HELLO FRIENDS!
Welcome to the latest esports roundup! This week we’re all about championships with the largest esports tournament in the world, and the best student esports tournament in Britain. Send me an email at mat@geekybrummie.com to get your story featured.
Let’s get started!
Student Champs 2020/21 Roundup
Another knockout championships for British Esports Association
Six teams wiped the floor at the grand finals of the 2020/21 Student Champs. As a big fan of the work of the British Esports Association, and education-level esports I’m here to roundup all the action.
This is the national tournament by British Esports Association, in partnership with the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies at Nottingham Trent University. The tournament forms part of a wider series for students aged 12+ in schools and colleges across the UK, consisting of League of Legends, Overwatch and Rocket League championships.
The Champs took place in person at the Metronome in Nottingham on 3rd July and streamed live on BEA’s Twitch.
What Went Down
The event featured six finals, including a Division 1 and Division 2 final for each game – Overwatch, League of Legends and Rocket League. teams battled it out on stage in front of a crowd of around 100 people in an all-day event at Confetti’s venue.
In addition to the finals, the event also featured some Key Notes and a friendly FIFA showmatch which concluded the first tournament exclusively for gamers with disabilities. You can read more about both of these further down.
The Winners – Overwatch
The Circinaes from Farnborough Sixth took the prize for division 1 after winning 3-0 against their rivals, the Braintree Basilisks from Colchester Institute. Meanwhile, AGSB Esports from Altrincham Grammar School for Boys claimed the title in Division 2 for their 3-0 performance against Centurions of Peter Symonds College.
The Winners – Rocket League
AGSB Esports continued their streak by picking up a second win, this time for Division 1 of Rocket League. They had a hard fought matchup against Luxinate Esports of Northgate Sixth Form, but pushed ahead with a 4-2 result.
Fourth Valley Gamers of Fourth Valley College joined AGSB as winners picking up the Division 2 crown in a flawless 4-0 sweep against Team.eXe RL 2 of Exeter College. The goal at 0:21 (see below) is particularly impressive.
The Winners – League of Legends
Farnborough Sixth Form bring the pain with Ospreys claiming the Championship title in Division 1 of League of Legends. They gave an exceptional performance with a 2-0 Grand Final win against The Chimphouse of Woodhouse College. I also want to give props to the enthusiastic shout caster for really bringing the hype in the final match.
This makes Farnborough Sixth Form a double-champion at the tournament.
While Exeter may have lost out in Rocket League, they pulled it back in League of Legends winning the Division 2 Championships. They beat TeamBTC LoL 1 from Bridgwater & Taunton College in a 2-1 match up. The performance from both teams was amazing, with fighting from minute 0.
Unlocking the future of British Esports
On top of all the Champs action, they had some wonderful keynotes from the likes of Will Whittingham from esports recruitment platform Hitmarker, Ewen Bufton from EXCEL Esports, and Gin Rai, Head of Esports at Confetti (above). All of these provided insight into the industry, and gave some helpful tips on how students can get started in an esports career. You can check out the full keynotes on their YouTube channel.
The Icing on the Cake – Making Esports Inclusive and Accessible
Before the finals, BEA hosted a FIFA showmatch with students from National Star College – an Alternative Provision college in Gloucestershire. Students from the college played a friendly match on stage to conclude a pilot tournament BEA have been working on for disabled gamers.
Christopher and Dan, both from the college faced off against each other in a friendly. Christopher emerged victorious with a 2-9 win against Dan. Both players used specialists adaptive equipment to play FIFA 21.
After the first match, Nathan ‘SirSquark’ Badger (Admin at the event) joined Christopher for a game, to see what it is like to play with the adaptive equipment that Dan used previously.
The match was the conclusion to a pilot tournament BEA has been working which pioneers tournaments exclusively for players with disabilities. This project is in conjunction with National Star college and Microsoft, who devised the XBOX adaptive controller.
After the showmatch students and representatives from National Star received a plaque in recognition of their outstanding service to the development of esports.
This is an amazing bit of work by BEA. The support shown at the tournament for both Christopher and Dan is really heart warming.
Conclusion
Overall, BEA knocked it out of the park with this tournament. Everything from production, to the playoffs were absolutely spot on. If you haven’t already, I strongly urge you to check out the work of BEA and follow their social channels for more grassroots esports.
New Dates & Location for Dota 2 Championships
Valve’s The International 10 finally has a home
Moving from one tournament to another, I thought I would round of this update with a bit of good news for Dota 2 fans.
The International 10 (TI10) Dota 2 Championships are take place Bucharest, Romania this October. This news follows Sweden’s u-turn on hosting the tournament after ruling esports are not ‘legitimate sports‘. As a result, Valve was forced to find a new home on very short notice.
The International is Dota 2’s signature tournament and the largest esports event in the world. Valve announced the new dates and location in a blog post on the official Dota 2 website on 7th July.
Group Stage will run from 7th – 10th October, with Main Stage play kicking off on Tuesday 12th. The final face-off for the Aegis of Champions and the lions share of $40,018,195 prize pool will take place on Sunday 17th.
I’m glad TI10 has a home now following more than a year of bad luck. Romania has been involved in Valve-sponsored tournaments before back in 2018 when they hosted the Bucharest Major. It will be interesting to see how the more accessible EU location will impact the number of European fans in attendance.
One thing is for sure though, this makes me hopeful for a UK TI in the future! Additional information on ticket sales will come shortly – watch this space!
That’s it from me! I’ll see you all next week for another instalment. In the meantime, share your thoughts on this update by tagging @geekybrummie on Twitter. Adios!
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