Project Destiny was Bravado Gaming’s first foray at catapulting South African esports talent into internationally dominant regions. Despite coming from the socioeconomically challenged and relatively geographically isolated region of South Africa, Bravado Gaming had experience at the highest level of competition, featuring at the first Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major at Dreamhack Winter 2014 Jönköping, gaining insight as to what it took to maintain world-class ability.
"We can't compete from ZA because, as many people know, we are so disadvantaged when it comes to our latency and we are stuck in a bubble because of it. You have to be with the teams you want to beat in order to hope to be better than them."
- Dimitri Hadjipaschali, co-founder of Bravado Gaming
Leveraging this knowledge, and together with our sponsors at Alienware, Dell Technologies, and Intel, Bravado successfully incubated a talent pool that we believed had what it took to shine bright on the world stage.
Basing the project out of North America, the original project took place throughout 2018 to 2019, including six-month stints in both Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas. With the entirety of the South African esports community behind the team, the goal of achieving international success was in clear sight.
Notable achievements during Project Destiny include:
- Bravado peaked at an HLTV world ranking of #21.
- Bravado qualified for the Katowice Americas Minor Championship 2019.
- Bravado won the Dreamhack Invitational Mumbai 2018.
- Bravado placed 2nd at Dreamhack Winter Jönköping 2018, beating out Optic and G2 in the offline finals to get there.
Where are the players now?
Of the original six members of Project Destiny, three continued to see success in international competition, moving on to storied North American esports organisation Cloud 9 recruited the likes of Johnny “JT” Theodosiou, Aran “Sonic” Groesbeek, and Tiaan “T.c” Coetzee as part of their CS:GO development programme in late 2020.
JT and T.c continue to remain abroad as they now compete under the Complexity banner as a top 10 CS team, with recent highlights such as 2nd at IEM Sydney 2023, and 3rd at the BLAST Premier Fall Finals 2023.
"People had no idea that we even played CS in South Africa. To me, Project Destiny was showing that we could take on the world and prove a point."
- Andreas Hadjipaschali, co-founder of Bravado Gaming
Left to right: Rhys "Fadey" Armstrong, Ruan "Elusive" Van Wyk, Dimitri "Detrony" Hadjipaschali, Aran "Sonic" Groebeek", Johnny "JT" Theodosiou.
Introducing Project Destiny 2.0
We believe that the core roster we have developed is one of the strongest that Africa has ever been able to produce. It is with this in mind that we are proud to announce Project Destiny 2.0. We are so back.
As of May 2024, our CS roster will be flying to Belgrade, Serbia, where they will be competing and training, until mid-2026. The reason we have chosen to compete out of Europe is quite simple: to be the best, you have to play the best.
Where we are used to playing the same handful of teams ad nauseam in South Africa, the European scene will allow us to face a far more skilled and diverse pool of teams, amplifying our rate of growth tremendously.
"I really believe that they're going to turn heads. We had spent a lot of money during Project Destiny. We knew that we wanted to spend this money on these players that we knew had what it took. Fast forwarding to today, if I didn't feel the same now as I did back then, we would never have chosen to make this investment into Project Destiny 2.0 together with our sponsors of Alienware, Dell Technologies, and Intel.”
- Andreas Hadjipaschali, co-founder of Bravado Gaming
Whilst we may not have seen success recently in the Middle East as part of the PGL Major 2024 closed qualifiers, we are absolutely certain that given time alongside the plentiful support and resources that we know we can provide, our CS team will be able to produce results that the entire African region can be proud of.
Our competing roster will be:
- Wiljhane “Wilj” Smith (Age: 19)
- Marchahn “March” Smith (Age: 22)
- Johnathan “Doru” Fox (Age: 23)
- Kian “Triton” Gibson (Age: 21)
- TBC
- Daniel “LaBishop” Hufton (Coach, age: 29)
With support from our management team behind the project: Andreas and Dimitri Hadjipashchali, Tristan Rens, Emma-Leigh Hoyle, Jaco Du Toit, Karmen Scheffer, and Matab Amer, and from our incredible sponsors: Alienware, Dell Technologies, and Intel.
We are all massive fans of Counter-Strike. It’s our bread and butter, our heart and soul. The majority of management has competed in CS for years themselves! With a huge outpouring of passion from the team behind the scenes, the players are secure in knowing that they have one of the best management teams available behind them in their endeavours abroad.
Objectives
- Reaching and maintaining a top 30 HLTV rating.
- Qualifying for a major.
- Consistent content development and distribution.
- We have a story to tell. Zero to hero, unfolding as the story is being written.
- Unique endemic and non-endemic partnerships and collaborations.
- Featuring in mass media around the project and objectives.
"I kind of see this as a one-shot opportunity to follow my passion for Counter-Strike. Alongside this group of guys, my teammates, who I can genuinely say are some of my nearest and dearest friends, it's an absolute no-brainer for all of us."
- Johnathan "Doru" Fox, Captain of Bravado Gaming CS2
An official press conference regarding this announcement will be held in person in Johannesburg for media, sponsors, and prospective partners to engage with us regarding the project. Details will be shared via private invitation.
Bravado Gaming would love to work alongside more brands who believe in the mission of this project, whether you are endemic or non-endemic to the esports sector. There is a Project Destiny deck, which is available below, for potential partners to find out more about the initiative. Interested parties are more than welcome to contact us for additional information.
The official Project Destiny 2.0 interactive deck can be downloaded here.
For media, partnership, or sponsorship inquiries, please contact:
Bravado - bvd@bravadogaming.com
About Bravado Gaming
Bravado Gaming is a Middle East & African premier esports organisation and gaming lifestyle brand serving home to some of the best competitive gamers throughout select countries in divisions such as CS2 and Rocket League. Working with world-leading brands Alienware, Intel, and Dell Technologies, Bravado continues to grow from strength to strength as they work on continuously telling inspiring stories and developing all ecosystems of the gaming industry. You can learn more about Bravado at our about page.
