Exeter College Rocket League team represent UK as British Esports visits Qatar

British Esports

9 min read | 18 Dec 2025

Students from the Exeter College Rocket League team represented the UK on stage at the 10th edition of the Qatar Creative Industries Festival.

Exeter’s boys team reached the final and finished second, while their girls team placed fourth – the only female esports players to make it that far in the competition. And two of the Exeter College players are from the Nationals team that compete in the British Esports Student Champs.

It was part of a British Esports visit to Qatar, which also saw Head of Operations Alice Whorley and Head of Education Kalam Neale take part in proceedings.

The festival also featured a Scale 7 x British Council Startups Showcase, a Qatar Businesswomen Association Lunch and a conference. The latter included a gaming and esports panel featuring Kalam Neale, Jay Shin – the MD of UK-based game development studio Arrogant Pixel, and others.

British Esports Head of Education Kalam Neale said: “British Esports is proud to be supporting the growth of the creative industries in the UK, around the world, and now in Qatar. It was an honour to share the stage with such esteemed panellists.”

British Esports Head of Operations Alice Whorley added: “Opportunities like this were few and far between when I was growing up, so to be able to be involved in this, and see the future possibilities and growth, is amazing.

Communication, leadership, and sportsmanship were all on show tonight through the students. In such a short time the players were able to connect. By providing more education, engagement, and empowerment for young people in esports we can support the next generation, into not just local, but global opportunities.”

Arrogant Pixel MD Jay Shin added: “The potential for UK–Qatar collaboration in esports and digital entertainment is enormous from shared education frameworks to creative pipelines for game development.

“One key takeaway is that we must do better over here in the UK to support this exciting emerging esports industry. I will be approaching Ukie, the Department for Business and Trade, DCMS and British Council with a proposal shortly for a trade mission in 2026, so we may learn more from territories that are much further developed in this area.”

After the esports competition, the Exeter College students got to sightsee in Qatar, including a visit to the desert and Virtuocity, a virtual reality and gaming theme park.

The students are all studying a BTEC Level 3 Foundation/Extended Diploma in Production, Enterprise & Esport. Several Exeter College students also compete in the British Esports Student Champs.

The event went ahead thanks to the likes of Quest Esports, the British Council, the British Embassy in Doha, the Department for Business and Trade, Scale7, Media City Qatar, Qatar Development Bank, Ooredoo Qatar and Qatar Museums.

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