Hello, Friends!
Welcome to the latest Geeky Brummie esports roundup! This week, football nerds rejoice – the ePremier league is back! Warwick University appoints two new esports roles, London Spitfire announces new Overwatch signings and some epic wins at Epic.LAN If you have an esports story that you would like us to feature, email mat@geekybrummie.com.
The FIFA ePremier League is back
The Premier League and EA have announced the return of the ePremier League (ePL) for the 21/22 season. If that’s not enough for west midlands players, then how’s this? Registration is now open for players to represent Wolves.
About the FIFA ePremier League 21/22
Now in the fourth year, the FIFA ePremier League offers UK-based players aged 16 and over the opportunity to represent their favourite Premier League clubs in an online EA SPORTS™ FIFA 22 tournament.
Winners of this esports competition receive a share of the £100,000 prize pool. The competition will be played on next-generation consoles, PlayStation®5 and Xbox Series X|S, with players able to sign up at e.premierleague.com.
There will also be three seats on offer for top-ranking players at the EA SPORTS FIFA 22 Global Series Playoffs. (More information about the EA SPORTS FIFA 22 Global Series can be found on the EA site.)
What are the key dates?
After registering, players compete in a series of online qualification tournaments, with only the best advancing to the Club Playoffs. From there, each of the 20 Premier League clubs will narrow down the competitors and take forward two players, one per console, to represent them at the Grand Finals between 26th and 27th March 2022.
Register to play for Wolves
Wolves Esports, the competitive-gaming arm of the Wolverhampton Wolves, has posted an open call for players of all abilities to come forward and represent the team. If you would like further information on how to sign up then head over to the official ePremier League site here.
Warwick Hires Two New Esports Positions
The University of Warwick has appointed Jack Fenton as its inaugural Head of Esports and Elenore Li as the educational establishment’s Esports Centre Coordinator. The two new roles are part of the university’s ambitions to further develop its presence and reach within the esports industry.
Two New Decicated Esports Roles
The Head of Esports role will oversee the operations of the University of Warwick’s esports. This will include curating sponsorship opportunities, securing partnerships with local stakeholders and driving usage of the esports centre. Fenton will also be responsible for developing initiatives that ensure the West Midlands becomes an epicentre for growth in esports.
Meanwhile, the Esports Centre Coordinator will oversee the centre, which will function as an esports cafe and an event space, as well as offer Bootcamp opportunities for esports teams. It will also be used by UK colleges running the Esports BTEC qualification. Li will oversee arranging tournaments, building external relationships and exploring the Esports Centre’s accessibility for local people and partners as well as people based on campus.
You can read interviews with both appointees on the University of Warwick website here.
The Future of Esports Education
The new appointments come shortly after Warwick invested £275,000 into establishing an esports centre on campus in May, becoming the first Russell Group university to open such a facility (you can read about that here). Initial funding for the two new positions will come from the £275,000 investment, with the department and centre aiming to transition to a commercially funded model after one year.
Both investments form part of a wider strategy by the university to position the West Midlands as the region for grassroots UK esports. This also makes them the first university to offer their own pathways into UK esports through opportunities offered to students via the esports centre.
You can find out more about the fantastic new esports centre by visiting the Warwick esports website here.
New Overwatch Roster at London Spitfire
(Original story at EsportsNewsUK here)
London Spitfire has announced new player signings as part of their roster-building in preparation for Overwatch leagues in 2022. The individual announcements were made on the Spitfire Twitter account this week, with a total of four new players joining the team.
Who made the cut?
The players include UK talent Jamie ‘Backbone’ O’Neill (DPS) and Owen ‘provide’ Warner (support). German tank player Daniel ‘Hadi’ Bleinagel has also returned to London Spitfire, while French tank Gael ‘Poko’ Gouzerch has joined from Philadelphia Fusion. The new players join European DPS players Johannes ‘shax’ Nielsen and William ‘SparkR’ Andersson, bringing the team to six in total so far.
Road to redemption
The new appointments follow a disappointing run in 2021 where the team picked up just one win in this Overwatch League season. While the response to these signings was largely positive, there is a lot of work ahead for the team if they are to improve their current track record.
They also have to compete with the current state of the Overwatch esports scene. Blizzard has delayed Overwatch 2 with no indication of a release date. As EsportsNews UK point out in their article, this throws the scene into the uncertainty of its future.
However, this looks like a strong roster. London Spitfire has also bounced back from bad runs before, so here’s wishing them the best of luck.
That’s it from me folks, I’ll catch you on the flip side!
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