Interviewing Members of the 2026 South African Overwatch World Cup Committee: Proudly Representing the Rainbow Nation
We had the chance to sit down with two members of the South African Overwatch World Cup committee. We got to dive deeper into the Overwatch World Cup process and how they are feeling. The two members are Smiley, the General Manager, and Nevvie, the Social Media Lead. Before we begin, we would like to once again extend our thanks to both of them for taking the time out to do this interview.
Interview with Smiley and Nevvie, Members of the South African Overwatch World Cup Committee
Two important abbreviations to mention are COWZA and PUGs. COWZA is Competitive Overwatch South Africa, a community-run server for South African Overwatch. PUGs are pickup games with randomly drafted teams. These are hosted on the COWZA server every weekend.
Both of you have become well-known figures within the South African Overwatch Scene, but for the readers who are not well-versed in our scene, can you please introduce yourselves?
Smiley
“I’m Smiley. I’ve been a member of the South African community, on and off, for a while. I’ve been part of the management team in COWZA, on and off, for a while. Across the years, I’ve worn many hats, from helping out organizing a tournament, managing multiple teams, low and high, operating the communities, helping out with social media, the coordination thereof, the graphics, the PUGs, the outreach. Kind of had a foot in every division that was possible.
Currently, I am management at COWZA once again, and I am the founder of an org called Valhalla Academy, although I have stepped down being the server owner there. I’m now just an admin. I still manage multiple teams, especially in the expert division. And now I’m the General Manager of the South African team, representing South Africa in the Overwatch World Cup of 2026.”
Nevvie
“I’m Nevvie. I’ve been in the South African Overwatch scene since 2022, but I have been playing since 2019. I do play in a team, but mostly I’ve done managerial stuff. I manage my team, I’m PUGs admin in COWZA, and that’s pretty much it. I now do the social media stuff for the Overwatch World Cup.”
What Made You Want to Participate in the ZA Committee for the Overwatch World Cup?
Nevvie
“At the time, I thought that if I didn’t step up, nobody else was going to. Because I wasn’t sure about what Smiley was doing, and I didn’t want the country go without anyone willing to step up. I wanted us to have at least someone who was willing to try. But then Smiley, being the owner of VA, and having her own org, and managing many teams successfully. When I heard that she was getting up stuff, she’s a way better fit for this position than I am. I’m rather happy to step in when needed and support in that way. And then I got Social Lead.”
Smiley
“I feel quite strongly that the talent in South Africa should have more recognition and a spotlight. I know that our playerbase can be quite small, and oftentimes we give attention to the community, a lot of attention to the competitive side as well. But when it comes to the best of the best, there’s more opportunities in Europe; everyone knows that. It’s a great opportunity, the Overwatch World Cup, to have all of our South African highest players, the top talent, the best of the best, be acknowledged.
I think for a team like that to have success, you need someone who is very determined, motivated, hard-working, and has the ability to get similar hard-working people involved, too. I feel I want to be that bridge to connect the strong players, to connect the people that want to make this happen, and help make something successful happen. Whether we do great, doesn’t really matter. I think we should give it our best, and use it as an opportunity to show what South Africa has to offer.”
How Has the Overwatch World Cup Proccess Been So Far?
Nevvie
“It’s been a definite learning curve. I feel like there are some committees that put a lot of effort into their graphic design, there’s other committees that don’t. But the committees that cook, they COOK. It’s been a definite learning curve, trying to get myself to that level. But it’s been a good learning curve. I feel like it’s been good to learn skills that I know I will definitely use in other aspects of my life, outside of Overwatch. Overall, it’s felt pretty good, like I’m involved in helping to get the team going that’s going to represent our country. I feel like that’s a pretty big thing to be proud of.”
Smiley
“Not as stressful as I expected it to be. I expected it to be busy and stressful. And don’t get me wrong, it was, but it was like, no matter what challenge came upon my path, I was able to figure something out. I think that’s due to having experience with this. It’s not that different from managing an expert team with a ton of trials. Streaming the trials on Twitch was an exhausting process, even though I just had to sit there. A lot of sleep was missing, but I feel like, overall, it went smoother than I expected.
It has actually been quite fun, especially now that the trials are over, and it’s more like finding scrims, focusing on something as exciting as a showmatch, talking about what social media post we want to get out. The best part that I didn’t expect was being able to connect with other countries’ teams. For example, the showmatch we’re having with Iceland.
This has opened the doors of connecting to more people from different countries in Europe. I think that’s the coolest thing, and I think I can see how this will become more and more a thing of building a community, but now you’re meeting people from all over the world. And that’s been a very exciting opportunity that I should have expected, but I just didn’t think about it until it happened.”
What Are You Most Excited About as We Move Forward?
Nevvie
“I’m excited for Team South Africa to farm aura. It’s such a brain-rot response, but I can tell you right now, I have full confidence that this team is going to go to farm aura from the others. I can’t wait to make banger clips out of it. Seriously, what I am excited for is to actually see how far we can get, however far that is. I have full faith that South Africa’s gonna win. I’m manifesting it. But to see how that plays out in actuality is going to be very, very interesting.
