Amazon University Esports Masters content in partnership with NUEL / Photo by Tom P Morley
The UK will play host to the Amazon University Esports Masters 2023 (AUEM 23 or AUE Masters aka UEM) LAN finals for the first time this weekend, but who is taking part and what should you know about the event? Dom Sacco takes a look.
The AUEM 23 location and key info
The live finals will take place on Saturday July 8th at the state-of-the-art Confetti X esports complex in Nottingham.
Six of the best university esports teams from Europe will compete – four from Germany, one from the Netherlands and one from Turkey – in Valorant, League of Legends and Rocket League.
This is the eighth Amazon University Esports Masters. It’s run by Spanish technology company GGTech Entertainment, which recently acquired NUEL. The finals will be delivered in the UK by NUEL, in partnership with the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies.
And Esports News UK will be there to cover the action.
118 tickets have gone so far, but there’s a few left, so if you want to attend, grab your free ticket to the Amazon University Esports Masters 2023 Live Finals here.
You can also watch the action via twitch.tv/uemasters.
AUEM 23 casters & broadcast talent
AUEM features an all-UK team of rising casters and broadcast talent, several of which already have plenty of LAN experience.
The UK is known for producing excellent esports broadcast talent and there’s no exception here.
- Stanley ‘Greyhart’ Barker (Host)
- Maxwell ‘BlackBloxer’ Calvert (League of Legends)
- Jack ‘Middlecott’ Davies (League of Legends)
- Kieran ‘Kairo’ Tulloch (Rocket League and Valorant)
- Harry ‘Hazza’ Chapman (Rocket League and Valorant)
- Harry ‘Docda’ Evans (Valorant)
Kairo said: “The greatest thing about university esports competition is that there’s an entry for people to see what esports is actually like. You have a great opportunity to learn and gain that hunger to play better.
“I think AUEM 23 being a European competition and playing against other countries also makes it a higher tier of competition. I expect to see loads of people shouting and cheering for their favourite teams. And I expect to see high octane action which I think all these teams have already shown in the qualifiers all the way up to these grand finals.”
There are plenty of other staff involved, including Lauryn Halpenny:
AUEM 23 grand final matches
- League of Legends best-of-five final, 9.45am BST
- Rocket League best-of-seven final, 3.15pm BST
- Valorant best-of-five final, 5pm BST
The AUEM 23 teams – their rosters, background and comments
Now, onto what we promised – who’s playing at the Amazon University Esports Masters AUEM 23 grand finals in Nottingham.
League of Legends
AIX Schwer (Rheinisch Westfälische Hochschule Aachen, RWTH Aachen University), Germany
- Acrodor (top)
- xShadezz (jungle)
- Shiro (mid)
- Yänkler (ADC)
- Chaki (support)
- TrippleJ (sub)
Last year’s fourth place team in the University Esports Masters, AIX Schwer recently made it through the playoffs, and quite comfortably too.
They defeated France’s UDL Esport and Poland’s Politechnika Gdańska 2-0 to reach the grand final in the UK.
Hear what AIX support player Chaki had to say here:
Dr Buhmann Akademie H (Dr. Buhmann Schule & Akademie), Germany
- goose (top)
- techoteco (jungle)
- niceguyben (mid)
- Marth (ADC)
- Wildenbruch (support)
- Acrive (sub)
Dr. Buhmann Schule & Akademie’s League of Legends team is notable, not only because each first-team member was or is Challenger, they’re part of a scholarship project in Hannover, AND they compete in the Prime League together (as HNVR aka Hannover Esports).
The players live together in an apartment complex and have a gaming arena/studio to play competitive matches from.
“We are going to train even harder to take the European trophy this time, we will not make the same mistake again.”
Acrive, Dr Buhmann Akademie H
We got some comments from sub player Marco ‘Acrive’ Glitz, who told Esports News UK: “A concern on our mind is dealing with the big expectations people have of us. We are a team that not only plays in the 2nd Division of Prime League with the same roster, sees each other almost daily, but also have scholarship at the Dr.Buhmann School & Academy for playing League of Legends.
