History of Bullseye

Background

Since the founding of Sekolah Sri Nobel in the year 2004, a Sports Day is normally held in order to gauge the performance of students in the field of co-curricular activities. At the time of Sri Nobel's establishment, there were four houses, namely red, blue, green and yellow and they were mainly addressed by their house colors. The naming convention and sports culture took effect during the 2006 Sports Day; the very first Sports Day to ever be held in Sri Nobel.

On 29th April 2011, it was announced that Sekolah Sri Nobel would rebrand into an international school beginning from January 2012. The new system in which the four houses were accorded their current names; Bullseye, Touchdown, Homerun and Slamdunk, was applied to the Elementary School on 26th March 2012, and the Junior and Senior School on 21st February 2013.

Etymology

The names of the sports houses were crafted by Mr Paul Lau, the then head of CCA of Nobel International School, when first planning the names following the transition and rebranding of Sekolah Sri Nobel to an international school. The word 'Bullseye' comes from the act of hitting the center of an archery board when scoring a goal in archery. The other houses were named after sporting events. Touchdown was named after an act of scoring a goal in rugby; Homerun after scoring a goal by hitting the home run in baseball; and Slamdunk after scoring a basketball goal. 

There are two variations to the name of Bullseye. The first variation is the current form of 'Bullseye' while the second was the division of the name into two, 'Bull's Eye'. The names of all four houses received approval from Ms Michelle Loh, the then principal of the Elementary School, and Ms Evelyn Tay, the then principal of the Junior and Senior School, in February 2012 and January 2013. 

2012

In 2012, the original colors of the Elementary School were blue for Bullseye, purple for Touchdown, lime for Homerun and orange for Slamdunk. The Junior and Senior School continued to use the red-blue-green-yellow format from 2004 for its sports events until the corresponding team names were announced on 21st February 2013 by Ms Evelyn Tay. 

Bullseye was the first sports house to win an overall points tally in Nobel International School following the rebranding to the Cambridge syllabus. The first event ever to be contested by Bullseye following its formation was the Games Gala, which was held from 16th to 20th April 2012 and consisted of a number of sporting events, from badminton to basketball and netball. The team won the Games Gala in 2012 and then the Sports Gala on 7th September 2012. Alongside the Family Marathon Day on 15th October 2012, which Bullseye also won, Bullseye was the first champion house in the international school age. The Family Marathon Day, on the other hand, was Nobel's first time organizing a cross-country run, with succeeding runs being the 2013 National Day Run and the Founder's Run, which is held annually since 2016. 

2013

Following the successful implementation of the sports house names in 2012, attention was directed to the Junior and Senior School for the 2013 Sports Day. The 2013 Sports Day was originally scheduled for 22nd March 2013 before being postponed to 5th April 2013. It was also the first Junior and Senior School sports day to use the current house names. 

The aim for the 2013 Sports Day for Bullseye was to achieve its first ever sports day victory. However, the house struggled in most aspects with the exclusion of athletics. Dominic Chow, a Year 11 student, became the first house captain of Bullseye, taking office in 2012 as captain of the defunct Red House. To this day, he is the longest serving house captain of Bullseye. In its first sports day outing as the Bullseye brand, Bullseye failed to win the Sports Day, ending up in third place. Sean Lam, the assistant march captain, pledged his motivation to future members of Bullseye, hoping that they will do well in the next edition. 

The dance team was led by Chia Yan Mei in its first outing, while the marchpast was led by Lim Chor Lit. Overall, Bullseye did quite on average in the first ever sports day, which was held at Panasonic Stadium Shah Alam.

