Huzzah! Excelsior! Yatta! And any other source of exciting affirmation you can find. The first major company to take the plunge full on into eSports has made their voice be heard. Ya friendly neighborhood gamer Zalgo Cometh got the oppurtunity to sit down with a gentleman being heralded as the first bridge of progress to the future. A tech saavy and forward thinking man by the name of Tafari Hendrick; owner and operator of CyberBox LAN Centre. He was kind enough to answer a few questions about what he is working towards and his hopes for this business venture.
Introduce yourself and position
Tafari Hendricks is a Microsoft Certified Professional and Managing Director of Cyberbox Jamaica Limited And Optimus Software Limited. A Enterprise Software Engineer, Certified Local Area Network and Industrial Electrical Specialist with over 15years of experience, boasting some of Jamaica’s largest institutions as Clients.
Q. What is Cyberbox, when and why did you open it here in Kingston Jamaica?
Cyberbox is all about innovation; we are the first LAN Center in Jamaica, boasting 72 computer systems & the fastest internet in Jamaica. Undoubtedly the PC Gaming Mecca of Jamaica; to put things into perspective, we embrace education but like to provide entertainment as well. Our 2,000 SQF Facility was designed to fuel the body and mind in an ergonomically engineered setting for maximum efficiency.
Q. Since its opening how has the reception been?
We Opened Cyberbox Lan Centre On Sept 9th, 2014 after 3 months of innovative design and construction. Since then the reception from a wide demographic of Jamaicans has been fantastic. Our customer base has increased by over 300% month over month and a 800 response comprehensive market research survey was done outlining the positive satisfaction level of our customers.
Q. Can you go into a bit of details of the staff and administration behind running Cyberbox?
At Cyberbox we’re proud of our high customer service standing, we employ 6 full time technical customer service representatives to assist customers will all their technology related needs. 2 Cashiers man a fully stocked beverage and snack bar, supported by a 2 member highly effective supervisory and management team. We have 3 highly skilled and continuously trained Network and Computer Engineers that keeps the motors of CyberBox running 7 days per week 15 hours per day. All Backed up by a super talented 3 member team boasting skills in graphic design, photography, video production, web site development and social media management.
Q. You recently flew in some help to get Cyberbox moving in the direction of eSports. Can you embellish on this news?
Yes. We were fortunate to attract the owner and manager of the Guinness World Record Team, Empire Arcadia, Mr. Triforce Johnson as our eSports ambassador and consultant. With Triforce’s reputation and winning track record it was a no brainer when the opportunity presented itself to marry his expertise and experience with the CyberBox Brand. His first task and priority is to continue the gains made in eSports over the last 2-3 years and solidifying existing relationships while generating new ones to make sure Jamaica does not miss out on the lucrative Global eSports Industry.
Q. What's the future of Cyberbox in eSports for Jamaica?
Cyberbox will continue to assist the Jamaican competitive gaming community by providing the use of our venue, resources, corporate outreach and more further develop the eSports in Jamaica. We are doing everything we can to help, from bringing in experienced eSports developers such as Triforce of Empire Arcadia who is creating opportunities and building bridges for Cyberbox to approach potential sponsors such as LIME, Digicel, RJR Group, Wisynco, PUMA and more, to us engaging in partnerships with gaming community entities such as Fighters Allegiance Jamaica, Swallowtail Sports and others. It is important for us to do this so that we can forge a cohesive independent eSports infrastructure for Jamaica. In this we support the “Jamaica G.A.M.E.S.” initiative.
Further down the road we are looking to expand Cyberbox eSports initiative internationally and eventually go global. We are going to announce our “Cyberbox eSports League” which will feature FIFA 2015, League of Legends, Call of Duty: AW, Tetris, Candy Crush, and Hearthstone. We are also open to host other games like Smash Wii U, Ultra Street Fighter 4, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 where we can talk with various tournament organizers throughout the community and possibly collaborate in using our venue to host other games for other competitive community brands. This provides everyone with the opportunity contribute to the further development of eSports for Jamaica.
Any last comments and thanks?
We would like to thank the community for their support since we’ve open our doors. We are well aware of the number of gamers throughout Jamaica. We have a population of 1.3 million people and we know that a significant amount of people play video games, whether on their phone, tablet, computer, handheld or console. This is the perfect time for the community to rise up and show the companies in Jamaica that we are ready for eSports and that their support is needed and appreciated. I look forward to seeing everyone continue to come out and support Cyberbox. Finally, thank you Rion for taking the time to provide us with this platform to share information of our service brand directly with the gaming community here in Jamaica.
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