York College win Esports @ Bett Student Championships 2024
15 February 2024
Esports in the UK are finding their way more and more to the UK student life. After all, the UK student scene at institutes like colleges and Universiteit is considered to be a key part of the ambition to improve esports in the UK at a grassroots level. You can see why when looking back at the recent University Esports 2023 Winter Finals, for example, or the announcement of an official Student Racing League by Williams Racing at the end of last year.
This time, York College takes the spotlight after winning the Esports @ Bett Student Championships, which were held at Bett UK 2024. This tech event was held in London last month (from January 24 to January 26) and featured a live Rocket League tournament that was open exclusively to students from the UK.
Rocket League triumph for York College
Bett UK is a large-scale annual event that aims at building better connections, collaboration and conversations within the education technology sector. To give you an idea of its size: the recent 2024 edition of the event attracted no less than 30.000 educators, policy makers and industry experts, as well as 300 speakers from 130 different countries.
Besides the core event, the organisation also set up a competitive Rocket League tournament for student teams. Each team was comprised of three students from the UK, each of whom had to be aged between 14 and 18 years old. Apart from York College, who we mentioned earlier and who would go on to win the whole thing, the likes of Guild College, Sunderland College and the Academy of Contemporary Music (London) competed for the title as well.
“We were very pleased to learn of our esports team’s victories at the Bett UK 2024 Show”, says Ken Merry, principal and CEO at York College, in reaction to his institute’s victory at Bett UK 2024, “It was a brilliant opportunity for our students to demonstrate their Rocket League talents, building on their second-placed standing at the midway point of the British Esports Student Champs season […] We’d like to congratulate the team and our course leader, Tyler Wilson, on the performance in London and look forward to following their progress during the rest of the academic year.”
In collaboration with British Esports Federation
While thousands of people attended Bett UK 2024 to learn about the latest developments in educational technology, the organisation of the event also wanted to highlight the potential of esports in UK classrooms. In order to do so, they approached the British Esports Federation (BEF), who ended up co-hosting the Bett UK 2024 Rocket League tournament. In combination with its existing educational esports courses, the victory further cements York College’s name as a growing hub for esports in the UK.
This development is also recognised by Merry: “York College is proud to run a Level 2 Diploma and Level 3 Extended Diploma in Esports and recognise how the industry continues to grow with the potential for those on the course to progress into an apprenticeship, higher education, or on to a multitude of career pathways”.