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Esports News UK is teaming up with UK organisation CTRL Esports to raise money this Christmas via the 2024 CTRL Charity Valorant Tournament.
It’s been quite some time since we last did something for charity at ENUK, so we wanted to do something new this Christmas. However, with some manic IRL and work stuff going on, we haven’t had the time to put something nice and exclusive together for you (yeah yeah, spare us the excuses, Dom).
Luckily, the lovely folks at CTRL Esports reached out to us to promote their charity event, and we thought timing-wise it’d be great to back that instead. So we are!
We’re going to be running a livestreamed esports quiz and interview with CTRL – more on that later in the article. But first:
(Update: December 16th) CTRL Esports raised £1,755 for charity via this stream!
What is the 2024 CTRL Charity Valorant Tournament?
The third CTRL Charity Valorant Tournament will bring grassroot esports teams as well as various other teams and companies together to raise money and awareness for Cancer Research UK.
It will start from 5.45pm GMT on December 13th and run across the weekend of December 14th and 15th 2024 on the CTRL Esports Twitch channel, with full production from University of Staffordshire students and others.
5v5 teams can sign up to take part in the tournament for a minimum entry fee of just £10, with all money raised going to charity. It will be online via the Challengermode portal.
It will have 32-64 teams competing, including those from Tier 2/3, university teams, Game Changers teams and more.
The event will be a double elimination bracket, allowing teams to play more and not be eliminated straight away. Games will be streamed on the CTRL Twitch channel.
There will also be some forfeits for casters and the CTRL owners once certain milestones are reached, including eggs, bean boozled, ice buckets and baths and even shaving CTRL Ben’s head.
All skill levels and people are welcome, and you can sign up using the form link in the tweet below:
George Lewin, CTRL Esports COO, said: “For our third annual Christmas Charity Event, we have decided to go bigger and better, with the quality of production to graphics and casters. We are using the fantastic University of Staffordshire resources and students to allow us to do this for this year’s event.
“All production will be done in-house, in-person at Staffs. We simply cannot wait to showcase what we have in store for everyone.
“It’s a great chance for the grassroot scene to get together and play some games for a wonderful cause, whilst showcasing some of the amazing talent we have in the grassroot and collegiate scene.”
George Lewin, CTRL Esports
“We have also been incredibly lucky to be sponsored by Overclockers, Endgame Gear and Noblechairs to hand out some amazing prizes. Not only do all of these companies provide fantastic services in esports, they are willing to help out teams such as ourselves to promote an amazing cause and support the ever-growing grassroot scene within the UK.
“I’d also like to shoutout the amazing staff at the University of Staffordshire for helping us out with production, a massive shoutout to our sponsor Ntesports for always being there, supporting us within any ventures or plans and being behind us 100%, and lastly you, the people that join and donate to a simply wonderful cause.”
It’s also worth noting that CTRL are running a Christmas raffle every day in the run-up to Christmas, with a Noblechairs gaming chair valued at £500 up for grabs, giving you more reason to donate. A £10 entry will give you 10 raffle tickets, which can be allocated how you wish.
Join the UK esports Christmas interview and quiz to win Valorant RP prizes!
Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco will be interviewing some of the CTRL Esports team live on the CTRL Esports Twitch stream on 3.40pm GMT on Saturday December 14th 2024.
It’s been a while since we interviewed CTRL Esports about the students that set it up a few years ago, so we’re looking forward to asking them how things have gone since then, and what’s next for them, plus we’ll be sure to sprinkle in some festive and lighthearted questions!
Then, after the interview, at around 4pm GMT, we’ll be hosting a UK esports quiz! We’ll give away some Valorant RP prizes to the top three viewers taking part, and will aim to keep this UK Valorant-themed, so get your knowledge up to speed and have your smartphone ready to take part – and we’ll see you on stream!
We’ll also be helping to promote the charity initiative across our channels.
You can donate to the CTRL Esports Charity Christmas event 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.
