The first University Halo League LAN at London’s College of Esports has been a hit with the community on Twitch.
It took place last weekend (Saturday March 23rd 2024) and was attended by over 50 people, including known members of the pro EU Halo community such as Darren ‘Looney’ Pritchard, Stu ‘Outqasted’ Graham and streamer Stuart ‘iSpiteful’.
Organisers said in a press release: “The broadcast ended up being one of the most-viewed university-level events in the UK ever on Twitch. This is especially impressive due to this being the largest in-person event hosted by the College of Esports and the first in-person event for University Halo League (UHL).
“Over 2,386 unique viewers tuned in throughout the day with an average viewership of 495 people.”
Live views reached 4,437 in total, with 798 max viewers across the six-hour stream overall.
Durham Defenders from Durham University emerged as Spring Champions on the day, beating the University of Leeds 3-0 in the grand final despite a very close Empyrean CTF Game 3.
Durham also failed to lose a map in the qualifying stage of the tournament.
Alex Reed, University Halo League Founder, told Esports News UK: “It was the most watched student esports stream I’ve worked during my six years working for NSE and University Esports.
“It blew our expectations away. We had more people in person attending than we expected including some parents and teams that didn’t qualify like MMU and Confetti.
“What threw us back was multiple people commenting it was the highest quality European Halo broadcast they’d ever seen – including the HCS ones.”
“This was the most watched student esports stream I’ve worked during my six years working for NSE and University Esports. It blew our expectations away.”
Alex Reed, University Halo League
The event was also attended by Professor Philip Wilson, Chair of the Board at the College of Esports.
He said during an interview broadcast live between matches: “It gives our students the opportunity to get a taste of a professional life in this industry.”
As well as College of Esports, the University Halo League LAN was also supported by uni esportsb ody NSE (National Students Esports) and UHL’s twin organisation EHL (European Halo League).
Pro Halo scene compliments first University Halo League LAN
Organisers said that response from the greater competitive Halo scene was ‘very warm’, with multiple members of the community commenting on the quality of the broadcast.
Harry ‘Wonderboy’ Channon, pro Halo coach for team Foe, the current highest-placing team in Europe (who finished 5th/6th in the recent HCS Major in Arlington), said: “The University Halo League LAN was a delightfully suprising watch from a viewer perspective – as an appreciator of good production value, the team behind the scenes went above and beyond their means to provide a entertaining and polished production.
“I would go as far as to say that the show was comparable to that of a HCS Major/World Championship level production, the team should be proud.”
Other viewers also compared the event to the HCS-produced stream, with some remarking that it was on par if not higher in quality.
Content creator iSpiteful also said on-stream during an interview that ‘the vibes are immaculate, it’s a really cool venue’.
EU Assault added: “Hold up, why is this stream’s production quality better than anything that’s not the Halo main stream?”
AapoKaapo_TTV commented: “Omfg this 3D studio. Pretty sick.”
College of Esports student and regular Esports News UK event-goer Finnlo Merry explained the production side of the first University Halo League LAN in this Twitter thread:
University Halo League LAN brackets and teams
Durham had a one map advatage going into the Grand Finals and ended up winning 3-0 as mentioned.
The maps were:
- WR1 – SH Recharge KotH Solitude
- LR1 – KOTH Live Fire SH Recharge
- WF – CTF Aquarius SH Solitude
- LF – CTF Forbidden OB Live Fire TS Streets
- GF – KOTH Recharge CTF Empyrean
The full event VoD can be seen here:
European Halo League announces merger
Another announcement that occurred during the event was that the parent organisation of UHL, the European Halo League, has merged with broadcasting company Atlas Esports to form what they’re calling ‘the largest tournament organiser operating in Europe after the closure of Europahalo earlier this year’.
They released an announcement video and a new set of branding across the organisation due to this merger.
They both produced the streams for the HCS Open Series earlier this year and together they believe they can ‘bring EuropeanHalo to a greater height than it has ever achieved’.
Further reading
To read more about the event, there’s this account from College of Esports first-year International Esports Business & Digital Marketing student, Aria Coggins:
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.
