UK esports winners and achievers: July-September 2021

The UK continues to produce a host of top esports talent and teams in a variety of games – but how have they been getting in over the last few months?

In our latest quarterly achievements roundup, Bryony-Hope Green and Dominic Sacco look back through some of the wins between July and September.

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July 2021 – Student champions, Epic.LAN winners and success in Siege

Starting the month off strong, the British Esports Student Champs grand finals took place at the Metronome in Nottingham. The live event was put together in collaboration with the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, and saw students from across the UK battle it out for the Student Champs title. Winners include the likes of AGSB Esports, Mag.eXe and the Circinaes – with the latter going undefeated throughout the entire season.

Whilst the Student Champs were taking place, Epic.LAN was underway in Coventry – with tournaments in Valorant, CSGO and Starcraft 2 bringing out the best of UK talent. Org-less team NoPoaching took the Valorant title, beating M4LIK 2-1 in the finals. They took home £1,400 in winnings, whilst M4LIK took £700 for being runners-up. In CSGO, UK org UMX Gaming took the victory against XENEX in a clean sweep.

Moving into the R6 scene, Viperio 86 won big, and qualified for the 2021 European Challenger League. Staying in Rainbow Six, Endpoint took down the Spice Grils to win the CCS European Rainbow Six Siege Women’s League.

Over in League of Legends, it was the battle of the UK teams at the Summer UKLC finals. London Esports took on MNM Gaming in an intense series – with London Esports taking the win 3-1.

Finally, UK talent took the world of Valorant by storm, with around 30% of the teams in the Valorant Champions Tour 2021 Stage 3 Qualifiers being from the UK. The teams who qualified with UK talent included Fnatic, Team Liquid, Rix.gg and Tenstar.

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August 2021 – wins for Kasing, Mac, LDN UTD and more

In August, experienced UK League of Legends professional support player Kasing won the Spanish Superliga with Vodafone Giants, before finishing 5th-8th with the side in the EU Masters Summer 2021. The former Excel player is now looking for a new team.

Also in League of Legends, Mad Lions British head coach Mac won back-to-back LEC championships in what has been a phenomenal year for his side.

Moving into the UK/Ireland/Nordics League of Legends circuit, LDN UTD won the Summer 2021 UKEL, while London-based Fnatic reached the final of the higher-tier NLC with their Fnatic Rising academy team. They fell to Tricked Esport in the final after a dramatic reverse sweep.

In CSGO, Fnatic Rising also finished third in the inaugural CSGO WePlay Academy League, which was won by Mouz NXT.

And in Call of Duty, a UK trio won a World Series of Warzone EU tournament. The trio consisted of Luminosity streamer WarsZ, Quadrant streamer Fifakill and London Royal Ravens streamer Jukeyz. The UK has a host of CoD talent, as it has done over the years, with several players doing particularly well in Warzone tournaments this year.

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September 2021 – Alphari, awards and a record signing

September was a busy month for British esports talent. Starting off in League of Legends, Alphari became the sole British representative at the LoL World Championship, having qualified with North American side Team Liquid.

UK esports organisation Rix.GG finished runners-up in first Wild Rift Origin Series Championship – the major tournament for League of Legends’ mobile game. And Fnatic Rising reached the Summer 2021 EU Masters League of Legends final, but fell to French side Karmine Corp.

Fellow UK org Excel completed the biggest FIFA esports transfer signing in history: UK player Tom Leese joined from Hashtag United as Excel also re-signed Gorilla.

Elsewhere, UK CSGO players Andrew ‘Wolfie’ Allan and Cole ‘FredFishoil’ Hardy of team ThrowPogChamp won the 2v2 Red Bull Flick UK CSGO final.

A host of esports awards finalists were also announced in the likes of the 2021 the*gameHERs awards, Women in Games and 2021 Esports Awards. In the latter, UK talent nominees included Mad Lions LoL coach Mac, LEC caster Caedrel, CSGO/Valorant caster Pansy and more, with London Royal Ravens MD Odee and MNM Gaming co-founder KalKal and more on the judging panel.

In the Women in Games awards, UK talent winners included esports host Frankie Ward won the Most Influential Esports Host award, while Rainbow Six talent Emi ‘Fluke’ Donaldson was awarded Most Influential Esports Shoutcaster or Analyst. The University of Roehampton – which launched a women in esports scholarship last year – picked up the University or College Games or Esports Diversity Initiative award. NUEL League of Legends product manager and former Resolve team manager Geomancy was also recognised in the university/college student portfolio category.

Then in the*gameHERs awards, some of the UK talent nominated included Guild Esports’ Gee Nelly (Top Charity Streamer of the Year), GGRecon’s Kateyrecon (Top Facebook Content Creator of the Year), Meg Kay (Megito, Top Journalist of the Year) and British Esports’ Bryony-Hope Green (also the journalist award). Other nominated talent included Yinsu Collins and Jasmine ‘Veracity’ Kanuga, Kaeyidream and Ellibear, Mel Ramsay, Stay Safe in Our World, the British Esports Association, Rix.gg, The Goose House and Vulpine Esports.

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Did we miss anyone? Please let us know if there are other UK esports talent that had some impressive achievements in Q3 2021 – and we can update this article! We’ll be back in January with our next roundup, covering October to December 2021.