The University Esports Masters (UE Masters) has announced the launch of Season 2024, featuring competitive gaming tournaments for uni students across Europe.
The season includes tournaments in League of Legends, Valorant, Rocket League, and for the first time, Teamfight Tactics (TFT) and Clash Royale open tournaments.
The other main news is that Ukraine is back in the competition this year. Both Ukraine and Russia stopped participating two years ago, because of the war. Now Ukraine have rejoined, while Russia is not allowed to participate.
University Esports Masters is the international competition for university students, where students from all over Europe compete for the title of European University Champion. The 2024 edition will be the eighth season of the competition, and will have a total prize pool of €14,000.
“The main goals of UEMasters are to foster a sense of community among players across Europe, give them the opportunity to compete in high quality international tournaments and provide opportunities to the next generation to take esports further.”
University Esports UK & Ireland
It’s put on by University Esports UK & Ireland (previously known as NUEL), an esports competition and grassroots community organiser with thousands of participants from over 110 universities across the UK and Ireland. NUEL was acquired by GGTech last year.
The goal of the tournament series is to foster a sense of community, give participants competitive experiences and the chance to explore a career in esports.
Last year, the University Esports Masters 2023 LAN finals took place in Nottingham, UK, with German and Turkish teams winning.
The LAN finals location for this year has not yet been revealed, but organisers said that the grand final for both League of Legends and Valorant ‘will be played in person at a surprise location in July’.
During this season, University Esports Masters will be supported by several game publishers including Riot Games.
University Esports Masters tournament info and how students can qualify
Open Tournaments
The single player games included in UEMasters – Teamfight Tactics and Clash Royale – are now open to students to sign up.
To participate, students must be enrolled in universities registered with the associated national competitions (in the UK, this competition is University Esports), and not be professional players.
Registration is open until March 6th 2024, and interested players can register via the following links:
- Teamfight Tactics: https://uemasters.com/competition/tournament/university-esports-masters-2024-teamfight-tactics
- Clash Royale: https://uemasters.com/competition/tournament/university-esports-masters-2024-clash-royale
The Teamfight Tactics competition will take place on March 9th and 10th, distributing a prize pool of €550 among its top players.
The Clash Royale tournament will be held on March 16th and 17th, with a prize pool of €350 for the top players.
Team-Based Games
Teams will be formed from each country’s national qualifiers, allowing students to represent their country in the competition and vie for the European Champion title.
The teams representing Great Britain in League of Legends, Valorant, and Rocket League will be the winners of the Spring seasons of University Esports, a competition organised in the UK by NUEL, and the British University Esports Championship, organised by NSE.
You can see the UK & Ireland University Esports 2023/24 Winter Split winners here.
Teams from universities in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are not able to qualify through UK competitions, but instead can qualify for UEM through the Ireland Collegiate Esports Series.
The dates for the Rocket League tournament are as follows: the Swiss Round will take place on May 4th and 5th, followed by the Playoffs and Final on May 11th and 12th. The prize pool for the top teams totals €2,100. More information: https://uemasters.com/competition/tournament/university-esports-masters-2024-rocket-league
For the League of Legends competition, the Swiss Round is scheduled for April 20th and 21st, followed by the Playoffs on May 18th and 19th. More information: https://uemasters.com/competition/tournament/university-esports-masters-2024-league-of-legends
As for the Valorant competition, the Swiss Round will be held on April 27th and 28th, with the Playoffs taking place on May 25th and 26th. More information: https://uemasters.com/competition/tournament/university-esports-masters-2024-valorant
As mentioned, the Grand Final for both Valorant and LoL will be played in person at a surprise location in July, with the top two teams competing in a best-of-five format to determine the European Champion. The prize pool for each game is €5,500.
Great Britain saw mixed results in last year’s University Esports Masters
Looking at the Great Britain performances, in Rocket League, the University of East Anglia ‘Bluejays’ finished fourth and University of Warwick made it through to the quarter finals – both teams eventually losing to ‘Sharpness’ from the Saudi Esports Academy.
In the Valorant competition, Exeter Esports and Staffordshire Esports both reached the quarter finals, only to be knocked out by Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain) and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Germany) respectively.
Great Britain suffered all-too-familiar struggles in the League of Legends competition, with no teams reaching the playoff stages.
There’s more information at uemasters.com. You can also check out our interview with NUEL and GGTech on how they’re moving beyond UK university esports.
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.
