Aston University’s first LAN esports tournament in Valorant took place earlier this month, and more than 100 students were in attendance.
The university joined forces with its student gaming community to host a Valorant esports tournament, which was open to all students and took place on February 11th and 12th 2023.
Featuring a double-elimination bracket format, teams of five players competed to become the Aston Valorant champions. Matches were best-of-one, with teams randomly assigned.
The tournament was held on the university campus and was organised by student volunteers from the Aston Gaming and Esports Society.
💥💥Aston Valorant Series 2023 💥💥@AstonUniversity First ever Esports LAN Tournament starts on the 11th of February 🎮🎮
— Aston Gaming/Esports Society (@astongamingsoc) January 28, 2023
Supported by @nse_gg @IntelGaming pic.twitter.com/fea7xDJ9uS
The event marked the first LAN tournament in Aston University history and was recorded and cast for audiences to watch. The university hopes the tournament will foster community building and growth of the esports scene on campus.
Aston Uni has a solid history in esports.
Back in 2016, the old Aston Aunties League of Legends team represented the UK in the European University Esports Masters League of Legends tournament, and in recent years, Aston has organised League of Legends series and other Aston Valorant events.
What was said about Aston University’s first LAN event
Professor Aleks Subic, Vice-Chancellor & Chief Executive of Aston University, said about Aston University’s first LAN: “I am really pleased to see our students taking the initiative in driving our esports agenda. This tournament is just the beginning of what we hope to achieve in developing esports at Aston.”
Jack Carmell, from the Aston Gaming & Esports Society, added: “With over 100 students turning up for our first LAN weekend event, we’re proud to ignite our mission of bringing more in-person events to life. This is just the start of our journey to build a thriving esports community in Birmingham.”
Student Anurag Prasad commented: “This was one of the best LANs I’ve ever been to. There was phenomenal attention to detail and planning.”
Haroon Hussain, another student, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the tournament, which had a balance of competitiveness and enjoyment. That’s pretty rare to experience playing Valorant; everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and utilised the two rooms well. I was super happy to win the LAN with people I had just met on the day really, and I’m glad to see such events are taking place more frequently within the university.”
Aston also wrote about the Valorant LAN on its 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.
