We all know that coaches are an established part of the esports team setup, but now they’ll actually be carrying their players to events across the UK.
British coach operator National Express has been named the official public transport partner for the UK in the Red Bull Campus Clutch, and will be helping students travel the country to compete at regional semi-finals of the global Valorant tournament for university students.
The second Red Bull Campus Clutch is open to all college and university students worldwide. The first Red Bull Campus Clutch competition brought more than 400 events to 50 countries in 2021, with 25,000 student Valorant players of all levels taking part.
Registrations are now open for this year’s tournament, kicking off in August with a competitive experience that will see one team crowned the best student Valorant team in the world and €20,000 up for grabs.
Through national and regional qualifiers, alongside a two-stage, 50-team world final, in 2021 standout squads put on a show. The eventual winners of the tournament, Team Egypt, demonstrated their skills in their regional qualifiers but had never competed on the global stage before Red Bull Campus Clutch.
In the final matchup they looked sure to place second, as they went down two games to zero, however an inspired reverse sweep saw them claim a 3-2 victory. A strong showing and MVP performance meant that Team Egypt’s Mohamed ‘shalaby’ Shalaby went on to sign with a pro esports team Team Vitality.
A video surrounding last year’s winners, Team Egypt, can be found below:
This year the tournament is back, with more than 500 regional events across four months of action. Students worldwide can register now, with local qualifier events, grouped either by country or region taking place throughout August.
Each team of five will progress through qualifiers, with the top teams making their way to their respective national final. Here the country’s top student teams will go head to head, with the winners named Red Bull Campus Clutch National Final Winners, earning a chance to represent their country in the World Final.
By December from the thousands of squads that entered, only 50 teams will remain. Each will receive an all-expenses paid invite to the Red Bull Campus Clutch World Final, a LAN event held in São Paulo, Brazil, that will decide who becomes the Red Bull Campus Clutch World Final Winner.
For many, the event will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete in a live professional event and leave a legacy at their university. The winning team will also receive €20,000 in prize money, and an exclusive VIP experience at a 2023 Valorant Champions Tour event.
The news comes shortly after a 2022 Red Bull Home Ground event was announced, a higher-tier Red Bull event for Valorant.
As well as National Express, other partners are supporting Red Bull Campus Clutch this year: Intel NUC, SteelSeries and AGON by AOC all return to the tournament, with Backforce joining as a new partner for 2022.
Red Bull Campus Clutch Qualifiers kick off this August. Head to www.redbullcampusclutch.com to get the details on your country. Details on national and regional events in the Red Bull Campus Clutch can be found here.
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.
