Left to right: Coventry College students Daineal O’Donnell, Marcel Kajut, Arvin Lavina and Filip Krause
A Coventry gamer has raised money for charity after hosting an esports tournament with top players from across the country.
Coventry College Architecture student Arvin Lavina, 17, has helped to raise almost £500 for charity after teaming up with Coventry Crosshairs – the college’s esports team – to host the Gigabit Cup.
The two-day event, supported by internet service provider Gigabit Networks, saw 60 players across 12 teams compete in a Valorant tournament – with the winners having the chance to donate their prize money to a charity of their choice.
Filip Krause and Marcel Kajut, who are both Esports students at Coventry College and Coventry Crosshairs team members, also supported the production of the event, with other volunteers from UK colleges helping to manage the livestream and create digital branding assets.
The Crosshairs trio handed the controls over to teams from across the country to compete, using the opportunity to gain behind-the-scenes experience hosting their own event.
Burnley Bees won the tournament, beating Sleepiest Warriors in the finals, and chose to donate the money to RSPCA.
Marcel said: “The event was a massive success. Not only were we able to reach our charity donation goal, the event also brought a big group of talented people together to create something that had a positive effect in the short term and created a standard to inspire future charity events, which will also work to the same goal of raising money for charity.
“The event has also allowed me to understand what goes into running an event of this scale and has given me valuable experience which I can use to improve. I’m more than excited for the Gigabit Cup Series 2. This was only the beginning of what the grassroot events scene can do.”
Arvin, who was also one of the MCs for the event and hosted under his gaming pseudonym Misio, commented:
“The event was incredible. From production to the participants to the viewers, everyone was so engaged and hyped to watch the teams play Valorant. I loved how it panned out. Raising £500 for charity is a brilliant feeling and I really can’t thank everyone enough for playing a part in this huge project.”
Arvin ‘Misio’, Coventry College student
El ‘Eko’ Wylde, who supported the Gigabit Cup with commentary and is a shoutcaster for British Esports, said: “Arvin made sure everyone was happy, comfortable and ready for their roles at every step of the way.
“Getting so much money raised over a single weekend took a lot of planning and hard work. I wish I’d had that work ethic when I was at college!”
Related article: Coventry Crosshairs named Top Collegiate Organisation at The*GameHERs Awards 2022
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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.
