Coventry Crosshairs and Weston Waveriders raise over £500 for Winston’s Wish in charity showmatch

Last Friday, two UK colleges engaged in their now annual esports charity event to raise money for Winston’s Wish. Weston College and Coventry College’s co-initiative of running a series of show matches between their fierce esports teams to raise funds was a huge success. As the evening commenced, the two colleges’ teams, the Weston Waveriders and the Coventry Crosshairs, clashed across 3 esport titles, starting with Rocket League, followed by VALORANT and concluding the evening with a highly entertaining Overwatch 2 match.

Jamie ‘JustJamie?’ Kerrison, Vlad ‘WaXeN’ Catusanu, and Bryony-Hope ‘Athxna’ Green look back at all of the action throughout the event, and celebrate the incredible work of both teams.

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Broadcast and Production Talent:

Shoubna ‘QueenBeeSenpai’ Naika-Taylor – Host

Will ‘Frosteig’ Price – Host

Jasmine ‘JorangeJam’ Hong – Production

Emma ‘Listo0o’ Liston – Observer

Greg ‘gregnaika’ Naika-Taylor – Creator of the event

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Donations and Winston’s Wish:

With an initial target of £250, both teams prepared to celebrate donation milestones across all matches. However, the target was almost smashed in the first hour of the stream, with £222 of donations flooding in. 

At this point, the team decided to double their donation target to £500 in the hopes of supporting Winston’s Wish even more – and this is exactly what they did. By the end of the stream, the donation target was met once again, and a few donations post-stream brought the grand total to £506. 

All of the money raised has gone to Winston’s Wish – a bereavement charity to help support grieving children and families. For more information about Winston’s Wish, check out their website here. If you feel compelled to donate, please follow this link and support the Crosshairs and the Waveriders in their campaign.

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Rocket League:

Jamie ‘JustJamie?’ Kerrison looks back at all of the Rocket League action that kicked off the event giving the perspective of both spectator and caster.

Broadcast Talent:

Jamie ‘JustJamie?’ Kerrison – Caster
MoreiSkye – Caster

Player rosters:

Coventry Crosshairs:
Hexasem
BillyKid5838
Ultra

Weston Waveriders:
KanseiAke
xVSxMoUsEyReE
LittleCuz

As we start Game 1, the Coventry Crosshairs join the Blue Team and the Weston Waveriders join the Orange Team and we have the first kickoff of the day. The first two minutes of game one was very much a battle of possession and trying to feel out each others weaknesses on the pitch. Right on the 3 minutes remaining mark, the first goal is scored by a lovely solo play from Hexasem, as he bangs the ball off the sidewall at midfield to pass it to himself and is able to pop the ball over the challenging 3rd man from the Waveriders into the back of the net. Following that, just under a minute later Hexasem once again shows dominance on the field and gets another into the back of the net to put Coventry Crosshairs 2-0 in game 1. Suddenly just 15 seconds after the kick off, theWeston Waveriders manage to pull a goal back – a huge clear off of their own backboard by xVSxMoUsEyReE towards the Coventry net isn’t able to be kept out by Billkid5838 and the score now stands at 2-1. With 1 minute 19 seconds left on the clock, a strong attack by Weston Waveriders leave the Crosshairs open to an attack, and they are punished by Hexasem who manages to secure himself a hat-trick in game one of the series. After a bit of back and forth between both teams with just under 30 seconds left on the clock in this first game, Ultra for the Crosshairs manages to get themselves on the scoreboard with a smart solo counter attack making it 4-1. The end of game one was down to the Crosshairs’ dominating possession of the ball until the timer hit zero. 

Game two of the series is intensely fought between both sides, with it being a huge possession battle as the ball is bounced to and fro between each sides halves. After a long possession battle we finished up this second game with an overtime victory for Weston Waveriders – with the final goal being scored by KanseiAke after 2 minutes and 37 seconds of additional time. 

The series score became 1-1, showing that Coventry Crosshairs’ first game dominance was not to last. Game number three started off strong for the Crosshairs with them getting an easy goal from Ultra in the first 7 seconds. Weston Waveriders managed to get a grip on the field and equalize soon after within the 1st minute of gameplay. The game goes back and forth between both teams again and ends in a 2-2 draw to take us back into overtime, with both teams hoping to take the victory to get match point. The end of Game 3 finishes after 59 seconds of additional time with a brilliant 50-50 that works out in the Waveriders favour for them to take the series lead 1-2. 

