The Heritage II tournament hosted by GameBritannia wrapped up last weekend in London – here’s a look back on the event and an interview with co-founder Amy Yu.
Four of the top universities in DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive battled it out over Saturday and Sunday, with the University of Bath taking first place in DOTA 2 and Queen Mary University taking first place in CSGO.
The tournament was held just months after the first Heritage tournament in January, which was a huge success, with around 600 people turning up on the day and over 1,000 unique Twitch viewers online.
CSGO was a new addition to the tournament this time round, with GameBritannia inviting four nearby London universities to compete. The pool of DOTA 2 competitors was increased as well, with 22 universities fighting for a spot in the finals – a notable step up from the 16 universities in the first Heritage.
The DOTA 2 semi-finals saw Bath beat Durham 2-0, with Cambridge following suit with a 2-0 victory over Birmingham. The finals had Bath up against their old rival Cambridge, with Bath emerging the victor in an almost déjà vu-like sequence of events that saw them secure a 3-0 victory, as they did at the previous Heritage tournament.
The CSGO semi-finals had Queen Mary up against UCL, with Queen Mary convincingly securing their spot in the finals. Kingston also emerged the victor in their battle against LSE.
The finals saw Queen Mary take another convincing victory against Kingston, where they took the CSGO crown.
The winning teams took home the following loot:
- Dota 2 Winners: University of Bath – 5x Honor 6 Smartphones, 5x MSI D200 Gaming Mice, 5x Fractal Design Venturi PC Fans
- CS:GO Winners: Queen Mary University – 5x Honor 4 Smartphones, 5x MSI Motherboards
An interview with GameBritannia
We had a chance to talk to Amy Yu, co-founder and CEO of GameBritannia, about the Heritage tournament and what’s next for GameBritannia.
For those unfamiliar with GameBritannia and The Heritage, can you introduce yourself and the event?
I’m Amy – CEO and Co-founder of GameBritannia. We have a small team of five made up of Eric Keen, Jimmy Pan, Steve Dalby and Henry Hunt. “The Heritage” is created for UK universities where student teams are invited to sign-up and participate in competitive gaming.
Initial elimination rounds are live-streamed on Twitch and semi-finalists join us for a weekend at the LAN finals.
What originally drove and inspired you to create the first Heritage tournament?
I founded GameBritannia in August 2015 – the initial vision was to build a meaningful community where players are connected through the shared experience of competitive gaming.
The aim is to create consistent LAN tournaments where every team has an equal opportunity to join and compete.
What was attendance like for the first Heritage and Heritage II?
For The Heritage in January we had great attendance over the period of weekend. Around 600 people turned up in person, and over 1,000+ unique Twitch viewers tuned in for the live-stream.
The Heritage II was held during the Easter period where many students were away on holiday, and with exams around the corner there was an understandable decrease in attendance. However, we still achieved great results on the Twitch livestream.
You originally had plans for another tournament called The National. Is this still in the pipeline?
Initially for the rest of 2016, we wanted to plan The National in July and The Heritage III in October, however we have instead decided that we would much rather focus all of our energy into building one awesome event than having two in the pipeline.
Rather than seeing The National delayed, we’ve decided to merge the two events into one which is to be held around September/October.
The Heritage tournaments are currently for universities only. Is there any scope to open up competition to teams that aren’t at university or have already graduated?
Yes, however we are still in the planning stages and would love to give out more information once it is confirmed.
What can viewers and participants expect from the Heritage III?
It’s going to be our biggest project to date and we can’t wait to start laying the groundworks. Viewers and the audience can expect an exciting show ahead!
More information/send in your feedback
It was clear to us from speaking to Amy that she is incredibly passionate about the UK eSports scene, and like us – wants to see it grow.
With feedback being such a crucial part of making any event as good as it can be, Amy has asked that if you have any thoughts or ideas on how to make GameBritannia’s events better, then drop her an e-mail on [email protected], and stay tuned for future announcements on their Facebook and Twitter pages.
