Aston University's first-ever LAN event welcomes over 100 students
23 February 2023
University esports are one of the fastest growing segments within the broader market for esports in the UK. There are more and more institutions offering esports and esports-related courses, and student-focused tournaments for a wide variety of titles are amongst the highest attended events in the industry at the moment. A perfect example of this trend is the recent LAN esports tournament that was organised by Aston University, located in the centre of Birmingham. Volunteers from the school’s Aston Gaming and Esports Society held their first-ever LAN esports tournament for its students and it ended up being a great success with more than 100 students competing in Valorant, the event’s esports of choice.
Aston Valorant Series 2023
The first-ever Aston Valorant Series 2023, as the event was called officially, was held on Saturday, February 11th, and Sunday, February 12th, was held on campus and every interested student was free to participate. As mentioned earlier, the organisers chose Valorant as the esports title of choice for the tournament, which featured a double-elimination bracket structure and a simple best-of-one format. In other words, encounters consisted of one match. Teams consisted of five players each and were randomly assigned, which added an interesting dynamic to the whole.
“With over 100 students turning up for our first LAN weekend event, we’re proud to ignite our mission of bringing more in-person events to life”, says Jack Carmell, member of the Aston Gaming & Esports Society, “This is just the start of our journey to build a thriving esports community in Birmingham”.
Successful first edition
Despite the fact that it was only the first time in its history that the Aston Gaming & Sports Society organised its own LAN esports event, the approach was very professional and with a bigger picture in mind. The whole event was recorded and cast for interested audiences to watch, as the Society hopes to attract many more members over the coming years. Growth of the esports scene on campus is one of its main objectives, as is the fostering of a growing community. The fact that over one hundred students attended the Aston Valorant Series 2023 has only strengthened the belief in those ambitions, as have the overwhelmingly positive reactions from some of the attending students themselves.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the tournament, which had a balance of competitiveness and enjoyment”, said Haroon Hussain, one of the students who competed in the Aston Valorant Series 2023, “That’s pretty rare to experience playing Valorant; everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and utilised the two rooms well. I was super happy to win the LAN with people I had just met on the day really, and I’m glad to see such events are taking place more frequently within the university”.
Another student, Anurag Prasad, echoed that sentiment by stating that it was “one of the best LANs I’ve ever been to, there was phenomenal attention to detail and planning”.