Texting champs jet off to New York

Olivia Burton (15) and Wilbur Hough (23) of Cape Town were crowned SA’s fastest texters at the 2010 National LG Mobile Worldcup Championship. Later this week, the two texting hotshots will compete in this year’s LG Mobile Worldcup Championships. where they will challenge 15 other countries attempting to win the play-offs.

Olivia Burton (15) and Wilbur Hough (23) of Cape Town were crowned SA’s fastest texters at the 2010 National LG Mobile Worldcup Championship. On the 26th of January 2011, the two texting hotshots will compete in this year’s LG Mobile Worldcup Championships where they will challenge 15 other countries attempting to win the play-offs and hopefully take the cup as well as the USD 100,000 prize money which is up for grabs. The Mobile Worldcup Championship has become the world’s premier mobile challenge which celebrates: the evolution of mobile technology as well as the speedy texting superstars who make up the competition. Mobile Texting has become a world recognised as well as a South African certified sport which is supported by the likes of Mind Sports South Africa. In last year’s tournament, the South African team came 4th in the numeric and QWERTY category out of 13 teams that took part, but Burton and Hough are aiming for a better position in this year’s championship.

‚This is the second year we will be sending a team of texting superstars to the New York finals and I want to wish them both the very best, says Dr. Michelle Potgieter, Marketing Director of LG Electronics South Africa. This year, the two Capetonians challengers are very excited to prove their mobile texting skills in the 6 different challenges which also includes the newly introduced Touch Phone Games category. The various challenges test the contestants’ individual and group speeds in addition to precision texting, which is measurable for each of the match missions. The contender who is able to break the existing mobile texting record of 7.25 characters per second will also be recognised as the new Guinness Book of Records holder. ‚I’ve always told my family that I am going to be on television one day, and after winning the S.A. LG Mobile Championships, one of my dreams have come true, I still hope to bring back the cup and set a new World Record as the Fastest Texter, says Hough. ‚It has been a great adventure so far, I must say now the real challenge awaits me – the competition itself. I just want to thank LG for this awesome opportunity and experience,” says Burton. With today’s tweens and teens sending between 1.2 million text messages every minute it is clear that mobile phones have a greater impact on the way we interact and communicate. Amidst all the positives of being socially interactive 24/7, LG recognises the reality of harmful mobile use trends and texting behaviour. This year’s 2010 LG Mobile Worldcup Championships therefore serves as a platform to introduce LG Text Ed – an innovative education program designed to teach young people to avoid the pitfalls of risky texting behaviour.

Dr. Michelle Potgieter added that ‚Texting and instant messaging are fast becoming one of the most readily utilised communication tools. This global contest has made it very clear that speed texting is not only a skill but a socially competitive sport. In the next couple years we may just see mobile texting becoming part of the South African education syllabus to enhance our already rapid texters who may just be the next South African LG Mobile Worldcup Champions.”