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= Team Gematrix (Gematrix) = Team Gematrix is a professional Zambian e-sports organization that is specialized in fighting games. The organization is based in Lusaka, Zambia and was founded by Choolwe Elen Shabukali and Musole Prince in February 2018. Team Gematrix was the first e-sports team to emerge from the country.

Team Gematrix has won a total of five (5) African e-sports championships: the “Mortal Kombat X Pro series gaming tournament ” in Nairobi, Kenya, the “Injustice 2 – Rise to Greatness Africa ” online tournament, the “Injustice 2 online legendary league ”, “The Season one Mortal Kombat 11 tournament and Season two Mortal Kombat 11 tournament“ in South Africa.

History
The idea was initially brought up by Choolwe Elen Shabukali, who then approached her partner and suggested that the two start up a business doing something that they both loved – which was gaming. At the time, the two partners didn’t really know what the business would be exactly, so they decided to start hosting gaming tournaments under the name Gamers Entertainment Meet [GEM].

Wanting to grow the business further, the partners approached Lukonga Lindunda, co – founder and managing director of Bongohive , who enrolled them into a launch accelerator program at Bongohive and taught them about business models, marketing, problem solving, strategic management and other necessary skills required to run a basic business. The partners realized that the opportunity for them to grow as they wanted was in player management, so they decided to form an e-sports team.

In order to find the talent they needed they decided to host a tournamen t called “Stone Gaming Tournament: Dare to be the best”. It’s from that tournament that the future members of Team Gematrix: Justin Banda (aka Mr. 5000) and Mwelele Zaza were selected. In February 2018, they signed the player contracts making the team official.

Tournament Debut
In March of 2018, the team was invited to participate in a huge Mortal Kombat X tournament called “Pro Series Gaming ” in Nairobi, Kenya. The team sought out sponsorship to help them get to Kenya, but to no avail. Fortunately, by dipping into their own savings they managed to fly their players Justin Banda (Mr. 5000) and Mwelele Zaza to the tournament accompanied by Choolwe Elen Shabukali as the Team Manager.

Justin Banda (Mr. 5000) won first place with the equivalent of K50, 000 in Prize money and Mwelele Zaza placing third with a prize money of K10, 000. The team won a total of K60, 000 in prize money, their victory did not go unnoticed and the Team started getting recognition in Africa, especially after they appeared on one of Kenya’s biggest TV networks.

Evo and other Intercontinental tournaments
LAS VEGAS, USA

Later in 2018, Team Gematrix attended the Evolution Championship Series, commonly referred to as Evo, in Las Vegas USA. The team opted to send Justin Banda to represent them at Evo, which is the world’s largest fighting game tournament. After losing to an American player called Illusions, Justin placed 73rd out of 300 players from around the world.

Team Gematrix was the first African team to participate at Evo. “We were the first African team. Not spectator, but team. Our main reason for going to Evo was to make a foundation for ourselves as a team on the global fighting game scene. We wanted people to know that we are here, and at the end of the tournament they did. A lot of American players were curious about our jerseys, and took an interest in our backstory. It was a great way for us to integrate into the global gaming community. E-sports is about going across borders, race, sexual orientation and culture. So we don’t just plan to be a team from Zambia, we have future plans of representing and signing players from everywhere,” Cholwe explained.

IRELAND, DUBLIN

On the 27th of July 2019, Team Gematrix won the Mortal Kombat 11 Pro Cup tournament in Pretoria, South Africa. Justin Banda (Mr. 5000) placed 1st and Zaza placed 4th. Justin Banda not only won the first place prize money but an all paid tournament trip to Celtic Throw down sponsored by Warner Bros South Africa and TeamFinity to represent Team Gematrix at the “Mortal Kombat 11 Pro Kompetition” in Ireland, Dublin from 31st August to 1st September 2019. Justin Banda placed 25th out of 147 players at the Celtic Throw down tournament.

Management
The organization is owned and managed by both Choolwe Elen Shabukali and Musole Prince. Cholwe is the Managing Director of Team Gematrix while Musole Prince Handle’s operations and manages the players of the team. Team Gematrix aims at developing the best competitive players and to promote e-sports as a lifestyle in Zambia.

Current Roster
The organization only has a fighting game roster but is looking to venture into other rosters. The organization currently has three (3) players that are officially signed to the team in the fighting game genre, two (2) Zambian based players: Justin “Mr. 5000” Banda and Mwelele Zaza, and one American based player: Elhaan “Han” Rashid.

Han Rashid was signed to Team Gematrix on the 22nd of May 2019 to represent the organization in the Mortal Kombat 11 Pro Kompetition tour from May 2019 to March 2020. Under the organization Han Rashid has attend the following tournaments: Combo Breaker 2019, the Evolution Championship Series [Evo] 2019, East Coast throw down [ECT 2019] and the North American West [NAW online qualifiers ].

Partnerships
On November 14th 2019, Team Gematrix announced its official partnership with TechxHub as their exclusive gaming product supplier. Techxhub is a United Arab Emirates (UAE) distribution company for major gaming brand products such as SteelSeries, Targus, AOC, Play-seat and Vertagear. Techxhub has been the main distributor for the Middle East and the African region since August 2019.