UK children’s charity the NSPCC has announced the launch of the inaugural Game Safe Cup, in partnership with Epic.LAN, National Student Esports (NSE) and SAF.
The free-to-enter EA Sports FC 24 tournament will feature a creator-led format to give players the opportunity to play against their favourite high-profile EA Sports FC streamers.
The tournament forms part of the NSPCC’s wider Game Safe Festival, which will run from February 5th to 11th 2024 and includes learning opportunities as well as new ways to donate and fundraise for the charity.
This festival aims to celebrate ‘all that is great about the world of gaming and encourage parents, professionals who work with children and the gaming community to join the charity in its mission to create a safer online world for young people’.
Tournament registration will open on January 3rd 2024 and players can find out how to sign up by following saf_gg on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Online qualifiers will begin on January 13th 2024 and successful contestants will have the opportunity to play in an all-expense paid live final at Confetti X in Nottingham on February 10th and 11th.
Epic.LAN is of course the support agency that runs events, including its own regular UK esports LANs, NSE is National Student Esports, which runs university tournaments, and SAF is a UK esports organisation focused on esports football games. And EA Sports FC is the latest football game from EA, which revealed its Pro esports ecosystem a few months ago after breaking away from FIFA.
Alongside the Game Safe Cup, the NSPCC will host a range of online and in-person events as part of the Game Safe Festival.
These will be designed to equip people with the tools and confidence they need to protect young players, bring together key industry stakeholders to improve safeguarding practices across the sector. It all aims to encourage people to fundraise for the charity by broadcasting their gameplay live as part the charity’s Press Play for the NSPCC campaign.
“The Game Safe Cup and Festival is another way in which we can help to educate parents and professionals on how to keep children safe when online and celebrate our shared passion for gaming.”
Lewie Procter, NSPCC
Lewie Procter, associate head of gaming at the NSPCC, said: “This tournament is the first exciting adventure of ours into the world of gaming.
“At the NSPCC, we work tirelessly to protect children both in the physical and online world. The Game Safe Cup and Festival is another way in which we can help to educate parents and professionals on how to keep children safe when online and celebrate our shared passion for gaming.
“This inaugural tournament will help us to embed ourselves into this world and enable us to understand and move with the ever-changing technology of gaming.”
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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.