And I’m excited to see how we will come together as a community of South Africans to cheer on our team. I feel like that’s going to be a pretty amazing experience to go through. Especially knowing that you’re a part of the reason why they made it so far. I didn’t play the biggest role, but I was part of it. It’s a good feeling, so I’m excited for that.”
Smiley
“I feel like my answer will differ two weeks from now, but at the moment that you’re asking this. I’m looking forward to the showmatch more than the Conference Cup, even, because we’re putting so much effort into that; wanting to show talent and build connections with Iceland in particular right now. I think we’re also very excited to have Team South Africa show our best skills, our best players. I think what Nevvie said was pretty accurate, show what we’re made of, show off some aura.”
Is There Anything You Are Not Looking Forward To?
Smiley
“It is public knowledge for the Overwatch World Cup, you’re allowed to sign up a roster of seven players. And it’s pretty obvious, if you look on our Twitter announcement, with our roster reveal, we posted a roster of eight players. I’m not going to go into too much detail as of why. The point is, one of these eight players will not be in the final roster, and I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye to any of those eight players. One has to go, I’m not looking forward to that.”
Nevvie
“My answer is the same as Smiley’s.”
What Were Your Reactions When You Found Out ZA Were Selected?
Smiley
“I cried, like tears of joy.”
Nevvie
“I woke up at like 5 am, because I had to get ready for imprisonment, aka university. I woke up to the email from Blizzard, and the first thing I did was put it in our committee chat and tag Smiley like three times. I was like, “Wow, guys, I cannot believe we made it”. To be honest, in my mind, that was easier than I thought it would be. I thought we would have to struggle. All we had to do was make the video and then submit it, and we got in.”
Smiley
“I was stressing over it so much, but you’re right. The reason it was so easy was because we put in the effort. I’ve seen another team’s video application, and it’s not nearly as much effort as ours, and they got in. So I guess in that aspect, it is way easier than we thought. My initial reaction was genuine surprise, because I was very uncertain for various reasons. We haven’t been accepted or even been considered; we don’t even have a South African flag in Overwatch.
There’s very little representation, and correct me if I’m wrong, as it stands currently, we’re the only country in the African continent. There is reason to be surprised by the news. I was shocked, and surprised, and happy, and emotional. And very, very frustrated that I couldn’t tell anyone.
We couldn’t even tell our players for a whole week, because Blizzard said they would make a public announcement. We were very hush-hush and very selective of who we told. Even when our players were asking about it, I hate lying; lying is a no for me. I had to phrase my answers so gently that I’m not directly lying, but I’m also withholding the truth, trying to do the right thing.
It was horrible; I hated every second of it. I vented to Nevvie and the committee about it every single day. And then it was disappointing, because they never announced it. We heard indirectly that we can announce it, so it was so anti-climactic at that point. But at the end of the day, we are extremely happy and proud that we do get to do this.”
You Mentioned That the ZA Team Will Have A Lot of Aura. Is There Anything Else That Will Make the ZA OWWC Team Stand Out?
Nevvie
“Being the only team from Africa, that’s one. The plungers, that’s two, and I feel like our willingness to do stupid meme things like the BabyBay challenge, that’s three. To make memes, even if it’s at our expense. We’re willing to show personality, which I feel like I haven’t seen from a lot of the other committees. It’s very much a professional, very clean representation of their teams. Which is fine, there’s nothing wrong with that, but we’re not going to follow that same framework. Of course, when it’s time to be professional, we’ll be professional. But we’ll also have fun when we can have fun.”
Smiley
“I agree with Nevvie. We have very strong personality. We like to look on the positive side, so we look to make jokes, but it’s always light-hearted. I do think that makes us stand out. We’re serious, but not that serious, that we’re PR or NPC robots. We’re definitely as colorful as our flag.”
Are There Any Countries You Are Looking Forward To Playing Against?
Smiley
“Obviously, Iceland, because of the showmatches against them.”
Nevvie
“I’m also quite excited to play against Ireland. I’ve seen a lot of them. They’ve been very active on social media, we’ve interacted a few times on the Overwatch World Cup accounts. They seem pretty on the ball also, so I’m keen to see how we fare against them. I think that’s it from this list. No one else stands out, unless we can make a joke, Netherlands, Dutch versus the Afrikaans, even though none of our players are Afrikaans.”
Smiley
“I’d be excited to go against the UK, but I don’t think they’re in the Conference Cup.” All the teams I’m looking for to are already in, so it’s kinda hard to say with the Conference Cup. Iceland is my answer; I’m a fan favorite of Iceland now.”
The Last Time a South African Team Participated in the OWWC, it ended in disappointment. How Are We Feeling for the 2026 Roster?
