Bahjatt is an electronic engineer, a family man, and an avid lover of electronic sports – a competition involving video games.

Bahjatt describes the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) and World Cyber Games (WCG) annual events as the “Olympics of the world, more so than the World Cup because every country gets to take part in this global event.”

On Nov. 25th last year, it was announced that Bahjatt had become the first Saudi to be elected as president of the ESIF.

His new title comes with the support of the federation’s board and its players. Bahjatt hopes to garner more interest for the international sport from the general public, especially locally. Saudi Arabia is one of the frontrunners in terms of participants. His main goal is take electronic sports into the mainstream within ten years time.

He realized his passion for electronic games at the tender age of five, when he received his first console — the Atari 2600, followed by a system that played the classic arcade game “Pong” shortly after.

It was then that his fascination with the graphics and how the systems worked began.

This fascination only grew with time and he eventually went on to major in electronic engineering at the King Abdul Aziz University.

Being an organizer, he cannot take part in the global events. However, Bahjatt, known as the “Black Wolf” online, adores strategic games such as WarCraft III and has garnered the title from playing online on the US East Server of the game.

However, since taking his title as president, Bahjatt can no longer participate officially, but that has not stopped him from enjoying his favorite pastime with his family.

The only shift has been the game — WarCraft has been replaced with fun filled hours on the Nintendo Wii console with his children.

Four million players is an extraordinary number considering Saudi Arabia’s population of 29 million. In fact, the country has more participants than China.

The millions of players who participate annually are known to favor Pro-Evolution Soccer on the PC. Quite recently, these players have shown interest in another soccer game – FIFA by EA Sports.

The preferred national teams of Saudi players vary, although France and Brazil are popular. In addition, 300,000 players participate in racing game Need for Speed and have achieved spots in the list of top eight countries in the world.

Bahjatt is proud of his players too. In 2004, Badr “Arabian Joker” Hakim placed ninth at the 2004 Pro-Evolution championship, while his brother placed fifth for Pro-Evolution 4.

Hakim was finally declared World Champion of Pro-Evolution 5 in 2005.

The next year — and very disappointingly — Hakim lost his title because he refused to play his opponent who was of Israeli descent.

In 2009, Saudi players marked another achievement in the world of gaming. Adnan Maliki was awarded the title of Middle Eastern Champion. They compete annually for a spot in the world’s top ten and are usually successful.

Saudi nationals are consistently achieving records in electronic sports and Bahjatt is happy to be part of that movement, which is transforming the passion of youth into something positive and triumphant.

For further information on the Electronic Sports International Federation, visit their website at www.esportsif.org.