Record numbers of university students took part in the Winter 2021 season of Amazon University Esports in the UK and Ireland, which is run by NUEL and GGTech.
More than 1,150 teams of students from 105 universities around the UK and Ireland competed weekly against each other in a range of esports games, including League of Legends, Valorant, CSGO and Overwatch. That’s up from 900 teams the year prior, with signups for the Valorant tournament more than doubling year-on-year.
The University of Nottingham more than doubled its participation, Staffordshire and Durham saw an increase of 10 and 11 teams respectively, while the University of Warwick put forward 39 teams, up from 23 last year, the highest of any university.
The Essex Video Games Society also went from eight teams in Winter 2020 to 19 in Winter 2021.
Each university can field multiple teams in each game.
There was also a record number of societies participating in NUEL’s national rep network – with 105 societies now signed up to the network and receiving support including training, coordination, free merch and promotion.
The records come during an unusual time in esports, with many events affected by the impact of Covid.
“Participation in university esports was key to both our early growth and our massive growth during freshers in September. In January we couldn’t host in-person events, so our biggest source of participation came from University Esports.”
Máté Dvornik, Aston University
Swansea University was particularly successful in the Winter season, with the ‘Swansea Academy’ team winning the Valorant tournament outright against Imperial College London, as well as second and third places in Rainbow Six Siege and CSGO (teams ‘Swansea Storm’ and ‘Swansea Storm and the Tacos’ respectively).
Alex Gregory, the Swansea Esports Valorant representative, said: “The teams across all the games are made from people who are not only determined to win and be the best, but also have fun with some friends while playing.
“They’ve proven their ability to dominate the games and have all the hope and determination to place first in the Varsity tournaments next year.”
Aston University saw staggering growth from two teams in Winter 2020 to 19 this season. It has also held internal Aston League of Legends and Aston Valorant student esports tournaments.
Máté Dvornik, esports rep for Aston University, said that participation in university esports was “key to both our early growth and our massive growth during freshers in September”, with society membership more than doubling.
“In January we couldn’t host in person events, so our biggest source of participation came from University Esports”, he said.
The full standings for the Winter 2021 season can be found on the NUEL website.
Other developments during the season
Following the success of last season’s Women and Non-Binary League of Legends tournament, a new Women and Non-Binary Valorant tournament took place, with 16 teams involved.
This season was also the first in which universities from the Republic of Ireland were permitted to compete in the NUEL tournament.
It welcomed teams from the Institute of Technology Carlow, Technological University Dublin and Waterford Institute of Technology.
The Winter season of Amazon University Esports also saw the arrival of new sponsors SteelSeries and Intel, as well as the continued involvement of Twitch Student.
Looking ahead: Next steps and the road to University Esports Masters
The Spring 2022 season of Amazon University Esports now approaches. The top 12 teams from the Winter League of Legends, Valorant, CSGO and Rainbow Six Siege tournaments have qualified for the Varsity series.
There will still be the usual ‘open’ tournaments, and this year there will be a way for new teams to qualify for Varsity through open tournaments, so new teams (or those who didn’t make it in Winter) have another chance.
Sign-ups for the Spring 2022 season are now open, with the season starting in February and the finals taking place in April.
The Spring term will also see the beginning of the annual Amazon University Esports Masters competition, with the top teams from around Europe taking part in a competitive tournament throughout the first half of the year.
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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.
