Coleg Cambria win Spring Cup and unveil new esports arena

4 June 2024

Esports in the UK are booming and they have been for a few years now. Just look at the recent launch of the Counter-Strike 2 platform PlayerForge or the record time in which the tickets for Halo Championship Series (HCS) London Major sold out, just to name two examples of how far esports in the UK have come.

During that ongoing journey, Wales has emerged as a potential major hub for esports in the UK. A bit over a year ago, for example, Esports Wales launched the official Welsh Esports League and more developments took place in the region since then. One of the most recent ones of those is the unveiling of a brand-new esports arena by Coleg Cambria, right after winning gold at the Apex Legends Spring Cup.

New state-of-the-art gaming complex

Coleg Cambria is a group of educational institutions that has grown into one of the United Kingdom’s leading education providers since its inception in 2013. It currently operates five facilities across the Welsh territory and their Esports programme was one of the first in the region. With the coming unveiling of a brand-new gaming complex that carries a £ 230.000 price tag, Coleg Cambia is set to strengthen its position as esports pioneers and experts in  Wales even further.

“The Esports course has been hugely popular over the last few years and this grant investment will see the introduction of two new gaming arenas, one of which will be a Sim Racing performance area”, says Lauren Crofts, who is a lecturer at Coleg Cambria, “The other will give us more room to look at Shoutcast live media streaming, to develop other skills and game creation, utilising the space and introducing state-of-the-art technology, as well as taking Esports into local primary and secondary schools to explain the wide range of careers out there in this industry. We are getting a lot of positive feedback and interest from prospective students so this will be a major USP for us – it’s going to be amazing.”

Cambria Chimeras win Apex Legends Spring Cup

As you may expect from any self-respecting provider of esports courses, Cambria Coleg boasts a few of its own esports teams as well. The group is active in Valorant and Street Fighter, amongst others, but the team that has been taken the spotlight of late is their Cambria Chimeras Apex Legends team. That’s because they just brought home the coveted Apex Legends Spring Cup, defeating opposition from across the country in the process. The announcement of their new esports arena came just days after Coleg Cambria won the event.

“We all played to our strengths and while there were challenges occasionally and a lot of pressure, we worked hard to win the cup and be the last ones standing”, said Owen, a student at Cambria Coleg, about his school’s victory afterwards, “We were up against some big names, colleges that are long established with a lot of backing, so it is a huge achievement for us.”