“With all of these factors, you would think you can just win it all as long as you give it your best. We saw back when we played at the German Uniliga finals and didn’t take the trophy with us, that we can not go on with that school of thought.
“We are going to train even harder to take the European trophy this time, we will not make the same mistake again.”
Jungler Techoteco also said the team have ‘the power of friendship’ to see them through.
Rocket League
Dr Buhmann Akademie H (Dr. Buhmann Schule & Akademie), Germany
- sascha
- Zeddo
- pzy
- Fabso
Dr. Buhmann Akademie H’s second esports team at the AUEM 23 finals competes in Rocket League. And they compete very well indeed.
They’ve got quite the reputation, having won several tournaments already this year, including the Uniliga Winter Season, UniRocketeers Spring and the major one – the Collegiate Rocket League (CRL) 2023 World Championship, where they defeated the USA’s Fisher College in the grand final. And they’ll be looking to add to their wins at UEM.
So, write this team off at your peril. But remember, this is LAN, and anything can happen.
Amsterdam Carball Esports (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences), Netherlands
- Cass
- defzzy
- JLT
- Localbananah
The greatest Dutch Rocket League student team includes a few top 100 players, and Amsterdam Carball Esports are hoping to win at the AUEM 23 finals.
They’re motivated and have been aiming for top four in the European university scene.
We caught up with Jelte ‘JLT’ Groothuis for more info.
JLT told us: “We as a team are excited to be travelling to England and competing there in the final of AUEM. Up until this point all our matches have been a blast and super close so we were extra thrilled that we made it to the final.
“We’re of course playing against the CRL world chanpions. But we also made 5th-8th in that same World Championship so we’re confident that on a good day we can beat anyone.”
JLT, Amsterdam Carball Esports
“Sadly one of our players couldnt make it (Localbananah), he will be missed and I will try and fill in the gaps. We especially can’t wait to be back playing on a LAN stage in front of a crowd, as it really doesn’t get any more exiting than that, while playing Rocket League.
“The experience so far has been a blast and we will definetly continue this trend this weekend.”
Valorant
Winx Club (Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi), Turkey
- Flexxin
- Symbolize
- StarX
- Rabble
- Zewka
- Shino (sub)
Winx Club say they have an ongoing friendship since the beginning of their university time together.
“Our friendship is what makes the game we play the best,” they said. “We managed to come here as the first place in the University Esports Turkey tournament. We wish our opponents luck. Hopefully they can get a round against us.”
“It will be an exciting offline experience for the team as we are all students in different departments. The thrill of playing in an offline arena hits different, it is the dream for every player.”
Shino, Winx Club
Berke Yiğit Yılmaz, aka Shino, also told Esports News UK: “We’ve been practicing since autumn 2022, it’s been a long journey for us, we’ve seeded 1st in regional qualifiers and came this far undefeated. The team wants to win the title.
“It will be an exciting offline experience for the team as we are all students in different departments. The thrill of playing in an offline arena hits different, it is the dream for every player.
“It can also destabilize your focus at some level though. But we are going to get on the stage and play what we’ve planned.”
Goettlike (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen), Gemany)
- GotchYa
- Duplo
- i love Cats
- Yannu
- l1nkc
- HeldVomKiwiFeld (sub)
This German Valorant side won the Uniliga university league and come into the AUEM 23 finals confident.
Duplo and GotchYa have been playing together for five years (three in CS and two in Valorant), so they have that strong connection.
And the team say they have plenty of experience.
Will we see this side win in Nottingham? Time will tell.
Good luck to all participants and we hope you enjoyed our AUEM 23 preview.
For more info: Follow @uemasters on Twitter and check out our announcement article: UK to host University Esports Masters LAN finals for the first time
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.
