Month: April 2017

eSports, or electronic sports, are a form of competition whereby teams and individuals compete in multiplayer video games. Northwood is proud to be associated with Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) in this regard. The MSSA is the South African Federation for board games, card games, eSports, robotics and war-games.

On Saturday 22^nd April the Northwood DOTA 2 team participated in the 2017 DOTA 2 online championships.

DOTA 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena where two teams of five battle it out for control of the gaming map and the defence of their team’s ‘ancient’ (a building in their base).

Last year, at the 6^th International tournament for DOTA 2, the combined prize pool was well over 20 million dollars for those professional gamers skilled enough to participate in the tournament. Our boys are a long way from this level of gaming but have made a step in the right direction if they wish to pursue careers as professional gamers.

Under the coaches Mr Gebreab and Mr McDowall with capable leadership of Jaryd Krishna as a captain, the Northwood team (Keagan Oliphant, Daniel Knight, Bill Lie, Alvin Ke and Jaryd Krishna(C) ) did exceptionally well coming 2^nd out of 9 schools taking part in the tournament. Northwood played against 5 other teams and won 4 of their fixtures.

In the first game Northwood was up against Maritzburg college and this was quite a one sided fixture in favour of Northwood. The final result 51-10.

The second game of the tournament saw Northwood going up against some very tough opposition – Sinister5. The Northwood team wasn’t in the right frame of mind for this fixture and lost 41-9 to the team that went on to win the tournament.

Northwood looked commanding at the start of their fixture against VexxedPhoenix and due to a technical issue VexxedPhoenix were disqualified.

The fourth fixture was against Jeppe High School and this was again quite a one-sided fixture in favour of Northwood with the final score being 59-16 to Northwood.

The final fixture was against Grey High School. The team was very nervous for this fixture as they had lost to Grey the day before in a warm up game. The Northwood team did not let nerves get the better of them and they managed to win the fixture.

This was the first DOTA 2 tournament that Northwood had participated in and the boys did extremely well and can be proud of their achievement.

Over the weekend Northwood travelled up to JHB to play against Jeppe Boys’ High.

The thin air at that altitude makes a remarkable difference. The ball travels faster and bounces higher. And the lungs start to burn sooner.

8 of our boys making up Northwood’s 1st and 2nd teams, made the trip up to Jeppe. The boys were in high spirits when we arrived, even after having been in the bus for 7 and a half hours.

The games began and all was looking well. Ryan Parkin had a hockey match to play later in the evening so he was up first. He was 2 nil up and fatigue started to catch up with him. His opponent made a come back. In the 4th game however, Ryan got it together again and won his match 3 games to 1. Dylan McIlroy and Jason Kent both  had similar experiences, each winning their matches 3 games to 1. James McIlwraith had a fairly easy match and beat his opponent 3 games to 0.

Nathan Hill and Luke Bricknell both had some really tough competition and lost their matches 3 nil. Nick Wright played against a more senior opponent and gave him a run for his money, but it was not enough and he lost 1 game to 3. Ethan Klebe came out fast and furiously. He was 2 games up when his opponent woke up. The 3rd game was neck-and-neck; 11 all, 13 all, and so it went. His opponent managed to win the game 20 points to 18. The next two games were just as nail biting as the 3rd. Unfortunately the home side had the advantage with the thin air and Ethan went down 2 games to 3.

The final outcome of the fixture: A draw of 15 games each.

The Jeppe boys and the Northwood boys really enjoyed the fixture. We can’t wait to take them on again next year on our own turf.

In beginning of the Easter holidays, the Northwood 1^st XI travelled to the Founders Festival being hosted by Potch Boys High. The festival was played in excellent sportsmanship from most of the teams there that transferred into some excellent hockey being played. The Northwood Knights took on Queens on day 1 and with Northwood controlling the match, but not closing it out, saw them win it 2-1. Day two was the highlight day of the festival for Northwood as they played two of the Cape’s hockey powerhouses, SACS in the morning and Paul Roos in the evening. The SACS match was a game of two halves where Northwood raced to a 3 goal half time lead after scoring all three in the space of five minutes. SACS pulled a goal back but Northwood maintained the 3-1 lead to the final whistle. The game of the festival for Northwood was definitely against one of the country’s finest teams, Paul Roos. Northwood had a clear game plan to hurt the Paul Roos defence on the counter and by half time were 4-1 up. Paul Roos scored early on in the second half and forced a penalty flicked minutes later that would have made it 4-3, however Taine Bird had other ideas who saved the flick with a diving stick save to his bottom right. After that moment the belief became a reality and Paul Roos struggled to penetrate the Northwood defence and they ran out 4-2 victors. Day three saw two regulatory wins against Dale and Potch (4-0 and 3-0 respectively). On the final day Northwood and Rondebosch faced up, being the only two teams to have won all their matches to that point, the match was set to be a ‘final’. Northwood came out firing and dominated possession and territory and found themselves 1-0 up early on. However an excellent flick from the Rondebosch captain into the hight right corner of the Northwood goal meant at the break it was all square again. The second half was controlled by the boys from Cape Town and a further 3 goals to them and only 1 for Northwood meant they lost the match 2-4.

