Amazon University Esports, a tournament series for university students in the UK and Ireland, has returned for the spring split with a new university leaderboard.
Apex Legends has been added for the first time as a regular season tournament, joining the likes of League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, CSGO, Clash Royale, Rocket League, Overwatch 2 and Rainbow Six Siege.
Another new addition for this academic year is the Amazon University Esports Leaderboard, a ranking system where every team and player can contribute to their university’s points total by taking part and winning games.
After the Winter split, the University of Warwick is currently in the lead (insert surprised Pikachu meme here), but with the leaderboard continuing into spring it still remains all to play for. Imperial College London is second and the University of Bristol is third.
Separate tournament NSE has had a leaderboard for a few years now, and last year saw University of Warwick named UK’s Esports University of the Year for fourth year in a row in the NSE standings.
It’s also been confirmed that the Valorant university tournament will now award Beacon points to Valorant teams.
The Amazon University Esports team has also announced the University Tour, a tour of multiple universities across the country, which aims to raise awareness of the competition and provide students with a variety of experiences linked to the environment of esports and gaming.
University Tour is set to launch in the UK in Spring, visiting eight universities around the UK, to be announced soon.
Amazon University Esports Spring Split 2023 leads to Europe-wide Masters tournament
All of the Amazon University Esports tournaments start afresh for the Spring season, with teams playing regularly over eight weeks and competing to feature in the grand finals in March and April.
Players of League of Legends, Valorant, Rocket League, Teamfight Tactics and Clash Royale will also have the opportunity to compete to represent Great Britain at the Amazon University Esports Masters, the on-site competition that brings together the best teams from 16 countries, who will seek to be crowned European champions at university level.
Update (March 9th 2023): Students from six UK universities are taking part in the seventh annual Amazon University Esports Masters (AUEM) competition to win €20,000 and the title of European Champion.
The 680 university participants representing 21 countries across Europe include students from the University of Kent, De Montfort University, Staffordshire University, University of Exeter, University of East Anglia and the University of Warwick.
Another new feature of this year’s revamped competition will see teams from the MENA region, including United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco, join students from Europe in the EMEA tournament for Rocket League and Teamfight Tactics.
Live finals will be held for both League of Legends and Valorant as well as a major offline event held in July on the world stage.
David Jackson, Amazon University Esports UK & Ireland Country Manager, said: “Our core goals are to increase participation, create a positive and supportive environment for students, and help develop the grassroots of UK and Ireland esports. After a successful Winter split, I am delighted to begin a new phase of Amazon University Esports in the UK and Ireland.
“This term we plan to step it up: with the launch of the brand-new University Tour on campuses around the UK, continued development of the university leaderboard, more support for student society events, more opportunities for students to get involved and (details soon to be revealed) an even bigger live finals event.”
David Jackson, Amazon University Esports
The organisation also has a focus on education, with workshops, training and guest lectures available.
There are also dozens of paid roles offered for early-career esports broadcasters and league operations staff, which organisers say helps support the pipeline of future esports professionals.
The separate Amazon University Esports competition returns after a winter split which featured over 1,000 university teams from more than 100 UK universities, alongside dozens of community gaming events and many students getting their first work experience in the industry.
Amazon University Esports is present in more than 20 countries on four continents. It’s the branding in the UK for what was previously known as NUEL tournaments, with NUEL still on board running the Amazon University Esports tournaments, but the NUEL branding not as prominent.
Registration for the second split competitions are now open, and more information can be found on the Amazon University Esports website.
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.