Neither member was in the scene at the time. We provided context. The context regarded the opinions of the roster, the disappointment of seeing the team bow out in the first round of qualifiers. We also mentioned that many felt the team failed to reach its potential.
Smiley
“Knowing this information is helpful, because I feel like one can learn from, I don’t want to call them mistakes, but past experiences. You can use that to improve and do better. I feel personally, I’m very happy with the roster. I feel like it was selected fairly, and with the best possible players in mind. I feel pretty confident that our players will show their best that they’re capable of.
Our showmatch is luckily a bit earlier, at 9 pm South African time, Sunday evening. Just a casual promo right there. I think we have a very strong team, not just players, but also committee members that are invested and dedicated to the success of this. I’m feeling confident that we’ll make South Africans proud.”
Nevvie
“So like Smiley said, the trialing process was extensive. There were a lot of trials that were held, and there was a lot of opinions that were given on who should make it past the trials, who is the best players to represent South Africa. That decision, I stand with Smiley, that it was fairly made, taking really the best of the country to mind, the best that can represent us.
I can see the grind. I’m in the server, I see them. They’re scrimming as we speak right now. There’s definitely a lot of effort that’s being put in by the players; there’s that genuine willingness to improve and perform. That can only make me excited to see how they do. Knowing that they’re going to be playing at their best. What more can we ask of them? I know that they will perform, I just know it, manifesting.”
Esports and South Africa Has Been Rife Wth Conversations of Diversity And Women’s Participation in Gaming. As Two Prolific Women in the COWZA Scene and Running Your Own Organisations, How Has The Experience Been Both in COWZA and The Gaming Space As A Whole?
Smiley
“I think a player has it worse than a manager. I’ve just been extremely fortunate to not have had dealt with a lot of sexism in the scene. I know it’s there. From my own experience, if I play ranked, I don’t speak. Sometimes I even hide chat, because the toxicity is so bad. It’s not per se sexism, but I know if I were to speak, and they know I am a woman, it would make it worse and add to it. So I’m scared to speak.
From a player base, it’s really bad. I could probably say the same if you were a Twitch Streamer. Content creators, they probably also have it bad, but that’s not my experience, so I can’t say much on that. But as a manager, I’ve been fortunate enough to not have had any issues as a woman in this position, in the South African scene, surprisingly. It’s hard for me to answer what the obstacles were. I’ve been very fortunate.”
Nevvie
“I think I definitely do agree with Smiley when it comes to the fact that players get a lot more flak than what managers do. It’s not necessarily always the case. I did have an experience in COWZA, back when I first started playing and managing Vanquish, from someone who was not South African but in COWZA. It was an isolated one-off thing; otherwise, COWZA has always been represented by women.
I think we’ve always had a lot of girls in COWZA, at least since I’ve been there. Smiley has been an admin/manager in COWZA for my whole experience. There was Smiley, there was Vertigo. And I think that was it, but the admin team is not that big anyway. In the South African scene for Overwatch, I haven’t really had many obstacles, based on the premise that I’m a woman, except for that one.
But I think it would be a lot more if I were a player, trialing for the OWWC team. I think it would be very subtle, behind your back kind of comments. Because, unfortunately, even though our community has made an effort to be very accepting, not everybody shares that same sentiment. I would not be surprised if people get angry if a woman got into the team instead of them. That’s just me hypothesising. It hasn’t happened, so I can’t say for certain, but I have a hunch that it would be that way.
I definitely think that it’s not so bad, in COWZA and South African Overwatch. It’s not perfect either; it could always be better. But in comparison to a lot of other countries, we could have things a lot worse. I’m glad that we’ve cultivated the community in the way that we have.”
Smiley
“I would like to divert this question, rather than it being about women, and how they face challenges in the scene. I want to add another topic on top of that. The LGBTQ+ community, because we have a lot of representation of that in South Africa, in COWZA, and even in our team. We have players who have preferences on pronouns or would like to be called they/them.
I think that stands out to me, in the sense of how our team, how our community, has been extremely accepting to this, as it should be. Coming from someone who has been in the scene for a while, it’s been really refreshing how well the South African scene accepts and celebrates the LGBTQ+ community in comparison to other countries, things I see online from other places. I am very happy to be part of a community that is supportive in that regard.”
Do You Have Any Final Remarks?
Nevvie
“#RhinosWin. Yeah! That’s us! WOO, go Rhinos.”
Smiley
“My final remark would be to thank you for taking the time to do this, and also for how much you’re really thinking about things cautiously and carefully because you care. I just wanted to say I appreciate that and thank you for hearing us out and doing this, this is really cool.”
Team South Africa Versus Team Iceland
The first showmatch for Team South Africa will take place on March 1st against Team Iceland. It is a first-to-seven series that will include hero bans. The local South African stream will start at 10:15 AM PST (7:15 PM CET). It is unknown when other streams will start. The match will begin at 11:00 AM PST (8:00 PM CET). The South African broadcast will go live on the ZAOverwatch and AfricanEsports.
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