Titles to be played in MSSA's School Championships

The St Stithian's League of Legends Team

On 30 November 2016 I wrote an article about which games were proposed by MSSA's member clubs to be played in the Online Inter-School Championships as well as in the Inter-School Ladder.

The member clubs sat long and the deliberations were sometimes quite heated as members debated the pro's and con's of each game.

However, by the end of the evening, the dust had settled and MSSA's Council meeting had agreed to accept all the games that were proposed.

This is the first time that VainGlory shall be played as an official title in South Africa.

VainGlory is a free to play MOBA perfected for touch.

Players may outplay real opponents in this deep, uncompromising real-time MOBA. Fight with lightning-fast controls using powerful heroes. Destroy the enemy Vain crystal and claim glory! Watch the preview video now to see real gameplay of 3-vs-3 multiplayer battles.

VainGlory is compatible with:

• iOS
• iPads 2 and up
• iPhones 5 and up
• Requires iOS 6.1 and above
• Android
• High-end Android devices with 2GBs of RAM or more
• Requires Android 4.4.2 Kitkat or newer

The first event for Schools is the Online Inter-School Provincial Championships which shall be played on 11 February 2016.

Any affiliated school may play in the Online Inter-School Provincial Championships and such event counts towards Provincial Colours as well as qualifying for National Team Trials. The same National Team Trials shall be used to select the Protea eSports Team that shall attend IeSF's 9th World Championships.

The titles to be played are:

Period/genre	#	Title	Platform	Players
FPS	a	CS GO	PC,	5 v 5
Sport	b	FIFA '17	Console	1 v 1
RTS	c	StarCraft II	PC	1 v 1
AOS	d	Dota 2	PC	5 v 5
	e	League of Legends	PC	5 v 5
	f	VainGlory	Tablet/cell	3 v 3
Fighting	g	Tekken Tag Tournament 2	Console	1 v 1

MSSA's rankings for School's League of Legends

Team Vapour - Sasolburg High School

Despite Sasolburg High School's (Team Vapour) fabulous results during the year, Crawford College remains the top ranked school team for the eSports game of League of Legends.

The reasons for such are simple. Although Sasolburg won the North West Provincial Championships and the Mpumulanga Provincial Championships, both such  events were senior championships for which  school teams are not able to earn school rankings. Team Vapour only played in one school championship.

Readers may be interested to note that Sasolburg High  is ranked in third place in the senior rankings - which is no mean feat.

However, all believe that the  team to look out for is the young team from St Stithians. The team although  only currently ranked in fourth place shows a great deal of promise.

The rankings also form the basis of MSSA's ladder. 

It will indeed be interesting to see which school is 'top-dog' and which school shall take the honours for the ladder at the end of the year.

According to  the rules for the Ladder, teams are listed in accordance of ranking and may be challenged by teams that are ranked within five places of themselves. New teams enter at the bottom of the table and have to work their way to the top.

It is really quite encouraging to see so many school teams making their way up the table which bodes well for the future of gaming in South Africa.

The rankings are as follows:  

Pos	Name of Player	year	Club	Points
1	Crawford Sandton [RAT]	14	CCS	211.6
2	Team Vapor	16	Sasolburg	200.8
3	Fairmont	14	FH	191.1
4	SSES LOL	16	St Stithians	177
5	Brandcliff House [Scrub Cops]	14	BH	169.2
6	Midstream College [MSC Titans]	14	MidC	125
7	PR0NHS	16	Northcliff High School	112.8
8	RBHS LOL	16	Rondebosch Boys	102.6
9	Maritzburg College	14	MC	97.5
10	PRIDE	16	Parktown Boys	90
11	Midstream College [Spin To Win]	14	MidC	80
12	Helpmekaar [The Tempaars]	14	HK	75

Latest MSSA rankings for League of Legends

The Tuks first team at MSSA's 2015 S A National Championships

Not surprisingly the Tuks University team, which produced most of the players that were in the 2015 Protea Team, dominates the rankings.

The  team is 'head and shoulders' above all the other teams.

However, again, it is pleasant to see so many school teams. The school teams are the future of gaming in South Africa.

It is not hard to believe that the Fairmont and Sasolburg High school  teams will soon be giving Tuks a run for their money.

The latest rankings are:

Pos	Name of Player	year	Club	Points
1	First team	16	Tuks	372.2
2	Stonze	14	Fairmont High School	190
3	Team Vapor	16	Sasolburg High	180
4	Gryphons	16	KMSC	173.4
5	Senior Team	14	St Conrads	150
6	Knights	15	KMSC	150
7	White Rabbit Gaming	16	WRG	148
8	St Conrads	16	St Conrads	145
9	Plasticdivision1	14	Fairmont High School	125
10	Silver and Friends	16	WOERIES	124.5
11	STS 1	16	St Stithians	105
12	Pride	16	Parktown Boys	105
13	Tygers in the Jungle	14	HTS Witbank	100
14	PR0NHS	15	Northcliff High	100
15	lofdal	16	Lofdal	100
16	CCS Shadow Hunters	16	Crawford Sandton	97.5
17	Junior Team	14	St Conrads	80
18	Second team	15	Tuks	80
19	Winorfeed	14	Fairmont High School	75
20	Fairmont	15	Fairmont High School	75
21	BISH	16	BISH	75

Results: 33rd Gauteng Provincial Championships

Xola Magwaze has returned!

