Esports News UK partnered with Ukie on a freelance basis to judge the student journalist competition
There’s something to said about turning a negative into a positive, and for Hinchley Wood School‘s Splatoon esports team, they have done just that.
At last year’s 2024 national Digital Schoolhouse esports finals day featuring Nintendo’s Splatoon 3 Switch game, Hinchley Wood’s team were left frustrated after losing. A headset may have been caught in the crossfire, as emotions ran high on stage.
This year, it was clear they came armed with a winning combination: unwavering determination, clear communication, and the power of positivity. Each team member brought something special to the party, they played their roles well, and like any winning team in esports, they moved as a unit, working together with devastating efficiency.
Whatever they had done coming into this year’s grand final, it worked.
Hinchley Wood School didn’t drop a single round in the grand finals at the Lilian Baylis Studio in London this week. They defeated the holders, AGSB Esports (Altrincham Grammar School for Boys), 3-0 in a quick best-of-five, and finished ahead of other challengers on the day, including Southend High School (third) and Dame Allan’s School (fourth).
Hinchley Wood School win the @DigSchoolhouse esports final!
They didn’t drop a single round in the national UK esports Splatoon 3 school finals today
59 schools took part and hundreds were involved in the tournament pic.twitter.com/zJKaUgif3V
— Esports News UK powered by AGON by AOC for the NLC (@Esports_News_UK) April 29, 2025
Southend started the day by beating holders AGSB, before Hinchley Wood defeated Dame Allan’s, and then Southend.
In the lower bracket, AGSB went on a run, knocking out Dame Allan’s, then Southend, to reach the grand final.
Matches were close, with some of the Turf War matches coming down to a fraction of a percentage difference between land claimed by two teams.
The returning casters on the day were BowieTheHero and Nimmz, with guest student casters also bringing their input to the matches.
Local MPs were also tuning in on the DSH Twitch channel to watch.
There was a real togetherness at the event, with rival players talking in groups with their opponents after matches. And Ukie (the UK games industry trade body that runs Digital Schoolhouse) arranged industry talks to inspire students throughout the day. One student even produced a poster for the winners, featuring one of last year’s champions, WaddleDee from AGSB Esports.
Prizes were provided by the likes of Scan Computers, which also provided equipment on the day, including chairs, monitors and headphones. Prizes included Corsair headsets and Maxx Tech fighting sticks, plus Nintendo goody bags.
ODEE, Director of Esports and Gaming at Scan Computers, and the Great Britain Esports Team Manager, was also in attendance.
And other partners included SideQuest, GAME, BLAST, Adobe Express and yours truly, Esports News UK. You can read more about the Digital Schoolhouse Splatoon 3 Tournament partners and qualifiers here.
So, what did Hinchley Wood School do differently this year, to come out on top? Let’s hear from the team themselves.
Interview with Hinchley Wood School on winning the Digital Schoolhouse 2025 final
“Guys, we’re on soon. We’re on now. We’re on now. Get ready. Get ready.”
I’m in the audience when I overhear one of the teams getting ready to compete on stage. It’s Hinchley Wood School.
“Leo, calm down,” one member responds.
“I am calm.”
Moments later, Leo is on stage, saying “go go go go go!” to his teammates as they pick up their first win of the day.
After they won the final, I caught up with them to ask them how they did it. They introduce themselves.
Ben: Hi, I’m Ben and I’m the backline on the team. I do all the jobs of sniping people out, making sure nobody starts pressuring, and basically just holding space.
Alfie: Hi, I’m Alfie. I’m the midline support weapon of the team. I’m there to kind of make sure that the team doesn’t go too far behind and to make sure that I give them all the support that I can.
Leo: Hi, I’m Leo. I am the skirmish/slayer player of the team. I mainly consist of Stamper, Tetra and Shot. And I make distractions and I kill people.
Sunny: Hi, my name is Sunny. I am secondary offense. I do things like clean up the edges if there are any stragglers, help the team. A bit like support, but a bit more evil.
Thanks very much. And congratulations on the win! What are your reflections on the victory?
Sunny: Um, it’s a bit of a shocker to be honest. I didn’t expect that. Last year we had a little bit of a tumble, but now we’re back. We learned from our mistakes.
[Leo jumps up and down]
You don’t need to do that (laughter).
Leo: Last year we weren’t really that good, but then this year it felt really different. We were more consistent, we were more fluid with the team. And then we had better synergy and everything like that. And I think the reason why we won is because we were less scared of losing and we were more prepared in terms of challenging other people.
