KIGALI – Egypt’s Anas Badr needed only two games to turn his first appearance at the SportsBiz Africa Esports Cup into a continental title.
He outplayed compatriot Toxic Joe 5-3, 6-3 at BK Arena on Sunday, to win the EA Sports FC 2026 championship, walking away with the $10,000 prize reserved for the winner of the flagship category.
It was a fitting finale to a tournament that brought some of Africa’s best football gamers to Rwanda and offered a glimpse of how quickly eSports is beginning to develop beyond its traditional gaming communities.
The second edition of the SportsBiz Africa Esports Cup featured 40 players from 11 countries competing in EA Sports FC 26 and eFootball Mobile, with $15,000 in total prize money at stake.
Badr’s victory came after a difficult route through the knockout stages but with the final decided on a best-of-three basis, he settled it in two games.
He eliminated former champion Zaid April before facing fellow countryman Toxic Joe, who had been unbeaten and had knocked out 2025 finalist Moaaz Ahmed Ibrahim.
A wider continental stage
The Egyptian victory was accompanied by another North African triumph, with Morocco’s Anass Moussa winning the eFootball Mobile category.
The results were testimony to the growing competitiveness of a tournament that has quickly expanded from its modest beginnings. And this year, an “experiment” grew fivefold.
Ronny Lusigi, President of the Kenya Esports Federation, explained that the first edition in 2025 was deliberately kept small, with eight players from eight countries brought together to prove that a continental competition could work.
“We are glad that we had 40 players from 11 different countries. This just shows the level of trust people have in coming to Rwanda for events. It shows you the passion of eSports in the continent and the depth of players in the continent,” Lusigi said.
The tournament drew players from across Africa, including Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Niger and Rwanda, while players from the African diaspora also took part.
More than 50,000 people watched the competition online, according to Lusigi, a figure he said demonstrated that African eSports has an audience waiting to be developed.
“This just shows you that indeed there is a space for eSports in Africa,” he said.
Four Rwandan representatives including Samy, Tresol, Franklin and Praise Nyamwasa, were eliminated during the group stage but the tournament provided them an exposure as well as other emerging players.
“Part of what this tournament assists us with is to raise the level of the local talent. And when I speak of local talent, not just the Rwanda talent but also the East African talent,” he remarked.
Six East African players reached the last 16, while Kenya’s ProRate and Kappa made the quarter-finals. Kenya also had a semi-finalist in the eFootball Mobile competition.
From tournament to global pathway
Lusigi said SportsBiz Africa and Index G want to use the tournament as a foundation for bringing official world championship qualification events to Africa.
One of the biggest obstacles facing African eSports players, he said, is the lack of servers and internationally recognized events on the continent, making the qualification route to global competitions difficult.
He believes that ambition could become realistic within about three years, pointing to the fact that the eFootball championship was officially licensed by publisher Konami.
Rwanda is already positioning itself as a host for major sporting and technology events, and eSports offers another rapidly expanding space where sport, technology, entertainment and youth opportunity intersect.
The earlier Rwandan pre-selection tournament had already shown the depth of interest locally, bringing together 32 gamers where Nyamwasa and Olivier Hugue Munezero were identified to represent Rwanda.
The broader SportsBiz Africa program also moved beyond gaming competitions, with its Game developers garage bringing together eight university teams to develop games.
At this year’s edition, Higa Team won with “Feed The Farm”, while Level Up’s “Road Master” finished runner-up and The Spartans team took third with “Spotit.”
The initiative was supported by Digital Realm Entertainment, Excursion Games, ICT Chamber and Alpha Research Labs.
For Badr, though, a first appearance, two decisive wins and a continental trophy will always define a dream debut and a moment of triumph that will be remembered long after the $10,000 prize has been collected.
