Hello friends!
In this week’s roundup, sign-ups for a one-day Valorant tournament at Birmingham New Street, Wolves Esports expand into Rainbow Six: Siege, and EXCEL partners with the Duke of Edinburgh award.
This esports roundup shines a light on UK esports, in particular, what’s going on in the midlands. If you have an esports story that you would like us to feature, email mat@geekybrummie.com.
Quick Links
- Esports BreakfSign-ups for a £1.2k Valorant Tournament in Brum City Centre is Live
- Wolves Esports Expand into Rainbow Six: Siege
- EXCEL Partners With the Duke of Edinburgh Award
Sign-ups for a £1.2k Valorant Tournament in Brum City Centre is Live
That’s right, you can sign up to take part in a one-day Valorant tournament right in Birmingham city center!
Hosted by Belong Gaming this one-day tournament will take place next Saturday 21st May in their new gaming arena in Birmingham New Street. This tournament is open to anyone and features a £1,200 prize pool. It can be entered by filling out this form.
Other tournaments being held include FIFA 22 Arena Cup, with the qualifier taking place on 18th May, and Tekken 7 tournament on 28th May with a similar prize pool of £1,200.
About Belong and Birmingham Bruisers
For those unaware, Belong Gaming operates 27 gaming arenas across Britain and Northern Ireland. Licensed and operated by GAME UK, Belong has been running since 2016.
Every Belong Gaming Arena is fully equipped with high-powered PCs, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X consoles as well as lightning-fast gaming displays and esports quality peripherals. Each venue runs a varied array of events and tournaments as well as visitors just being able to book free play sessions or private parties. Games include Overwatch, League of Legends, Valorant and Tekken 7, CoD Warzone, FIFA, Forza, and many more.
Belong already had two sites in the west midlands in Wolverhampton and Fort Dunlop, but launched its Birmingham City centre venue earlier this month.
It’s fantastic to see an arena open up in Birmingham City centre and I can’t wait to get inside. Keep up to date with their activities on Twitter here.
Wolves Esports Expand into Rainbow Six: Siege
Wolves Esports have entered Rainbow Six esports with the signing of LFO, the reigning 6 French League Champions. This signing comes just in time for the Six Charlotte Major 2022 in North Carolina, USA.
The team competes at the highest level in Europe, the European League (EUL), as well as nationally in the 6 French League. With the EUL already underway, the team has had a strong start to stage one of the season, claiming third place in the opening stage and qualifying for the Six Charlotte Major, which kicked off today, Monday 16th May.
This Major will see the team, currently known as “Looking for Org”, compete under the Wolves Esports banner for the first time against some of the biggest and best teams from around the world.
Who’s in the team?
The full roster is below:
- Valentin “risze” Liradelfo | Flex
- Bastien “BiBooAF” Dulac | Flex support
- Yanis “Mowwwgli” Dahmani | Entry
- Nicolas “P4” Rimbaud | Second entry
- Axel “Shiinka” Freisberg | Hard support
- Robin “Robz” Planus – Team manager
- Laurie “Lyloun” Lagier – Head coach
- Louis “Helbee” Bureau – Assistant coach
According to the announcement on Wolves website, the French-speaking team has a mix of experience under the banner. Headed up by veterans Bastien “BiBooAF” Dulac and Valentin “risze” Liradelfo, the two of which have played alongside each other since mid-2020. Since then, the team has iterated slowly into its current form, with Nicolas “P4 Rimbaud” and Axel “Shiinka” Freisberg joining before the 2021 season, with whom they claimed the 6 French League Season 3 title over Team BDS. Their final addition is up-and-coming talent Yanis “Mowwwgli” Dahmani, who joined just before the start of the current season.
What is the European League (EUL)?
The European League is the main tournament in Europe. From this tournament, the participating teams earn Global Points.
At the end of each year the top 16 teams with the most points in the Global Standings, no matter from what region, will automatically get invited to the Six Invitational – the ultimate Rainbow 6 esports tournament with a $3,000,000 prize pool.
Wolves are on a mission to dominate every corner of the globe. Already a well-established brand internationally with teams competing in China and North America, picking up another team in Europe expands their portfolio even further. Wishing the best of luck to the new team and here’s hoping this will bring further investment a little bit closer to home. You can follow the action on their Twitter here.
EXCEL Partners With the Duke of Edinburgh Award
Excel Esports has announced a new partnership with the Duke of Edinburgh as an approved activity provider. This makes the esports organisation one of the first of its kind to become a partner.
About the Partnership
This partnership will include Excel offering up their Shoreditch headquarters and facilities to students in a free pilot scheme to complete the skills section of their Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Award. Excel’s team and technological resources will be available to students, including PCs and games, across 13 weeks.
As part of a pilot, EXCEL’s facilities will initially be open to five young people doing their Bronze DofE. EXCEL is planning to expand the opportunity to Silver and Gold Award participants in the future and is also set to announce wider activations to help further support disadvantaged youths across London to have access to gaming technology.
Education Through Esports
EXCEL ESPORTS spoke to 2,000 London-based teenagers and discovered almost two-thirds (63%) believe The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award including esports would encourage them to start their DofE.
The study also highlighted the inequality still faced by disadvantaged youth in London, with over one in 20 (6%) teenagers claiming they would like the opportunity to do esports for their DofE, but do not have access to the specialist technology including gaming consoles to do so.
For more information, check out this link.
That’s it from me, friends. Until then don’t forget to watch out for me on Mondays over at the Geeky Brummie Twitter or follow me on my personal handle @MrMatLovell. Adios!
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