Alfie: We came into this quite scared especially because last year we were just almost completely unprepared. but as they say something just kind of clicked, and we were prepared. We’ve got great coordination and we will definitely be keeping in contact as a team.
Ben: I wasn’t here last year so I haven’t got much to say about that, but I feel like we’ve worked much better on teamwork and we’ve certainly found a team that we think we can work with.
@esportsnewsuk Hinchley Wood School won the Digital Schoolhouse Splatoon 3 2025 finals in London this week. We caught up with their team to find out how they won after losing out in the finals last year. Full article on our website #esports #splatoon3 #digitalschool #collegiateesports #schoolesports #splatoon #nintendo #ukie ♬ original sound – Esports News UK
You were working well as a team. And Leo, I noticed you being vocal and communicating well. Tell us about that and how it contributed to the win.
Leo: I’m really hyperactive and as soon as the game was done, I was jumping around. I was like: “Let’s get ready. Let’s get ready. Let’s get ready. We’re going to show who we are!”
And then I want to shotcall because sometimes I feel like we don’t know when to push. So as soon as I realised we’re 2-0 up and their four players were up, I was like, they’re so far back, we’ve got to take this. I can see so much of what’s going on.
Alfie: I mean he’s definitely the kind of dynamo player of the team, you know, really explosive.
Ben: Basically if it wasn’t for Leo, we would have just blundered into this tournament having no idea what to do.
Sunny: He scares me sometimes. (laughter)
And just lastly, thanks for your time. What will you take from this? Do any of you that want to work in esports or video games?
Sunny: Maybe more in design. I’m more of a creative person than an interactive person, but this was a lot of fun. I couldn’t really pass it up.
Leo: I want to do something in esports like commentary or journalism. It looks really interesting, just like you interviewing, it looks fun! Also, I did commentary with the professionals of the EU Championships! It was a blast.
Alfie: The whole thing is interesting, from setting up the switches to the livestreaming and just the whole design behind everything. It’s so intricate and they do it so well and it’s a really nice community that they have here. It’s really interesting and the talks that they hold, and the one-minute mentors they have. So it’s definitely something I’ll be thinking about as a profession.
Ben: One of my jobs that I might want to do when I’m older is designing characters for video games. And this has really helped me gain confidence about what I want to do. There are hundreds of jobs [in games], it’s such a good opportunity for people to take part in. And it’s really helped.
Interview with the winning team’s teacher: Why should schools get involved with esports?
Michael Constantino, computer science teacher/head of computer science at Hinchley Wood, said: “I honestly can’t take any credit for [the team’s win today]. We’ve kind of put the ownership of this whole entire process on the students.
What are the benefits of esports you’ve seen, with your team taking part in these esports finals?
It’s that nature of team sports, from my point of view, where they may not be performing in traditional sports, but this gives them that outlet and it’s something they’re all passionate about. We’re able to find an outlet for them to do that, a way that’s become a national tournament.
If there ever was an opportunity to do it, which there is, we’ll grab hold of it with both hands so we could offer it to them.
And where will the trophy go? Will it sit alongside the sports trophies in the school?
We’ve got a brand new trophy cabinet which already has our in-school Mario Kart trophies alongside the football, netball, rugby and everything else. We’ve got some robotic stuff in there too, so we’re now going to add in some esports stuff, which will take pride of place.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Get involved. Even if it is small stuff within your school, we started this off with just an in-school tournament with Mario Kart, and the buy-in from the students was massive. So when this came along to take it to that next step, so it feels that much more professional, they loved it.
The Digital Schoolhouse 2025 creative careers competition winners
In Digital Schoolhouse’s bid to promote skills and careers in video games and esports, it also held a creative careers competition for students again.
The winners were:
- Best commentator, presented by casters Bowie and Nimmz – Harry from Ballyclare High School
- Best producer, presenter by Charlie Johnson, partnerships manager at BLAST – Henry from Gildredge House School
- Best content creator, presenter by Aron Jacobs, marketing manager at BLAST – Adam from Cranmore School
- Best brand designer, presented by Ben Forta from Adobe – Ru from Langley Grammar School
- Best Journalist, presented by Dom Sacco, founder of Esports News UK – Adhrit from Langley Grammar School
Congratulations to the winner of the Best Journalist award at the @DigSchoolhouse finals: Adhrit of Langley Grammar School!
He wrote a piece about RLCS Birmingham which will be published on @Esports_News_UK @Shep3949938980 @lgs_news pic.twitter.com/JCd2Kix3M4
— Dom Sacco (@Dom_Sacco) April 29, 2025
Ukie reveals more mixed gender esports teams took part in Digital Schoolhouse 2025 tournament
59 schools took part in the tournament across three countries this year, with more than 400 people involved.
