Mobile games are the future in Africa, says IESF President Vlad Marinescu ©IESF

The International Esports Federation (IESF) is looking to the future in Africa, with a record number of participating countries at the most recent World Championships.

Vlad Marinescu, the organisation's President, has praised the development of esports on the continent, stating Board member Flip de Bruyn from Namibia has been pivotal to that progress.

A record 17 nations from Africa are competing at the World Championships.

Speaking exclusively to insidethegames, Marinescu warmly welcomed long-time ally and fellow American Lance Mudd, sport director of the United States Esports Federation, to the Board; as well as Namibian Electronic Sports Association President De Bruyn and Esports Association Poland vice-president Lukasz Klimczyk.

"They are all serious esports people, all serious sport and business people," said Marinescu to insidethegames.

"Flip has managed to develop esports to run competitions, circuit qualifications and has supported the athletes.

"I think he's our link to Africa."

De Bruyn was one of five members elected to the Board, alongside Mudd, Klimczyk, Tiago Fernandes from Portugal and Russian Constantine Surkont.

The IESF President added that technological improvements in Africa is making gaming and esports more popular and accessible, predicting that mobile games could be the key to further participation.

A record number of 17 African nations are at the ongoing IESF World Championships ©IESF
A record number of 17 African nations are at the ongoing IESF World Championships ©IESF

"The beauty of esports is as technology proliferation continues throughout society, esports grows," he added.

"You have now more people in Africa with high-speed and high-bandwidth internet connections while having devices that can have GPUs [graphics processing units] that can run spectacular games which allows them access to our community.

"I think the future is about more mobile games.

"In the old days we're looking at old websites on computers and we saw mobiles surpass that because we have time when we have time.

"We don't have time to walk somewhere to sit somewhere and be static."

At the last IESF World Championships, 15 countries won the 15 medals on offer.

Guinea and Mauritius were the latest African nations to receive full membership, being approved at the Ordinary General Meeting.

Six countries competed in mobile game PUBG, with the likes of Ivory Coast defeating Japan in Tekken 7.