UK university esports body the NUEL has announced its first women’s League of Legends tournament.
The competition starts on Friday October 23rd and is due to run for five weeks.
It’s open to all women and femme students in the UK. Women (including transgender women) and femme-identifying or femme-presenting non-binary students of all abilities are invited to take part in a friendly environment.
Prospective participants will be asked upon registration how they would describe their gender identity, and the NUEL will run the tournament on a trust system. In line with its code of conduct for all its tournaments, toxic behaviour will prompt ‘severe action’ by the NUEL’s admin team.
Participants in this tournament will also be able to take part in the NUEL’s usual League of Legends university tournament, which will take place on Wednesday evenings and is open to all.
Cross-university teams (with players from different universities) are permitted in this tournament, and if a player does not have a team already, the NUEL says it will help to find them a team.
“For us, this tournament will be an opportunity to showcase talent from underrepresented groups, including behind-the-scenes product management, league operations, broadcast production, and casting,” the NUEL said in a press release.
“The decision to run this tournament comes after consultation with a range of stakeholders over the summer, and we see this as one of numerous steps we can take to support diversity in university esports.”
The NUEL
“We considered various options (e.g. mixed gender tournaments, different games, full season vs one-day events, etc.), and hope that the approach we have taken strikes the right balance between accessibility and competition.
“We’re looking forward to seeing how the community responds, and will look to learn and develop the tournament as we go.”
This tournament is supported by both Women in Games and the British Esports Association’s Women in Esports initiative.
Morgan Ashurst, British Esports Association Marketing Manager and Women in Esports Committee Member, said: “In our mission to help promote inclusivity and diversity within the esports industry, we’re very excited to be involved in The NUEL’s first ever Women’s League of Legends tournament. This is a great opportunity to highlight new, emerging talent within the UK in this 5-week tournament.”
Marie-Claire Isaaman, CEO of Women in Games, added: “Women in Games is delighted to support the first League of Legends tournament for women and non-binary players at UK universities, and encourages all universities to participate, putting forward both players and broadcast talent.”
Select matches will be broadcast live every week on twitch.tv/thenuel.
To sign up to the tournament, players can fill out this form.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
