Ghana beats South Africa in FIFA'16

Joline Bico, Kyle Turnbull and Bonge Zwane

On Saturday, 6 February 2016, South Africa took on Ghana at FIFA '16 at Hullabaloo, 72 Steenkamp Road, Witbank in an official IeSF accredited test match.

The South African team was considerably younger than their Ghanaian counterparts which falls in line with Mind Sports South Africa's policy of developing teams for international competition. Part of MSSA's development programme includes the inclusion of females into the national team in order to eradicate gender bias.

First up was Joline Bico, the only female currently serving in a national team for the FIFA '16 title. Joline fought fiercely against her opponent, never giving her opponent any chances. However, the Ghanaian proved tto strong for her and Joline finally lost both her games after a long struggle.

Bonge Zwane proved to be the unluckiest of the three South Africans. Bonge had more shots on goal than his opponent, had a far stronger attack than his opponent, but failed to capitalise on his strengths. Bonge too lost both his games.

Even the current South African champion, Kyle Turnbull, found that the matches were harder than he suspected. His opponents were shocked at just how good Kyle is. However, Kyle lost his first match, but quickly bounced back to win his second game.

Thus the South African team (all from Witbank) may have lost against Ghana, but as Kwezi Hayford of Ghana eSports Association stated, “ We did not think that the South Africans would be so strong. Already our players are talking about a rematch”.

Thus the SA team may not have had the results that they wanted, but they garnished the respect and friendship of their opponents.

Results of Austria versus South Africa in FIFA '15

Joline Bico, Bonga Zwane, and Kyle Turnbull

The online Test Match held on Saturday. 11 July 2015. between the best of Austria's FIFA '15 players and the MSSA's FIFA '15 Schools team forms part of the MSSA's ambitious plans to improve the overall standard of gaming. The MWEB sponsored South African team all come from Witbank, and played from the BNKR Gaming House, 41 Duncan Street (corner of Mandela Avenue), Witbank.

The trio representing South Africa were none other than Bonga Zwane, Kyle Turnbull and Joline Bico.
The trio representing Austria are all seasoned veterans (Michael Schachner, Mirza Jahic, and Herbert Schachner, and are considered to be among the best in the world.

It is this very type of competition that will help South African eSports rise up and take its place against the best in the world.

The first match was between Bonga Zwane (who used Germany) versus Michael Schachner (who used Spain). This was Bonga's first foray into international gaming. Michael Schachner's pedigree is quite different. Michael, currently a student in Vienna, has taken second place in one of the biggest tournaments in Vienna (Comboclash), 5^th in the Bavaria Cup, and has won several other championships in Vienna.

Thus the first match was proved to be a shock as Bonga as he tried to work out his opponent. Michael proved to be too much for Bonga and beat him 3 - 0 in the first game. However, in the second game Bonga showed his character and showed just how quickly he could learn by countering his opponent at every turn to force a goal-less draw.

Who knows what would happen if Bonga plays against Michael again!

The second match was between Kyle Turnbull (who used Argentina) versus Mirza Jahic (who used Portugal). Kyle is the current undisputed South African Champion for two consecutive years in a row, and has just embarked on his international career. Mirza Jahic, on the other hand is a Professional FIFA Player, the multiple Austrian FIFA Champion and is also Virtual Bundesliga Champion for 2014. Mirza also holds a Guinness World Record in Pro Evolution Soccer (PES).

The match was thus always going to be hard, very hard!

The first match was shock for Kyle, he couldn't figure out how to counter Mirza and suffered going down 0 – 4.

However, true to form, Kyle bounced back.

In the second game, Kyle detected the kink in Mirza's armour and almost drew the match. He fought the whole way through and put Mirza on the back foot for a portion of the game. Only in the last minute of the game did Mirza score once again to wrestle a 3-2 victory away from Kyle.

The third and final match was between Joline Bico (who used Spain and Argentina) versus Herbert Schachner (England and Belgium). It was Joline's first foray into international competition, and is the only female in the MWEB Team eSports South Africa for FIFA '15. Her opponent, Herbert "Suchender" Schachner has twice finished second only to Mirza in both Austria and in Bavaria. 

Herbert is too a winner of a number of other regional cups in Vienna.

Joline pushed hard in her first game, and worked very well defending against Herbert’s continual attacks, but unfortunately 2 goals snuck by which gave Herbert a 2 – 0 victory.

In the second game, Joline was far more aggressive and almost scored on 3 occasions. A lot was learnt from the last match and although two goals got through it was a much better performance.

Even though South Africa lost this first ever encounter against Austria, the MSSA remains upbeat about the development of its younger gamers. All three gamers gave it their all and showed great strength of character in the face of very stiff international competition. The MSSA is too very proud on how the players treated defeat. Instead of crumbling, all three players came back stronger than before.


One can hardly wait until the next test match...

Taking on Austria

It has finally been agreed upon.

On 11 July 2015 the MWEB High School Team eSports SA will take on the Austrian High School Team for FIFA '15 in an online international test match.

The South African team shall play the international test match from the BNKR Gaming Lounge, cnr of Duncan and Mandela Streets, Witbank. The test match shall start at 18H00. 

This test match represents a number of firsts for South Africa, and South African gaming, being:

• This is the first full accredited School's test match accredited by the IeSF, 
• This is the first time that South Africa will com,pete in an online test match against Austria,
• This is the first eSports test match in which the MSSA will be involving a school team, and
• This is the first time that a female player will officially represent South Africa in FIFA '15.

The MSSA has a great deal of confidence in the abilities of the team. Coincidentally the entire team hails from Witbank and is drawn from the strongest High School players that South Africa has to offer.

The players are:

Kyle  Turnbull

Kyle is the undisputed South African National Champion having won the national Championships in two consecutive years. Kyle too also earned his senior Protea Colours when he was selected to represent South Africa in a test match against Zimbabwe. Needless to say, Kyle cruised through the test match and demolished his opposition giving South Africa a well deserved 2 - 0 victory.

Joline Bico

Joline was awarded her Mpumulanga Colours at the 2015 MWEB Mpumulanga Championships in May 2015. Without doubt, Joline is the best female FIFA '15 gamer in South Africa. Joline too is currently the only player that has finished a game against Kyle Turnbull in an official competition game with only a one goal difference (3 - 2) in the past two years.

  Bonga Zwane

Bonga has an impressive record in the MWEB online S A Schools Championships as well as at a couple of Provincial LAN Championships. Bonga has consistently finished in the medals, always on the heels of the likes of Kyle Turnbull. It is the likes of Bonga that continually push the standard of play forward through Bonga's dedication and perseverance.