Esports federation Ireland Esports and competitive entity Esports Northern Ireland have entered into a ‘strategic alignment’ which will see both working towards a common goal together.
They will now operate as a single not-for-profit organisation operating under the existing Ireland Esports name, sharing resources and working on education and domestic tournament initiatives.
The pair said in an announcement post on the Ireland Esports website that they will be ‘respecting all communities and have the common goal to empower talent and provide pathways to compete on the international stage’.
“By adopting an all-Ireland approach, as has been seen in community and education initiatives as well as traditional sports and sporting federations, this strategic alignment is a significant step forward.”
Steve Daly, Ireland Esports
Ireland Esports is a member of the Global Esports Federation (GEF), the International Esports Federation (IeSF) and says it has close alignment with UK bodies the British Esports Federation, Esports Scotland and Esports Wales (who recently condemned IESF’s decision to lift sanctions against the Russian Esports Federation).
Esports players from Northern Ireland will have the option of playing for Ireland Esports or for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for international events, as is the case within the Olympic movement.
Last year, Northern Ireland eFootball player Emzii won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Esports Championships.
New mission statement and logo for combined Ireland Esports entity
The pair say their joining together ‘signals a bright future for esports players on the island of Ireland’ and this is marked with a new combined logo, drawing inspiration from the existing NI Esports stag logo.
“The Irish stag has been a symbol, dating back centuries within Irish folklore, representing strength, power, courage, and maturity. The stag is combined with a modern interpretation of Ireland’s symbolic Shamrock motif,” the pair said.
The mission statement for the new entity is ‘to manage and enhance the performance of Team Ireland at international competitive tournaments whilst developing domestic competitive and educational pathways’.
Chair of Ireland Esports, Steve Daly (who is also co-founder and CEO of Irish esports organisation Wylde) said: “The need to support pathways for esports athletes to compete on the international stage continues to evolve at pace. By adopting an all-Ireland approach, as has been seen in community and education initiatives as well as traditional sports and sporting federations, this strategic alignment is a significant step forward.”
Michael Smyth, Ireland Esports board member, who has acted as Team Manager for both Esports NI and Ireland Esports over the last year, added: “Both entities have been successfully working together for the past 12 months and have achieved so much. Bringing them together in a more formal fashion will help accelerate opportunities for esports talent and implement professional structures successfully.
“Much of this hard work was seen earlier this summer as we travelled to the European Games Esports Championships to showcase the talent we discovered on the island of Ireland.”
Esports in Ireland and Northern Ireland has improved in recent years, with the aforementioned national achievements, Ireland’s Nativz winning the League of Legends NLC 2023 Summer Playoffs earlier this year, and events like GamerFest taking place in Ireland featuring grassroots tournaments.
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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.