A student council election for Nobel International School was held on 17th June 2013. Four days prior, Chew Wei Zhuen, a candidate for the President of the Nobel International School Student Council pledged to implement a Nobel Cup if he was elected president. He won the election and set the inaugural Nobel Cup for 20th and 21st September 2013. The Nobel Cup badminton matches were played at a sports complex outside of Nobel, as well as in the school premises for other sports. The matches for the basketball competition were quite intense, with the KS4 basketball match seeing quite a number of trips, falls and injuries as if it was a gladiator match, with many players getting injured. Overall, Homerun won the Nobel Cup, with Bullseye winning the KS3 basketball tournament and Touchdown winning the netball tournament. Bullseye eventually got third place for netball, fourth for futsal and second for basketball. The Nobel Cup had a separate house captain election to lead the Nobel Cup, and Brian Ong and Emily Liew were elected as house captain and assistant captain.

2014

The Nobel Cup 2013, despite being a loss for Bullseye, was quite successful for Brian Ong and Emily Liew. The Bullseye members took part in a house captain election on Friday, 7th February 2013, to elect them in absentia, as Brian Ong was on holiday in Korea while Emily was under the weather. The duo were reelected unanimously due to their leadership in the 2013 Nobel Cup.

Sports Day 2014 was the 10th Annual Sports Day. Held on 9th April 2014, it is also the only Sports Day to take place at a venue other than the Panasonic Stadium in Shah Alam, commencing at the Kelana Jaya Stadium near Paradigm Mall. It is also the first Sports Day to be held between two active schooling days and was the only schooling day to officially start at 9:00am instead of 7:45am. Rain threatened to disrupt the Sports Day, but it commenced without issue. This Sports Day was the first Sports Day to include telematch events, including a Tug of War on 4th April 2014. The Sports Day is best known for Slamdunk blasting vuvuzela horns and the rise of Bullseye's number one athlete, Sean Mark, who majored in track and field sprinting. It is also the only Sports Day to have a documentary of the event in a DVD rom.

Naomi Seah debuted as the first female marchpast captain of Bullseye, while the dance for Bullseye was choreographed by Jarod Ee, then a Year 10 student and president of the Dance CCA. However, Emily Liew was criticized for asking the dancers to practice for the whole day on the eve of Sports Day without any rest. 

The 2014 Sports Day was won by Bullseye in its first ever Sports Day victory after two years of hard work. It is the first victory by Bullseye in the Junior and Senior School's Sports Day. Brian Ong and Emily Liew lifted the trophy as Bullseye won with a score of 5200.

Following the success of Sports Day 2014, plans were made for Bullseye to win the Nobel Cup 2014. A draft blueprint was presented on a series of strategies, from how the game was to be played to who should be elected as the House Captain, along with the character traits of the House Captain. Lim Wei Ming was eventually elected as Bullseye's House Captain and was the first captain to be elected on a term extending to Sports Day 2015 and the second after Brian Ong to preside over a Sports Day and Nobel Cup. Deanna Lee was chosen as the Assistant Captain. 

The 2014 Nobel Cup was played at the Lee Chong Wei Sports Arena at Jalan Kelang Lama, Kuala Lumpur, and the SS6 Basketball Court. This Nobel Cup is well known for Aristotle Koh of Homerun hanging on the futsal goalposts and being scolded by Mr Paul, causing Homerun to be deducted of points. 

Bullseye won the Nobel Cup, achieving a year-long dream and becoming the first sports house to sweep the two major tournaments of the academic year. 

2015

Immediately after the school year begun in January 2015, discussions were underway to replicate and expand the plans drawn up for Nobel Cup 2014 into the Sports Day 2015. There was serious concern over whether Bullseye would successfully defend its 2014 Sports Day win and secure a second win on the Sports Day victories. 

The 2015 Sports Day is known as the greatest coming out party for Bullseye because of the significant advances in the improvements of Bullseye over the years. The athletics team was led by Sin Hou Nan and Ryan Chan; Jarod Ee once again coordinated the dances and the banner was laced with glitter to give it a striking outlook.

The school year for 2015 was originally slated to begin on 5th January 2015, but it eventually begun on 12th January 2015 due to the flood-induced postponement of school reopenings.