As the year continues with its relentless march forward, players frantically scramble for a place in MSSA's National Team Trials.

Thus MSSA's 33rd Gauteng Championships (sponsored by MWEB) is the third last championship in which players may qualify for such Trials.

For those teams that have qualified, the work has begun in earnest in order to hone their skills for Trials, while some players are still desperately trying to qualify.

MSSA's 33rd Gauteng Provincia Championships were hosted by Tuks Mind Sports Club.

Thanks must be extended to MWEB, Tuks Mind Sports, Johan Uys, Ryan Boyes and Ewan Retief.

The championship attracted players from the Free State, Gauteng, North West, and Mpumulanga.

Players battled it out to earn the various titles of Gauteng Champion Champion, and the right to fight for a place in the 2016 National Team Trials that will ultimately deliver a team to the IeSF's 2016 8^th World Championships in Jakarta from 6 to 9 October 2016.

The championship delivered a number of surprises. Most notable of the surprise results were to be found in the League of Legends, DotA 2, FIFA, and Street Fighter V titles.

In League  of Legends, White Rabbit Gaming team maintained its winning ways that it started at the North West Championships. The team smashed their opposition to win all their games and by thus, truly enforce their position as the team to beat in South Africa.

However, special mention must be made of the St Stithians College team that finished in second place, and, which even gave White Rabbit a few (very) scary moments.

DotA 2 was dominated by Tuks Mind Sports Club. The North West Champions (Northcliff High School) battled long and hard to contain the juggernaut that which is Tuks, but were unable to, even with Herculean effort, do so.

In FIFA, MSSA saw the return of Xola Magwaza. Xola had represented South Africa twice in South Africa in 2009 in international championships in IeSF accredited championships. Even though Xola had been away since 2010, Xola still is the stuff of which champions are made. Xola immediately stamped his authority of the game and, by winning  all  his games, earned himself both the title of being Gauteng's finest and Gauteng Provincial Colours.

Xola, after winning, stated, "Watch out Kyle, the champ is back!".

In Street Fighter V, Leonard Loftus travelled up fron Sasolburg to compete, and, compete he did. Loftus waded into the competition and emerged the victor.

This is the first championship where Street Fighter V  was officially played.

The winners are:

Title	Name of player/team	Club	Colours awarded
Ancients (DBM)	Jason Batzofin	St John's College
Ancients (DBM) (female)	Elishia Retief	Old Edwardian Wargames	Gauteng Provincial
Checkers (female)	Lucille Brown	All Stars	Mpumulanga Provincial
CounterStrike: GO	PORAXYSM	All Stars	Mpumulanga Provincial
DotA 2	APTWE	Tuks University	Gauteng Provincial
FIFA '16	Xola Magwaza	Knights Mind Sports	Gauteng Provincial
HearthStone (female)	Adele Janse van Rensburg	BISH	Gauteng Provincial
HearthStone	Wynand Meiring	BNKR	Gauteng Provincial
League of Legends	WRG	White Rabbit Gaming	Gauteng Provincial
Mortal Kombat X (female)	Riana du Plessis	All Stars	Mpumulanga Provincial
Mortal Kombat X	Connor Chaplin	Northcliff High School	Gauteng Provincial
StarCraft II (female)	Angie Magon	Blue Dragon Online Gaming
StarCraft II	Edwin Williams	Blue Dragon Online Gaming	Gauteng Provincial
Street Fighter V	Leonard Loftus	Masters Gaming Club

In total 22 players earned the right to wear provincial colours.

Photographs of the event may be found on: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154663901109008.1073741938.146018324007&type=3

Sasolburg High sets itself as the team to beat!

Back: Stian Stoltz, Calvin van Wyk, Nicholas Dippenaar, and Michael Victor Boldog
Front: Jan Coetzee (Umpire), Leonard Loftus (VP - MSSA), and Pieter van Zyl (captain)

Even though Sasolburg  High has just started an eSports team, the team thoroughly trounced all its opposition in MSSA's 6th Online Inter-school Championships which were held  on 20 February 2016.

The team cruised through the competition,  beating all it opposition to end up on a perfect score.

Game title	pos.	Team name	Name of school
League of Legends	1	Sasolburg	Sasolburg High School
	2	SSES LOL	St Stithians
	3	PR0NHS	Northcliff High School

Thus the team has not only qualified for the prestigious National Team Trials to be held on 4 June 2016, but all five players have qualified for Free State High School Colours.

This is the first time ever that a team has qualified for Free State Colours for the League of Legends game title.

The players are:

Michael Victor Boldog

Nicholas Dippenaar

Stian Stoltz,

Calvin van Wyk

Pieter van Zyl (captain)