Staffordshire University makes history in college esports

Students of Staffordshire University have achieved a unique success: becoming the UK’s first winning university team in Europe’s premier esports competition between colleges. Players of ‘Korean Pop Superstars (KPS)’ emerged victorious last weekend in VALORANT (Riot Games’ shooter title) at the Grand Final of UNIVERSITY Esports Masters (UE Masters), where they defeated their rivals from National University of Physical Education and Sport of Ukraine (NUPESU) by a score of 3-2.

It was not an easy road to glory. British representatives had to overcome the continuous returns from the Ukrainian players, who demonstrated a tough competitive spirit throughout the Grand Final. However, it was a great sporting experience in which fair play prevailed between the two teams. In fact, students of KPS waited over an hour for their NUPESU’s counterparts due to a problem with the venue where they were competing.

All the clashes at the Grand Finals of UE Masters (both VALORANT and League of Legends) were played entirely in online format. Live streams of the showdowns on Twitch and X (formerly Twitter) accumulated more than 40,000 views throughout last weekend on two official social channels with over 11,000 followers.

A great victory for the UK

The win of KPS is a meaningful milestone for college esports in the UK. For the first time, a British team has been crowned as Champion of UE Masters, the most important esports tournament in the college ecosystem across Europe. Since the first edition of the competition in 2016, Great Britain has had representatives, but none had been able to lift the Championship title.

This group of five students from Staffordshire University, integrated by Diarmuid McGirr, Josh Green, Zain Lim, Stanley Lebon, and Ignas Kantauta as the main squad, have completed a successful performance in this edition of UE Masters: overcoming qualifiers, beating the best opponents, and positioning the UK at the top of the university esports in the continent.

One of the KPS integrants, Zain Lim, said: “Playing as a team has definitely been fun, competing with friends just created such an atmosphere where it felt like we would beat teams due to just having better vibes than them. I would recommend university esports to others. I felt it made gaming a more social-able hobby, as over 5 years of university, at two different unis, I have met a bunch of people.”

Find out more about VALORANT, the victory’s game

What is VALORANT? What does it consist of? It is one of the most wanted esports-games globally. This shooter title, developed by the giant Riot Games and released in 2020, is a 5v5 character-based tactical FPS where precise gunplay meets unique agent abilities. It also includes a lot of effects and advanced weapons to offer players a better first-person experience.

Millions of people have tested their tactical skills on VALORANT over the past few years. According to the specialized website Tracker Network, over 16 million active users have played VALORANT so far in July worldwide.

Beyond of a video game competition

UE Masters, supported by Riot Games, is the conclusion of the UNIVERSITY Esports season, a global program with a presence in 26 countries on four continents and involving more than 100,000 students from 2,000 universities.

The main objectives of UNIVERSITY Esports are to create a sense of community among players from all over Europe, to give them the opportunity to compete in high quality international tournaments and to provide avenues for young people to develop a career within the esports world, as well as to find a place to learn and enhance their skills.

In the UK and Ireland, UNIVERSITY Esports, a project organized by NUEL (a GGTech Entertainment’s company), has celebrated its 13th Season. The winners of its Winter Split, such as Staffordshire University, have been the national representatives in the outgoing edition of UE Masters.