Norton College have been named the UK’s best school and sixth form at Super Smash Bros Ultimate Team Battle, after winning the grand final at London’s Gfinity Arena a few days ago.
Their Smash Bros team Thunk ‘N’ Dunk beat Langley Grammar School 3-1 in the final to be crowned champions. Calday Grange Grammar School and New College Swindon also competed in the LAN finals.
Kyle from the winning team said: “I feel excited! It’s been a really fun experience overall, and everyone’s been a good sport. It’s been a really positive experience.”
Danny from Norton College was awarded ‘Best Shoutcaster’ after casting alongside professionals Nimmz, Alysia Judge and Bowie the Hero on the day, while other student casters TJ and Freddie from Valley Park School also received praise for their casting abilities, as per this article on the Digital Schoolhouse website.
The event also featured a careers panel consisting of Ukie IP coordinator Mo Ali, Sheridans games lawyer Anna Poulter-Jones, NSE senior partnerships manager Becky Wright and Excel Esports creative production manager Manisha Dhokia.
And our 2022 #dshesports #SmashBrosUltimate Team Battle CHAMPIONS are… @NortonCollege!!!????????????
— Digital Schoolhouse (@DigSchoolhouse) March 29, 2022
Huge congratulations team, you’ve absolutely smashed it today!???? Well done to all finalists & shoutcasters ???? pic.twitter.com/MsCVKms0Ya
Last week’s live final was the first in three years, following the 2019 Digital Schoolhouse esports finals in Overwatch (which was won by King Edward VI School), due to the pandemic.
It was broadcast on Twitch on the Digital Schoolhouse channel.
The Digital Schoolhouse programme is delivered by UK games industry trade body Ukie, and uses play-based learning to engage pupils and teachers with the computing curriculum. It was the first to launch a school esports tournament in the UK on a national scale.
Digital Schoolhouse runs this tournament every year.
Last year, Digital Schoolhouse announced a separate junior school esports tournament in partnership with Nintendo UK and British game developer Outright Games. This featured the games Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Race with Ryan and Crayola Scoot.
Other collegiate esports tournaments in the UK include the British Esports Student Championships.
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.
