A team of Plymouth teenagers has represented their college as the South of England Champions and National Runners-up at the grand finals of the British Esports Student Championships.
The popular ticketed event, held over the last weekend in June, showcased the top esports teams from England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland competing at the impressive Confetti X – a 100-seater, 4,000 sq ft multi-event esports arena in Nottingham.
City College Plymouth’s team, CCP Lighthouse, had emerged as tough contenders early on, finishing top of their division 1 league heading into the championships. They started the competition strong, but ultimately lost out to the Belfast Met Buffaloes in a match streamed live to thousands of spectators on the British Esports Championship Twitch channel.
The young games enthusiasts who took CCP Lighthouse to the grand finals – Tom Francis, Finnley Cooper, Robert Dumitrof, Owen Lloyd, Alex Rogers – all study games development or the new esports program at City College Plymouth.
Games development courses have been gaining in popularity over recent years with gamers interested in going behind-the-scenes to design and create their own games, with many of the College’s graduates going on to forge careers in the UK’s burgeoning gaming and virtual reality industries.
Endorsed by The British Esports Association, City College’s new esports course offers students the opportunity to study the techniques, event management, marketing and business acumen behind the lucrative world of competitive gaming.
Finnley Cooper, 18, is part of the College’s first esports cohort and one of CCP Lighthouse’s newly crowned regional champions. He said: “This experience was incredible. I’m so thankful to the College and the British eSports Champions League for giving us this opportunity to compete on such a grand stage. This is something the whole team will remember forever.”
Speaking about the College’s esports success, Luke Wakelin, esports lecturer said: “I am so proud of our team. For the first year of running the esports course it is such an achievement to get to the national grand final competition. This experience really develops those core social employability skills of leadership, character development, and teambuilding, and you can see the positive effect this has had on our students. We can’t wait for next year’s competition!”
Those interested in competing in next year’s British Esports Student Championships can apply for City College Plymouth’s games development and esports courses at www.cityplym.ac.uk.