Gareth Jandrell, Programme Communications Officer for Digital Schoolhouse, told Esports News UK: “We’ve had a way bigger turnout of girls this year, with two in the finals. It’s also the first time mixed gender teams have made it to the finals. We’ve seen more girls competing and more girls getting further in the tournament.”
Yiren Ye, Event Coordinator, added: “We’ve progressed through nine regional qualifiers, two semi-finals in north and south of the UK and finally here with the top four schools this year. I think the DSH esports tournament is quite unique because we focus on the career development aspect of esports. So we try to tell these kids that the skills that you gain from playing games, from participating in school esports activities, from writing articles on your esports club or event, or doing the commentating, the skills you gain can be used in your future career. And many of the students are not aware of that. They think that they play games, they can overlook the leadership and teamwork skills that they develop through esports, and the project management that’s happening within their esports club. So this tournament focuses on that to invoke those abilities from them. And most importantly, for them to have fun. We’re really excited to have them here at Lilian Baylis Studio.”
Shahneila Saeed, Head of Education, opened proceedings at the event, saying: “Esports is more than just the players, it’s about the leadership, the strategic thinking, the teamwork and collaboration. Today is about you giving it your all, knowing that every match you play, everything that you do is a step forward and a chance for you to show that you can excel and do better. Respect your teammates and have a great time today.
“Whether you want to become a against developer, or someone working in tech or a designer or an artist, or whatever pathway it is, those are the things that the employers are looking for, those are the skill sets that are going to make you stand head and shoulders above the rest.
“Your ability to say that you can work with people, the grit, the resilience, your determination to continue, despite the challenges that you face, are what’s going to stand you in good stead, because all of you here are tomorrow’s developers,’ tomorrow’s commentators, community managers, marketing professionals, designers, programmers, developers, you are the people that are going to take our industries forward.”
Casters have their say on the value of the Digital Schoolhouse esports finals
Last but by no means least, we caught up with the talented commentators at the 2025 Digital Schoolhouse finals: Nimmz and BowieTheHero.
BowieTheHero: I think what’s really cool about it is as a caster is being able to work with young people who are interested in being that voice of esports. And to see them light up and see their passion kind of connect to the game that they’re talking about. Because to be really theatrical about it, we’re storytellers. That’s what humans like to do, we like to tell stories and that’s how we connect. And so there’s something quite instinctual about it to tell the story of what’s going on and to get everyone involved and connected, and to see the kids do that is great to see.
Nimmz: I can only echo what Bowie has just said. I definitely find this is such a privilege for me to be a part of, because I think when I was at school, this didn’t exist. If I ever came home to my parents and said, “Oh, we’re going on a trip and I’m gonna be competing in a gaming tournament and we’re gonna be on social media,” my family would be like, “What are you talking about?”
So this is absolutely incredible. I’m so privileged and honored to be a part of Digital Schoolhouse. We’ve done Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, now we have this Splatoon 3 tournament. And we get to see some amazing kids from all over the country. There’s some really talented kids here.
And it’s just great fun. Everyone’s just got such a good spirit, and it just brings a completely new skill and a new talent out in people that they may not have necessarily thought that they could actually achieve and potentially have a career in as well. So it’s just really awesome to be a part of it and to help them achieve something in their future careers.
BowieTheHero: Another thing I find with this, is even though I’m a caster and a commentator and that’s what I do, it’s not just about that, right? I think that one of the greatest things about the DSH program and what they want to do is that it’s about the fact that video games are not just playing games and having fun. It is part of that, but there’s so much to it – artists who go on to become level designers or artistic directors and all that kind of stuff, people who want to do coding. Learning how to code… you don’t just do it for gaming, you do it for all kinds of things, there are so many different industries you can work for.
I think Digital Schoolhouse is just awesome and I think every time I get to work with them is, as Nimmz said, a privilege.
A fantastic day with @DigSchoolhouse #Splatoon3 Tournament 2024/25. Thankyou, its always such a pleasure. Hosting alongside @Bowie_Alexander, Soo many talented teams and commentators. You are all super inspiring! Congratulations to Hinchley Wood School. Our Grand champions👏🏾 pic.twitter.com/oIeWFGDRHD
— Nimmer ‘Nimmz’ Riaz (@ItsJusNimmz) April 29, 2025
Video interviews/TikToks to follow this week
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.
