UK prep school Cottesmore School is planning new global esports events following a LAN event it recently hosted.
A prep school, short for preparatory school, is a type of fee-paying independent school in the UK.
Cottesmore has students aged eight to 13, and recently ran some first-of-its-kind esports tournaments solely for prep schools: one in Rocket League and another in Minecraft.
The activities were held in conjunction with school esports services provider Daigon Esports, and students were involved with casting and production. Fraser Esports and ntesports also donated prizes on the day.
“It was such an honour to host the world’s first open prep schools esports tournament. It was a dynamic gathering throughout the day with some top talent on display.”
Tom Rogerson, Cottesmore School
Teams from 10 schools took part: Beachborough School, Willington Prep, Aldro School, Holmewood House School, LVS Ascot, Brockhurst and Marlston House School, Cranleigh Prep School, Minerva Virtual Academy, Yateley Manor School and Cottesmore School themselves.
Holmewood House were crowned overall champions, with one of their players also named MVP. Willington Prep won the ‘Spirit of the Tournament’ award.
Cottesmore first embraced esports after school sporting fixtures were cancelled in spring 2020 in response to the pandemic. They held an online tournament in FIFA.
Next, they will host a global online tournament in October for prep schools around the world, and a girls-only in-person tournament in 2025.
Tom Rogerson (pictured above), headmaster at Cottesmore School, told Esports News UK: “It was such an honour to host the world’s first open prep schools esports tournament. It was a dynamic gathering throughout the day with some top talent on display. The Cottesmore home team outdid themselves with the set-up and it demonstrated our ‘old meets new’ values perfectly.
“We are a school which values nature and the outdoors and the sweet spot for us is for Cottesmore to be able to do both with success. We play cricket, climb trees, make dens and are quite a traditional seeming setting, so to be part of this world is a dynamic departure for us.”
“We set up the tournament in order to acknowledge the huge phenomenon of gaming and esports, which is developing around the world at an exponential rate.
“We will be hosting the world’s first prep schools esports tournament for girls in January, and the first online global prep schools esports tournament next term.”
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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.
