The Rift Hawks beat the Mombasa Comets 3-2 at Nairobi’s Kenyatta International Convention Centre on Sunday, hours after Devaraj announced he was quitting competitive play. The final peaked at 286,412 simultaneous connections across its official online streams, according to figures released by the Kenya Digital Play League. No Kenyan esports event has recorded a larger live audience.
Devaraj sent the league his resignation on Saturday evening, then told teammates in a video call. His decision left reserve player Zina Šimonová, 24, to take his place in the best-of-five final. “I knew the team could win without me,” Devaraj said. “I just didn’t expect to watch them prove it on the biggest stage we’ve had.”
The record returns
The league said the peak was 64% above the previous national mark: 174,600 connections during an online-only tournament in 2021, when pandemic restrictions kept players and fans at home. Virginia Hermiston, the league’s broadcast-measurement director, said the new total was assembled from three licensed streams and checked against their account-level logs to remove duplicate connections.
About 7,800 spectators watched in person at the KICC’s Tsavo Ballroom, while fans joined from across Kenya and neighbouring countries. The organisers said the online peak arrived during the final map, when Šimonová’s team needed one more win. The champions took home KSh12 million (about €83,000), the largest prize in the league’s five-year history.
For one second, I heard nothing but my own breathing; then the room came back twice as loud.
Zina Šimonová, Rift Hawks player
Šimonová had not started a league final before Sunday. She entered the last map with the series tied and helped the Hawks win 13-10, using a late defensive switch that held off the Comets’ final push. “I was shaking before the first round,” she said afterwards. “Then I saw my teammates’ faces and remembered we practise this every week.”
Devaraj, who had captained the Hawks for three seasons, said he was leaving to coach and organise weekend clinics for new players. He had decided after the team qualified for the final but kept the news private until Saturday, he said, because he wanted the team to prepare for the match first. The league confirmed he will not play in its next season.
A bigger stage for play
Mtaa Tactics, a mobile strategy game developed by Nairobi studio Acacia Pixel, has helped build a regular competitive circuit in Kenya. The league runs events in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, with open online qualifiers. Its organisers say this final was the first to combine a sold-out hall with a peak audience above the old pandemic-era record.
The league plans to publish its full audience breakdown next week and open registration for the next season in November. Hermiston said organisers would use the figures to negotiate more regional broadcasts, while the Hawks have invited Šimonová to stay in the starting line-up. Devaraj’s first coaching clinic is scheduled for December; he says he will attend the team’s season opener from the stands.
