For transparency: Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco used to work full-time for British Esports between September 2016 and February 2021, and currently does some freelance work for them, producing their weekly email newsletter
The collegiate British Esports Student Champs 24 finals took place at Nottingham’s Confetti X studio this weekend, and four winning teams were crowned.
In Valorant, the Burnley FC Bees from Burnley College beat reigning champions CONEL Cyphers (from the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London) 2-1 in an incredibly close series.
The Cyphers went ahead 3-1 in game one, but Burnley fought back with some good defense to make it 5-4 to the Cyphers. And it was the Cyphers who took the first map, Lotus, 13-5.
On map two, Bind, Burnley started off very well, and were around 8-5 ahead at one point. But CONEL fought back hard to make it 12-11. Burnley then turned up the heat to somehow turn it around and win map two 14-12!
It was tense heading into map three, Ascent, and incredibly close. The game was back and forth all the way, with the score tied 11-11 in the late-game. It should have been 12-11 to the Cyphers, but they failed to disarm the spike!
But Burnley showed their resilience when it counted – at one point nadz pulled off an incredible 1v4 – and they took the final map 13-11.
T0ba, who also plays in the Polaris Challengers North league, was named the Alienware MVP of the match.
The Cyphers had some top moments too, with DanDan being one of their best players.
One person in the audience said it was one of the best matches of Valorant they’d seen.
Elsewhere, earlier today, Newcastle College’s NCL Vikings (pictured above) beat Exeter College’s Eagles.exe 4-2 in a thrilling Rocket League final.
Newcastle picked up game one, but Exeter came back into it. The games started off reckless and raw, with both teams throwing cars forward to score goals. But as the match went on, both sides took a more mature, defensive approach.
The final resulted in some real end-to-end moments, and some beautiful goals scored – and incredible saves made – from both teams. But it was Dom, Calamity and Burkeyy on Newcastle who did enough to get the victory, with Dom being named Alienware MVP. But props to Dathokami, JFC and Nuqqet, who put up a good fight for the Eagles.
Yesterday, in League of Legends, CONEL Cyphers (from the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London) beat the Belfas Met College Buffalos 2-0. We’re told elos for the players were around Emerald/Diamond level.
CONEL absolutely smashed game one 29-5, with a gold lead of almost 20k in just 20 minutes.
Belfast made a few role swaps for game two, and S2a became their carry as Kayle, picking up a pentakill in the late-game, but it wasn’t enough to prevent CONEL from winning. Pawlak, the Alienware MVP on their team, raced into Belfast’s base as Ahri to win the game – and the series.
There is more to this story, with some internal friction on the side of Belfast causing them issues leading up to the final, and there were clearly some nerves there on the day, but it was close to going to three games.
And in Overwatch 2, Exeter College’s Odyssey.exe defeated the Confetti Arrows 4-0.
It was a dominant showing from Exeter, whose aggressive playstyle was too much for the Confetti team.
Clique was also named the Alienware MVP on Exeter’s team.
There were also audience showmatches that took place in between the finals, with the Rocket League one featuring Tadpole and Kash from UK esports org Resolve playing against one another. Members of the audience filled the slots, including a nine-year-old Lenny.
A team featuring UK esports badboy Georgester (known for Valorant drama at i72) also defeated British Esports in the Valorant showmatch. And in the League 2v2 ARAM showmatch, British Esports intern Josh and his brother lost 2-0 to teachers from Burnley college.
You can check out all the player names and casters from the day in our British Esports Student Champs 2024 preview article.
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.