 

In the last week of the Easter holidays, the Northwood 1^st XI travelled to the KES Festival to play a further 5 matches. On day 1 they played the early match against Johannesburg locals, St John’s. St John’s came out the blocks firing and 45 seconds into the match, Northwood found themselves 1-0 down after a blistering strike in open play from the St John’s left forward. However the Northwood boys used that as a catalyst to ‘wake-up’ and by half time were 3-1 up. The second half was played predominantly between the 23m lines until the last 3 where St John’s scored their second to make the last few minutes very frantic, but no more change in the score took place. Later that afternoon, Northwood played the hard running, physical outfit of Affies. The match was played in good spirit at a hard hitting pace that saw the teams locked at 1-1 at the half way stage. However the second half was an exhibition of hockey from Northwood who didn’t allow Affies to play at all. The game played out to a 3-1 win after one of the goals of the season from a left hand side build up and superb individual finish from Slater Capell left. The Affies keeper was incredible all week and kept the score line down in our match as well. The third match was against a destructive Menlopark team who played to break play down and not allow attacking space. The match was never in doubt after the Northwood third goal but the performance lacked somewhat, but a 3-1 win when not performing is a sign of a good side. After the dip in performance against Menlopark, the Knights then took on the hosts KES. In what was a disciplined performance from both teams, it was a single penalty flick that separated these two proud teams. The final day saw Northwood play the hockey powerhouse of Grey College (Bloem). The match was outstanding, with Grey dominating territory all of the first half and creating the lion’s share of the chances. Grey hit the post on their 1^st of two penalty corners to keep the score locked at 0-0, however their second corner with just 2 minutes to the half saw the boys from the Free State take a 1-0 lead at the break. The second half was a role reversal as Northwood changed their structure to counter the high press of Grey and within 2 minutes of the restart scores were level. The Northwood boys then just got stronger and stronger and by the end of the match had a 3-1 lead and a short corner on full time which was mistrapped but it didn’t dampen the fact that Northwood won all 5 of their KES fixtures to go unbeaten as a school for the first time since the 2013 Northwood 1^st XI.

 

In summary over Easter, the Northwood 1^st XI played 11 matches, won 10 and lost just the 1 to Rondebosch. They scored 31 goals and only conceded 13. The u16A team also went unbeaten at the u16 Founders Festival, hosted by Kearsney, in their 6 matches, winning 5 and drawing 1 and finally the u14A team also went unbeaten in their 6 matches at the annual Ken Florens Festival hosted at Northwood after winning 4 and drawing 2 of their matches.

 

On Saturday the 1^st XI played a strong Jeppe team in what was always set to be a tight affair. With both teams having been involved in successful KES Festival performances, the match started at an electric pace with Northwood threatening the Jeppe goal first with a well-flicked short corner from captain Ross Venning-Pridham was equally well-saved by Eddie Ramohlale the Jeppe goalkeeper. The match then saw Jeppe finding some passing momentum and created several short corners of their own, which both the corner defence and Taine Bird (Northwood goalkeeper) dispatched of well. The first half played out to a goalless end but the match thus far was from boring. The second half saw both teams up the intensity and determination not to allow the other an easy goal. Jeppe created the first real opportunity from field play, when a through ball was rocketed into the left-hand post without Taine moving an inch. Not long after that near miss, the Northwood goal was breached after a drag flick from Callum Birkenfield took a nasty deflection off a Northwood defender to wrong-foot Taine and flew into the net. From this moment on the game turned and Northwood pushed hard for an equaliser creating the three best chances of the match. The best being after an excellent infield break that saw Thomas King shooting off his reverse to force a save from the advancing Eddie, the ball found its way to an unmarked Cade Leaity who with only a struggling Jeppe defender left on the line blasted the ball wide. Moments later Slater Capell fired a shot over the bar and again missed after he ran the right baseline and failed to find the net after some excellent skill. The last 5 minutes was an exhibition of last ditch defending from Jeppe with a strong push from Northwood to get the scores level. However the clock ran out and Jeppe were victorious. This was one of the best school boy hockey matches I have been privileged enough to have witness and both teams deserve credit for the big shifts they put on display. Well done to Lance Louw (Jeppe 1^st XI coach) and his troops!