There was also great enthusiasm for Bullseye to win the 2015 Sports Day as it would help make Bullseye famous. The organizing team for Bullseye was the best of all time. The Bullseye members that year were on high morale, leading to Bullseye winning so many athletic competitions. Bullseye won the dance competition and subsequently secured the Championship with 5554 points. All of this was thanks to a great work well done and the successful implementation of strategies from Nobel Cup 2014.

The Nobel Cup 2015 was also placed on a high bar because of the success of defending Sports Day 2015. Once again, a clear leader had to be placed to lead Bullseye. Hence, Sabrina Qistina was elected as the captain of Bullseye. 

Originally, Soon Yee Yang, who was elected as assistant captain, was slated to be the House Captain of Bullseye, but the Bullseye members flipped the vote around, making Sabrina Qistina the captain. 

The preparations for Nobel Cup 2015 were severely elected by the 2015 Southeast Asian Haze. Nevertheless, the plans from 2015 were refined and improved. Bullseye managed to successfully defend Nobel Cup and win the 2015 edition. At the same time, it was Bullseye's best ever Nobel Cup performance when the results were announced by Ms June. 

A handwritten journal by Lau Wei Yiang from November 2015 displaying the results of the 2015 Nobel Cup.

2016

For the 2016 Sports Day, a new guideline and management of the event was instituted as Mr Narish Tamilarasan, who was the head of ICT, became the Sports Day Coordinator. He introduced a new, refined format for Sports Day, which included a theme as well as a motivational, exciting approach. Mr Narish organized the Sports Day and introduced classification standards based on athletics for the 2016 Sports Day. In addition to the 2016 Sports Day, Nobel International School also instituted the Founder's Run as both the school's annual cross country tournament as well as a charity fundraiser, being the brainchild of Ms Lim Mee Wee; the then head of student affairs. The theme of the Sports Day 2016 was 'Rise of the Empires'.

The 2016 Founder's Run, being the inaugural Founder's Run, showcased cross country running at the Taman Botani Negara Shah Alam on Friday, 26th February 2016. The inaugural run consisted of a 5km and 10km category. The course was hilly, and the run was won by Edmond Chue (male 5km), Krishanti Devaraj (female 5km), Nieshaal Thambipillay (male 10km) and Hong En Eng (female 10km). The overall champion of the Founder's Run is Touchdown. Aside from that, the first 20 runners were also recognized by the judges. 

From the beginning of the competition of Sports Day, Bullseye maintained a healthy lead throughout the entire event, as it approached its third consecutive Sports Day victory. Sabrina Qistina declared war on all the other houses during the first ever house meeting on 18th January 2016, comparing Nobel Cup to a battle and Sports Day as the great war. Bullseye managed to do very well, maintaining its lead and winning the Sports Day hands down. An attempt to do another banner for Bullseye by Lau Wei Yiang was rejected by Sabrina Qistina due to it being too much of propaganda. The plan was meant to allow Bullseye to have two banners in order to rival the other houses.

The 2016 Sports Day was the only Sports Day where each marcher came up with their own salute. The original plan was to have the salute look like Hitler's, but the march captain, Jeremy Yeap Jien Ming, was told to amend it to look like a high-five after complaints from the management. 

As the 2016 Nobel Cup approached, the management begun changing the format of Nobel Cup from a knockout format to a round-robin format. The house captain election was also changed, with teachers nominating candidates for students to elect. Four candidates were chosen, namely Chia Yan Ying, Yeo Eu Lynn, Alex Chia and Sean Mark. Sean Mark was elected as captain and Yan Ying as assistant captain.

The 2016 Nobel Cup took place on 4th November 2016 at iM4U Sentral, Puchong. Touchdown won the Nobel Cup with 100 points, followed by Bullseye with 90 points, Slamdunk with 70 and Homerun with 60. It was Bullseye's first loss of the Nobel Cup since 2013. 

