s Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication Mehdi Bensaid and the President of Royal Moroccan Federation of Electronic Games (FMRJE) Hicham Lakhlifi signed a partnership to develop the country’s e-gaming industry.
The two representatives pledged to cooperate in implementing several large-scale opportunities regarding the e-gaming industry.
The FMRJE has also announced that Morocco will feature among participating countries in the FIFAe Nations Series 2022 tournament.
As a new country in the competition, Morocco will go directly to the online qualifiers of the FIFAe Nations Series 2022, which will take place from May 19 to 22, 2022.
With new opportunities emerging in the e-gaming industry, FoxGaming members aspire to make sustainable progress in the field. As well as proudly representing Morocco on the global stage, the group hopes to gather the professional experience and network they need to improve the esports field in Morocco.
For them, Morocco’s youth cannot afford to be on the margins of a global revolution of the very idea of what constitutes a professional career. With the traditional labor market failing to absorb the large majority of job seekers, they appeared to suggest, it would be suicidal for Morocco’s technology-savvy millenials not to take advantage of one of the few positive disurptions of the digital age.
