Sometimes it’s a quiet news day in the world of UK esports, other times there’s lots of little announcements that make it difficult for us to write articles on each. As it’s one of those days, we’re going to do a quick roundup of some of the news you might have missed over the past few weeks in April.
Forge of Champions gets underway
The first UK League Championship is over, but thankfully Riot and LVP have some more UK League of Legends action for us. Namely, the Spring 2019 Forge of Champions knockout tournament.
The winners of the second open tournament were recently announced:
Congratulations to @HybridGGeSports, yesterday’s winners of the second #ForgeOfChampions Open Tournament!
Top: @Blice_LoL
Jungle: @Z3iko_
Mid: @DiabloEUW
Bot: @Dragdar_
Supp: @The_heathenLOLRunners-up @EsportsNvision also qualify for the Main Event this week ?
— LVP UK (@LVPuk) April 29, 2019
New teams like this will soon face some of the established UKLC teams. You can check out precisely what’s next in this preview piece on the Forge of Champions website.
Newcastle Jaguars rebrand
It’s godspeed to #jagspeed (aka shagspeed if you are to hear of some of their exploits at Insomnia, ahem), as the Newcastle Jaguars rebrand to Clique Esports.
Although we loved the Jags branding, the name change is probably for the best for them to avoid any potential future clashes with other big brands that have Jaguar in their name.
As of today we will be re-branding to @Clique_GG in partnership with @MSI__UK!
We aim to assert ourselves as one of the premier esports organisations of the UK and hope you will continue to support us throughout.#CliqueMSI pic.twitter.com/8TnGssOB8B
— Clique Esports (@Clique_GG) April 29, 2019
FIFA esports action at Trafalgar Square
FIFA pros Jas Singh (who recently bemoaned the lack of a prize pool in the ePremier League and plays for Chelsea) and Torin Page (Wolves) took part in the London Games Festival. They got involved via a ‘Play with a pro’ challenge that allowed members of the public to play against them at Trafalgar Square.
NSE Caster of the Term winner announced
National Student Esports teamed up with Code Red Esports to host a student caster competition.
Jack ‘Wolfy’ Saunders was chosen as the winner and will receive a masterclass from top British esports host Paul ‘Redeye’ Chaloner. More details on the NSE website.
Old School RuneScape wins BAFTA
Classic RPG Old School RuneScape picked up the EE Mobile Game of the Year 2019 award at the Video Game BAFTAs on April 4th, as voted for by the British public. More info here.
In other RuneScape-related news, executives from development studio Jagex (Neil McClarty, VP, Growth and Product Services and Kelvin Plomer, Director of Player Experience) appeared before MPs of the UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Jagex were appearing to discuss immersive and addictive technologies (source: Reddit).
Argos dabbles in grassroots esports
Retailer Argos had a presence at EGX Rezzed the other week. They ran a Rocket League tournament at the show, put on by epic.LAN. More info and brackets here.
Celebs and Yogscast raise money for War Child UK
War Child UK returned with fundraising campaign RE-PLAY earlier this month, which reconnects gamers with favourite titles from their formative years, supporting the right to play for some of the world’s most vulnerable children.
From April 5th to 11th, a variety of activities took place, from an in-game celebrity disco and a retro-inspired Steam sale, to leading comedians and gaming personalities playing their favourite games live on Twitch.
The stream was hosted by Mark “Turps” Turpin from the Yogscast, who was joined by star guests such as comedians Nish Kumar and Steve McNeil, Blake Harrison, famously known as Neil Sutherland from The Inbetweeners, as well as Radderss & Geestar from The Yogscast, and games crew Outside Xbox/Outside Xtra.
Esports talent featured in Games Industry women in UK games list
Gamesindustry.biz published this list which features many influential women in the UK games industry, including several that work in esports.
For example, hosts Frankie Ward, Julia Hardy and Elle Osili-Wood, Twitch EMEA events marketing manager Kelsey Christou, Ukie head of education and Digital Schoolhouse director Shahneila Saeed (who works on the Digital Schoolhouse esports tournament) and Hi-Rez Studios global marketing VP and Europe GM Veronique Lallier were named in the list.
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