2017

On 13th January 2017, Mr Narish launched the Sports Day 2017 gala with Ms Sylvia. The theme of the 2017 Sports Day was 'Soaring Together', but what caught the eye of the whole school was that the Nobel Cup 2016 scores were included as part of Sports Day 2017, alongside the Founder's Run. 

The idea was backlashed by the house captains of all four houses, calling it an unfair decision. There was a letter sent to Mr Narish opposing the decision. Nevertheless, the scoring system proceeded as planned. 

There was a plan by Lau Wei Yiang to brand the Bullseye house meets as the 'Bullseye National Convention' just like how political parties branded such meets. However, the idea was met with brickbats as it was based on the naming of the Republican National Convention and the recent election of President Donald Trump for his first term, which he had supported in 2016. Nobellians at the time have negative sentiment on Donald Trump.

The 2017 Founder's Run was the first major event to take place in the 2017 Sports Calendar. Held on Wednesday, 8th February 2017, the 2017 Founder's Run was notable for the victory of Lau Wei Yiang in the 5km male category. The 5km female category was won by Michelle Ott, while Nieshaal Thambipillay defended his 2016 title in the 10km race. Heng Le Anne, meanwhile, won the female category of the 10km. Following the Founder's Run, Chia Yan Ying left for the United Kingdom and was replaced by Chong Vicky as assistant captain.

Bullseye started out in second place in the competition and dropped to third place following the Cheer Competition. A victory in the athletics competition and a tie with Touchdown in the tug of war caused it to gain ground. On Sports Day, Bullseye won a majority of the athletics competitions, and when the judging scores were announced, the scores were Bullseye at 648 points, Touchdown at 649 points, Slamdunk at 638 points and Homerun at 579 points. To this day, it remains the closest score in Nobel International School history. 

2017 was also the first year where Sean Mark and Laura Mark, both siblings, won the Sports Boy and Sports Girl and were from the same family. 

The 2017 Sports Day scores showing the one-point gap between Bullseye and Touchdown.

Following the 2017 Sports Day, emotions ran high during the 2018 House Captain Election on 11th September 2017, as it was the first house captain election following the loss of Bullseye to Touchdown and the one-point gap. The date was also the anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the United States and was a sombre date. But it was also a date for reflection and hope; not just for America, but also for Bullseye. 

Every single member was really baffled as to the house captain election, which would decide the future of Bullseye as it did in previous years. Many Bullseye members wanted Bullseye to win again. This house captain was important due to the desire of Bullseye members wanting to win again. 

A house captain would need to meet strict criteria outlined by Mr Narish, namely being free of disciplinary records, receive good feedback by teachers, demonstrate good behavior and would be a Year 11 student in 2018. It was the first house captain election to have strict criteria. 

During the election, sentiment about the one-point gap was raised as many grieved the loss of Bullseye. Koo Shi Tian was elected as the house captain, with Ethan Chan as assistant captain. 

Bullseye eventually managed to win the 2017 Nobel Cup, and this Nobel Cup is the first Nobel Cup with a tie between Homerun and Touchdown.

2018

In the 2018 Founder's Run, Lau Wei Yiang defended his 5km title, and Bullseye managed to wrest the Founder's Run from Touchdown, becoming the second house to become champion of the Founder's Run. Frustrated with sentiment from 2017, the victories of Bullseye in the Nobel Cup 2017 and Founder's Run 2018 brought a fresh start for Bullseye. It appeared as though Bullseye was leading again. However, Bullseye failed to win the Sports Day as Touchdown overtook Bullseye in the standings. Bullseye managed to secure second place with 751 points for Bullseye to 828 points for Touchdown.

The 2018 Sports Day had Justice League as the theme announced by Mr Narish, and was renowned for the eventual rise of Danial Hafiz from Slamdunk as a sports sprinter. 

The loss of Bullseye in Sports Day 2018 resulted in the election of Chia Zheng, Ashwin Jeyabalan and Alyssa Kok as the next house and assistant captains. For the first time in Nobel International School's history, each sports house is required to have a female assistant captain.

