South African servers for competitive shooting games
“We need South African servers” is an argument as old as online multiplayer gaming (maybe not, but the analogy seemed to be fitting).
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While the local Fortnite community continue on their #AfricanServers campaign and most online forums will see a weekly post lamenting the need for South African servers for their favourite title.
Competitive multiplayer games, especially in the Battle Royale and First Person Shooter genre, allow for a better gaming experience with local servers. This is because the latency is less. For games that don’t have South African servers, the servers themselves are usually sitting in Europe which means there is noticeable ping. While it is only a few milliseconds, it can be enough to miss a shot.
If you are a looking for a competitive multiplayer FPS game with local servers, here are a list of a few that might suit your needs:
1. CSGO - The old favourite
One of the most competitive shooting titles in South Africa, CSGO has local servers. These are busy most nights and you’ll easily find a game. There are also a host of community and competitive leagues being run regularly. If you’re looking to challenge yourself and avoid the “casual” crew - ESEA is a matchmaking service you can also sign up to.
2. Call of Duty - Casual Chaos
Each year Activision drops a new Call of Duty game and, for the past few years at least, COD has had South African servers. This also means that COD’s Battle Royale addition, Warzone, also has local servers. These are available for console and PC gamers. COD remains one of the most popular franchises in South Africa, though console gamers tend to have an easier time finding games later in the title’s life than PC gamers when playing the yearly game. Warzone remains popular and you’ll be moved to EU servers if there aren’t enough players locally.
3. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege - The new face
Rainbow Six Siege has South African servers. Console and PC gamers are able to queue with local players. On PC it is relatively easy to find a casual game in the evenings though after 11pm it does take a bit longer to match make. Ranked games do have a longer wait time. Console users say there is a little bit of a wait for casual games but not all that bad with some reporting wait times on PS5 to be around 30 to 40 seconds.
4. Battlefield V - Do they or don’t they
Battlefield V does have local servers but reports on how full the lobbies are vary from player to player. Some say the servers are full most nights while others claim you wait long periods for games. For past games in the franchise there are a few South African players who can assist. If you’re a Battlefield fan the best place to go is this local community group, which will link you up with like-minded gamers.
5. Free Fire - Mobile only
Free Fire is a mobile battle royale game that is extremely popular around the world, though has gone largely unnoticed locally. However, it turns out the game does have local servers. Currently there are SSA Servers for South Africa, West Africa and surrounding regions.
