Hello Friends!
Welcome to the latest Geeky Brummie Esports Roundup! This week includes NFTs, planting trees, and a super-merger of six UK teams. If you have some esports news to share then fire me an email over at mat@geekybrummie.com.
Guild Esports Host a Sustainable Fortnite Tournament
Who says esports can’t be good for the environment?
Birmingham 2022 isn’t the only games going net-zero. London-based Guild Esports hosted a new sustainable and environmentally neutral Fortnite esports tournament this Bank Holiday. The tournament is in partnership with the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Difference Makers Campaign.
The closed tournament was hosted on 27th August. It combined Guild’s top Fortnite talent, content creators, and ambitious students who are part of Guild’s world-first esport Academy, in a competition that aims to spotlight the importance of a sustainable culture. Participants include Guild’s championship-winning stars Hen and Anas alongside content creators Gee Nelly and TN25.
IET’s Difference Makers Campaign seeks to highlight stories of how engineering and technology is helping to save the environment. The aim of the movement is to inspire positive change while educating on topics such as super sustainable fashion and clean streaming, to apps that combat food waste and tech to stop the ice caps melting.
How was it sustainable?
Participants competed in normal PVP matches with a twist. Competitors were encouraged to chop down as many trees as possible. With a ‘tree-o-meter’ to track their score, every downed tree in-game will be replaced with the planting of a real-world one by Difference Makers. Additionally, the estimated carbon footprint of the tournament, resulting from PC gaming and streaming, will be offset to ensure a net-zero environmental impact. Overall, 557 trees were harvested during the tournament.
Where can I watch?
You can rewatch the world first tournament on Guild’s Twitch channel here. Within the tournament, participants also discussed transferable skills and how a love of gaming can be a gateway into the world of STEM.
With the explosion in popularity of esports over the past decade there has been a growing concern for the environmental impact they have. Luckily, sustainability and social consciousness are also trending, so it’s great to see Guild and IET team up and deliver a successful net-zero tournament. I hope to see more organisations adopt this in the future.
LDN UTD Launches NFT Community Engagement Campaign
Less environmentally friendly, but still has the potential to do a lot of good.
LDN UTD, another London-based esports organisation, are giving participants of the Rio Ferdinand Foundation’s programs the opportunity to design their own NFTs for the LDN UTD marketplace.
LDN will donate 10% of all profits to the charity. The org will donate 10% of all profits to the charity, which was set up by the former Manchester United and England footballer to ‘support young people to tackle the inequalities they face and achieve their potential’.
The NFTs will include LDN UTD benefits such as various partner offerings, discounts on merch and access to tournaments and events.
If you don’t know what an NFT is then you can check out Year 5, Issue 3 of the Geeky Brummie Podcast. We breakdown what they are, why they’re popular and the pros and cons on digital artists and artwork.
Creative agency One-Minute Briefs has also tasked their community to create designs that align with what it’s like to be a gamer, whilst incorporating their favourite London places. Additionally, London-based artists including Jess Wiseman will create a bespoke London-themed biome range, which, once collected in a series, will unlock a physical product. Jess has previously worked on other digital projects including one with YouTube sensation VEXX to help complete his latest NFT creation (which sold for $45,000), as well as with Jack Harlow, Doja Cat, Reebok, AJ Tracey, and the Billionaire Boys Club.
You can read full details about the initiative on LDN’s website.
New Esports Organisation Forms Out Of Six Team Merger
From the ashes rises a new challenger…
Six UK-based esports teams, several of whom hail from Birmingham, have merged to form a bigger organisation that the founders hope will help them reach their potential.
Coalesce Esports has brought together the people behind UMX, Electrify Esports, Socially Esports, Horus Esports, Peak Esports and Audacity Esports. This includes Coalesce directors Jamie Birch, Greg Brown, Jack Dickson, George Fradley, George Harris, Samuel Hollinrake, Peter Kremer, Joshua Martin, Sam Nevin, Jack Pritchard, Paul Young, Michael Owen and Fabian Rindlisbacher.
They announced the merger in a pretty awesome video set in and around Birmingham.
Coalesce Esports told Esports News UK they plan to focus on CSGO and hopes to enter other esports like League of Legends and Rainbow Six Siege in the future. You can read the full interview (which is where I got this story from) on the Esports News UK website.
While a merger of this size will always come with complications, it’s an exciting move nonetheless and I’ll be keen to see how this team performs. You can follow their official Twitter and see them in action on their Twitch.
That’s it for my latest esports update! You can catch me talking more about UK esports on a monday via the Geeky Brummie Twitter channel. Until next time!
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