Bullseye eventually won the 2018 Nobel Cup which was held on 13th November 2018, scoring 290 points. Touchdown got 285 points, Homerun 280 and Slamdunk 270. Originally, Homerun was declared as the champion of the Nobel Cup, followed by Bullseye and Touchdown being in a tie, and Slamdunk with 270 points. Another score showed Bullseye and Slamdunk being tied. The management eventually announced Bullseye as the winner as the scores from the badminton matches of Nobel Cup were riddled with flaws. 

2019

Bullseye, fresh from winning Nobel Cup 2018, won the Founder's Run 2019 on 22nd February 2019 in its largest margin since the Founder's Run was incepted. Successfully defending the Founder's Run title from 2018 and the Nobel Cup title from 2017, Bullseye maintained a steady lead just like in 2016, winning the Sports Day on 22nd March 2019. 

The 2019 Sports Day is seen as the equivalent of 9th May 2018 in the Bullseye version, as Bullseye members toppled Touchdown after over 721 days. It was a watershed moment in which alumni helped topple Touchdown's lead. 

The theme of the 2019 Sports Day was Transformers, and Alysha Yuen won the Sports Girl title for Bullseye. Bullseye also managed to win the banner competition for the first time, but Slamdunk managed to come in a close second place. Touchdown was defeated in its worst performance in history, getting last place. 

On 30th August 2019, the next house captain election was held, and Ashley Cheah was elected as Bullseye's second female house captain after Sabrina Qistina in 2016. Bullseye failed to win the Nobel Cup 2019, losing to Slamdunk and tied with Touchdown.

2020

The year 2020 is seen as the year where Wawasan 2020 was to be achieved, and was to be a brand new year for everybody. 

At the start of 2020, Australia experienced a bushfire, prompting Mr Narish to put the theme as 'Endangered Animals' as a tribute to the bushfire. It was the final theme Mr Narish would coordinate as the Sports Day coordinator. Mr Narish felt that it would be beneficial for the school to appreciate animals, and hence, Bullseye's mascot was chosen as an Ethiopian wolf. 

The outbreak of Covid 19 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, caused a lot of concern and resulted in Founder's Run being declared an internal event, barring alumni and parents from the race. As cases rose, safety precautions were taken to prevent the spread of Covid 19. Nevertheless, Bullseye managed to defeat Slamdunk by winning the Founder's Run, and got back the first place win.

Founder's Run 2020 was held at Bukit Jalil Park on 14th February 2020, to promote the launch of Seeds Connections, which is a psychological counselling unit under Fungates Superflow Foundation and that the launch of Seeds Connections promotes its headquarters in Bukit Jalil.

The Sports Day 2020, scheduled for 27th March 2020, was also to be made an internal event with no parents and alumni allowed. However, as cases rose in March 2020, Sports Day was cancelled due to Covid 19 and the consequential movement control order. 

After the resumption of in-person learning in June and July 2020, plans were made to hold Nobel Cup on 10th November 2020 in a safe manner. In August 2020, an election for the house captain for the year 2021 was held, but no result was announced. Nobel Cup had to be cancelled due to the imposition of the second conditional movement control order in October 2020. Mr Narish subsequently left Nobel in December 2020 and is now based in Sri KDU International School.

2021

2021 was seen as a year which is the only virtual academic year for Nobel due to Covid 19, along with a virtual Founder's Run, which Bullseye managed to defend its title. An athletics day scheduled for 14th April 2021, alongside the 2021 Nobel Cup, scheduled for 30th November and 1st December 2021, had to be axed due to the pandemic. With Bullseye having the Champion House Trophy from 2019 and lead from the 2020 scores, 2021 is also considered a Bullseye victory year, and Bullseye managed to achieve its first three year victory since 2016.

