The British Esports Association, the not-for-profit organisation set up to support grassroots esports in the UK, has partnered with further education body AoC Sport to run a FIFA tournament for college students.
The FIFA 2020 College Lockdown Championships will be for teams of three on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to compete nationally every week from May.
Players from member colleges will have the opportunity to play against English Colleges Football Association (ECFA) national team footballers and compete in a showcase final on Wednesday July 1st 2020. The winner will receive a trophy, plus AoC Sport and British Esports are planning on getting a pro FIFA player involved in this, to be announced at a later date.
With students across the country learning from home as well as potentially caring for family members, self-isolating, volunteering and wanting to socialise over the summer, British Esports and AoC Sport see this competition as an ideal activity for students to get involved in.
Gamers will form teams of three, each playing a 12-minute match in the Ultimate Team mode (six minutes per half) against opposing teams. There will be nine matches per round to determine the final score.
Rounds will take place every week from Wednesday May 13th 2020, with the competition adopting a swiss tournament format. Colleges are encouraged to appoint a student as captain to take charge of their team, arrange match times with other teams and enter their scores online.
Colleges have until Thursday May 7th 2020 to enter their team and submit their top players’ names/gaming IDs.
At a time when students are not able to develop skills through playing sport physically, esports competitions can have a vital role in improving the same aspects such as teamwork, communication and sportsmanship.
British Esports chair Andy Payne OBE commented: “We’re excited to be launching this new competition in partnership with our friends at AoC Sport. In these strange and uncertain times, it’s great to bring the community together virtually and allow students to get involved in something stimulating and inspiring.”
Dean Hardman, AoC Director of Sport and Student Experience, added: “We are really pleased to be offering member colleges this competitive esports opportunity over the next few weeks.
“Many colleges have participated in esports over the past two years as part of our valued partnership with the British Esports Association and this FIFA lockdown tournament presents a further opportunity for even more colleges and students to get involved, playing one of the most popular video game titles among students.”
There are plenty of resources and support available from British Esports to enable college tutors to understand the new FIFA tournament, whether they are familiar with esports or not, such as how to run internal competitions to find their top three players.
The tournament will be run under a dedicated code of conduct to ensure the values of fair play and respect are adhered to throughout.
Please note this tournament is not affiliated with or sponsored by Electronic Arts Inc. or its licensors.
Teams can register for free HERE