Coventry College’s esports arm, Coventry Crosshairs, have won an international award for promoting women’s engagement in the video game and esports industry.
Coventry Crosshairs won Top Collegiate Organisation at The*GameHERs Awards 2022.
The franchise’s seven-player Women in Esports team, who are all students at Coventry College, picked up the award as Coventry Crosshairs was recognised for its sustained commitment to fostering positivity, building an encouraging and inclusive community, and increasing opportunities for young people in the esports industry.
The*GameHERs Awards is an annual international award show recognising the work of women and/or femme identifying people across all aspects of gaming.
The online ceremony was watched by thousands across the globe, with Coventry Crosshairs beating four other finalists to pick up the Top Collegiate Organisation award.
The news comes after another win for Coventry last year. Shoubna Naika-Taylor, aka Queenbeesenpai, curriculum manager of digital at Coventry College and co-founder of the Crosshairs, won Top Educator in the Rising Star category in 2021.
You can see the full list of winners below, as well as the GameHers 2022 nominees and GameHers 2021 winners here.
Coventry Crosshairs was founded in 2019 and has 50 student members who are studying a mix of Level 2 Game Design and Level 3 Esports at Coventry College as well as those outside of the curriculum area such as Business, Sports and 3D Architecture.
The team plays and streams Overwatch 2, Rocket League and Valorant, with learners having opportunities to gain experience for a career in esports and related industries.
“Winning makes me so excited for women and marginalised genders in esports as we are making a difference one step a time.”
Alice Moroto, Coventry College esports student
Coventry Crosshairs’ Women in Esports team also recently reached the semi-finals of the women’s Overwatch 2 tournament in the British Esports Student Championship.
Alice Moroto, who is studying Level 3 BTEC in Esports at Coventry College and was one of the seven to pick up the award, said: “I am so proud to be a part of such an amazing team at Coventry Crosshairs. I am so happy to have had this experience, being able to achieve so much within such a short amount of time and we could not have done it without each other.
“Winning makes me so excited for women and marginalised genders in esports as we are making a difference one step a time.”
Shoubna Naika-Taylor, curriculum manager of digital at Coventry College and co-founder of Coventry Crosshairs, added: “We are really proud of the team and their well-deserved recognition fighting for inclusion and increasing involvement of women and marginalised genders in esports.
“The awards were a great platform to showcase the team and their success this year. They have had a great year – improving on their standing in the British championship. This award has been a great confidence boost for all the team members who I know will continue to go from strength to strength.
“The esports programme at Coventry College is hugely popular and this award demonstrates our continued commitment to making esports a welcoming and supportive place for everyone.”
There’s more about the esports programmes at Coventry College 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.