2022

Nobel International School launched Founder's Run 2022 in March 2022, resulting in a Bullseye victory thanks to the largest amount of registrations. With the telematch competition on 24th June 2022 and the KS4 Nobel Cup on 15th July 2022, Homerun emerged as the next potential challenger to Bullseye. 

The KS4 Nobel Cup was instituted because it was to act as a replacement Sports Day for the benefit of Year 11 students. The KS3 Nobel Cup, held on 22nd November 2022, saw Bullseye win the tournament, securing a fourth year in power and overtook its first victory streak from 2014 to 2016, achieving a dream dreamt of in terms of winning four years since 2013.

The 2022 victory commemorated the 10th anniversary of Bullseye's establishment, alongside 10 years of Nobel under Cambridge's syllabus.

2023

After Nobel International School relocated to Damansara Jaya in 2023, a telematch competition was held which put Touchdown in first place, at 1400 points, followed by Homerun at 1250 points, Bullseye at 1200 points and Slamdunk at 1000 points. It was the biggest challenge to a Bullseye victory, as winning 2023 would confirm the victories of 2020, 2021 and 2022, making a total of five years of Bullseye victory. 

Plans were made to celebrate Hing Fook Soon's birthday as the Sports Day coincides on 23rd June. A ribbon cutting ceremony and a ground breaking ceremony using a ceremonial Chinese groundbreaking stone was planned, but it had to be cancelled as critics said that the stone reminded one of Chinese graveyards. 

A statue was also proposed to be placed at the new campus in Damansara Jaya to commemorate the Bullseye victories, but it was never followed through. 

In April 2023, Founder's Run was launched and consisted of a virtual run and a physical run, scheduled for 1st July. However, the races had to be postponed, along with Sports Day, due to a heatwave occurring in the middle of the year. 

Bullseye managed to win the Founder's Run due to the highest distance covered in the virtual run. However, during the physical Founder's Run which was held on 22nd July, a downpour disrupted the race, with runners billing it as the flood marathon. Bullseye also managed to win the Sports Day on 20th November 2023 in solid fashion, along with the 2023 Nobel Cup. This meant that for the fourth time since 2014, Bullseye managed to win every single major tournament held in the academic year, after 2014, 2015 and 2022, which was the first to involve the Founder's Run.

The 2023 Sports Day involved the support of Principal Chee Fooi Foon of SJKC Shin Cheng (Harcroft), which was instrumental in crafting the fifth year. At the same time, the Sports Day was the first Sports Day to be held in the morning since 2010. The 2023 Sports Day was presided over by a new format which elected captains based on gender. Thus, there were four captains, namely the male and female official captain and the male and female assistant captains to promote gender balance. The four captains were Derrick Chou, Lim Zi Xuan, Cayden Onn and Chin Yu Xin.

2024

Since 2021, Bullseye members have dreamt of winning the 2024 Sports Day, billed as the 20th Anniversary Sports Day, in order to commemorate the 10th Anniversary since Bullseye's first ever Sports Day victory. This was to ensure a grand celebration and tribute to all the Bullseye members who worked so hard over the past decade to make Bullseye win for so many years. The plan was billed on the premise of Kongsi Raya, which is the joint celebration of Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Aidilfitri which last occurred in 1998 and would occur again in 2029.

Fresh from the 2023 Sports Day, Bullseye managed to win the 2024 Founder's Run. However, changes to the scoring system for Sports Day and the emerging talent from other houses challenged the Bullseye victory. On the 20th Anniversary Sports Day, Bullseye was leading till it dropped to third place during the competition. An investigation confirmed that without the judging events, Bullseye would have won the Sports Day. 

There was no Nobel Cup for 2024, and the 20th Anniversary Sports Day was coordinated by Mr Mishach David, the head of PE in Nobel International School. The loss of Bullseye in 2024 meant that it had lost a Sports Day for the first time since 2017 and 2018. It was the worst Sports Day record for Bullseye since 2013.