We might not have done it in football, but a Valorant team from Staffordshire University managed to win a European title yesterday.
Staffs Uni’s ‘Korean Pop Superstars’ team beat an all-Ukrainian team from the National University of Physical Education and Sport of Ukraine (NUPESU) 3-2 on Sunday.
It’s the very first time that Great Britain have won a University Esports Masters, since the tournament first began in 2016.
The Staffs Uni ‘Korean Pop Superstars’ roster consists of UK players dashh and Zion, as well as Ireland’s Diarmuid (IGL), Lithuanian player nukez (aka nkr) and Malaysian player zen.
The team were representing GB rather than the UK, with Northern Ireland universities competing for Ireland.
The Staffs Uni team took home €2,500, while the runners-up received €1,500.
Bigfoot Jodybigfoot and Maddante were the casters for the final, which accumulated more than 40,000 views throughout last weekend.
Korean Pop Superstars’ Irish IGL Diarmuid said after the win on Twitter: “University European champions. Shoutout to the boys, it’s been a fun three years. Retired.”
He added on broadcast:
“The glory feels nice. The scene’s pretty lucky that we don’t have another year with this roster. We’d roll the university scene in America too, but three of us are graduating.”
Diarmuid, Korean Pop Superstars
“Just dashh and zen would be left, but they’re hopeless without us,” Diarmuid joked. “It’s been a fun three years, but I don’t really have plans to keep going in Valorant.”
nkr added: “Sheriff demon this finals, shoutout to my brothers. Good way to finish up uni. Feels good man, now I don’t need to play this game ever again.”
Zain Lim added: “Playing as a team has definitely been fun, competing with friends just created such an atmosphere where it felt like we would beat teams due to just having better vibes than them. I would recommend university esports to others. I felt it made gaming a more social-able hobby, as over five years of university, at two different unis, I have met a bunch of people.”
Staffs Uni esports lecturer Cameron Vanloo said the team ‘only did it with 10 scrims all European Masters season’.
Interim Course Director Joshua Wales-Ferguson told Esports News UK: “Seeing students represent our esports department and the wider university on a stage such as this – and win – is incredible.
“This group of students have proved time and time again how resilient they are having come back from behind to win NUEL and now the European University Masters. This is a great testament to their skills.”
The news comes after the Staffordshire University esports team reached the UE Masters Grand Final, and UK and Ireland universities reached the European University Esports Masters 2024 playoffs stage.
Another UK university, Nottingham Trent University, finished in third place in the Valorant tournament, receiving €1,000, while TU Dublin finished 5th-6th.
UE Masters, supported by Riot Games, is the conclusion of the University Esports season, a global program with a presence in 26 countries on four continents and involving more than 100,000 students from 2,000 universities.
In the UK and Ireland, University Esports, a project organized by NUEL (a GGTech Entertainment company), has celebrated its 13th season.
The winners of its Winter Split, such as Staffordshire University, have been the national representatives in the outgoing edition of UE Masters.
You can watch the UEMasters 2024 Valorant final back on Twitch here.
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.
