The British Esports Association, the not-for-profit organization set up to promote and support grassroots esports, has partnered with university esports body organisation the NUEL to host its online finals.
The British Esports Championships 2019/20 grand finals will see the UK’s best schools and college teams face-off in April across three different games.
The NUEL will be handling production and broadcast duties for the event, which was previously due to take place at Insomnia Gaming Festival and has been made online-only following the festival’s cancellation.
For the 2019/20 year, school and college teams across the UK have been battling it out across two seasons: Winter 2019 and Spring 2020.
The winning teams from each season will now face one another in the ultimate showdown at the grand finals, with the overall champions in each game receiving a trophy, in-game prizes, special jerseys and coaching from professional esports organizations.
Excel Esports will coach the winning League of Legends team, British Hurricane in Overwatch and former Team Vitality coach Mike ‘Gregan’ Ellis in Rocket League.
The three grand finals are as follows:
- Overwatch, Friday April 24th, 3pm:
Sunderland Seers (Sunderland College) vs Farnborough Peregrines (Farnborough 6th Form) - League of Legends, Saturday April 25th, 3pm:
BTC (Bridgwater & Taunton College) vs Hills Road Cretn (Hills Road Sixth Form) - Rocket League, Sunday April 25th, 3pm:
Clyde Hot Shots (Glasgow Clyde College) vs Sunderland Seers (Sunderland College)
League of Legends will be a best-of-three, Overwatch will be a best-of-five and Rocket League will be a best-of-seven.
In Overwatch, Phill ‘BiggHungryPhill’ Moxley and Dan ‘Yokai’ Forester will cast, with British Esports game adviser Terry ‘Servitude’ May on board as host. Harrison ‘Hariboee’ Scarsgill-Barber will handle observer duties.
British Esports’ League of Legends game adviser and esports journalist Su Collins will host the League of Legends finals, with fellow game adviser James ‘The Governor’ Gove casting with Stan ‘GreyHart’ Barker. Excel Esports’ Jake ‘Boaster’ Howlett may be helping with analyst and/or hosting duties.
Then in Rocket League, British Esports game adviser Mike ‘Gregan’ Ellis will be hosting. He will be joined by volunteer admin Nathan ‘Squark’ Badger will cast alongside British Esports game adviser, esports host and streamer Layla ‘TamashiiKanjou’ Abbott.
Saul ‘Spyran’ Parsons will be on board as our key moments video editor.
The online British Esports Championships broadcast will contain the live matches, plus thoughts from participants and other pieces of content around the Championships.
Andy Payne OBE, British Esports Association chair, commented: “We’re delighted to be teaming up with the NUEL to bring our grand finals online and I can’t wait to see the broadcast.
“Josh [Williams, founder of the NUEL] has been on the British Esports advisory board for some time now and Tasha [Jones, the NUEL creative director] has previously worked for us, so they understand our values well and have done some excellent work over the years. We thank them deeply for their support and we’re sure the second grand finals will be a fantastic competitive event following our inaugural finals last year.”
Josh Williams founder of the NUEL, added: “The work the British Esports Association does to help enable more young people to participate in esports is critical to the future success of the industry.
“We’re keen to ensure that the best upcoming British talent gets the spotlight they deserve, so we’re excited to work together to support the broadcast of the upcoming British Esports Championship grand finals.”
Viewers can watch all the action live via the British Esports Twitch channel from April 24th at 3pm at twitch.tv/britishesports