Demon retains esports national title

Eric ‘Demon’ Ngige in action during eLigue1tour national tournament at Zetech University on Sunday. [Courtesy]

Highly-rated Eric ‘Demon’ Ngige is the new eLigue1tour Esports champion after beating Joash 'Jojo' Agutu 2-0 in the national finals at a fully-packed Zetech University auditorium over the weekend.

Following the victory, Demon will now represent Kenya in the lucrative international circuit of the eLigue1tour Paris, France from April 18 - 21, 2024. The tournament has a prize pool of Sh 1.2 million (8000 Euros).

On his way to the final, Demon trounced 2022 champion Luony ‘Fox’ Teat 6-1 in the semi-finals and Nakuru’s Ray Thomas 7-4 in the quarter-finals.

This year’s eLigue1tour Kenya championship attracted a total of 636 players with Nairobi having 486, Nakuru 94, and Mombasa 56 which is a significant rise from 2023 where 264 participated.

Demon who finished seventh in Paris last year was elated and confident of doing better;

“I am happy to retain my title. I worked very hard for this and I believe my experience also counted. There is no time to celebrate, after today I am going back to training harder than before because Paris is a great challenge. I promise my fans that I shall do better than last year,” said Demon.

Esports Kenya president Ronny Lusigi congratulated the players and promised to expand the competition to more cities.

“We have witnessed some great Esports action which highlights the talent we have in this nation. I congratulate all the 636 players who dared to participate and of course big congratulations to Eric Demon for winning the title,” said Lusigi.

“We are happy that this year we expanded the tournament to Nakuru and Mombasa cities and we promise that next year it shall go to more cities as well.”