Coventry Crosshairs have everything to play for in game number four and they need to work hard for the chance of taking this series to game five. The Crosshairs manage to take game 4 in a hard fought battle, with BillyKid5838 making some vital saves to stop the likes of LittleCuz getting on the scoreboard and putting the series score to 2-2.

We go into Game 5 and both teams are sweating hard, the ball is getting thrown across the field, trying to keep it away from their own nets until the scoring is opened up by LittleCuz for Weston Waveriders. A bit more back and forth between both teams comes again and as if it was scripted, we actually have a Game 5 Overtime with the score once again being 2-2. It’s Golden Goal time and Weston Waveriders are on the backfoot as Coventry are just pounding the ball towards their net consistently and stealing boost at every opportunity. Weston Waveriders are hoping for a breakaway chance on the counter attack, but it just doesn’t seem to want to happen for them, and after a couple of minutes of overtime the tables seem to have turned and Weston are now pressing hard on the Coventry defense forcing them to make vital saves and huge clears. But the ball kept getting punted back into the Coventry side, as overtime heads into its 4th minute it becomes a battle of midfield possession. This is intense as each team is desperate for any chance on net, eventually Coventry Crosshairs have a chance and the ball falls to Ultra who manages to make a slow flick to get it over two Weston Waveriders players in their own net and they secure a 3-2 overtime  win for Coventry Crosshairs to take the series 3-2.

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Valorant:

Following on from all of the Rocket League action, Vlad ‘WaXeN’ Catusanu took a look back at the Valorant games to highlight all of the incredible plays.

Broadcast talent:
Vlad ‘WaXeN’ Catusanu – Caster
Dainéal ‘Daineal’ – Caster

Player rosters:
Coventry Crosshairs:
Bread
Ferox
Miki
MISIO
Slatt

Weston Waveriders:
MOGWAI
TOM
W1P
G1N
Zynco

After a swift veto process, as predicted by the two casters, the Waveriders and the Crosshairs took the action onto Ascent, with the former starting on the Defenders side. In order to honour the showmatch spirit of the evening, 9 of the players opted to randomise their agents, which allowed for plenty of fun dynamics throughout the map-such as running a no controller comp, versus a Harbor, the only non-randomized agent select, played by Bread in his first ever match on the newly released agent. 

The first pistol round was a back-and-forth affair between the two teams, with the Waveriders turning around an unfavourable 2v3 situation into 2 versus 1 retake, forcing the Crosshairs; Misio, here playing the Yoru, to rely on his trusted sheriff to kill the spike defuser, and force the first round of the match go in his team’s favour. The first gun round for the Crosshairs saw Misio repeat his pistol round feat, which now stopped the defender’s Sage, played by Tom, attempt at a retake, despite a valiant 4k.

With the economy in shambles, the Waveriders were forced onto a save round, which saw the Crosshairs attempt the first showmatch-y play of the map, with multiple players giving their lives away to Mogwai’s KAY/O, whilst attempting to knife the lone defending player. On the back of multiple saves and lots of ultimate orbs being farmed, the Waveriders managed to score the first round at 4-1. This sign of life from the defenders, was quickly met by a hilarious strategy from the attackers, which was met with loud approvals from both Daineal and WaXeN in the commentary booth-5 judges successfully conquering the A bombsite after a rush through short. Despite various tactics employed by both sides, meant to catch both their opponents and the viewers alike off guard, the rounds kept on stacking on the side of the Crosshairs who ended the half up 9 to 3. 

With W1P, on the Sova, unable to clutch a 1-versus-5 pistol round, the second half was seemingly about to follow the same trajectory as the first. The 2^nd round of the half was an all-out shoot-out, 5 Ares’s versus 5 Classics, with the latter somehow managing to plant the spike and win the round, swinging the economy back in their favour. This unexpected turn of events, then propelled the Waveriders to secure their first back-to-back rounds of the series, reducing the deficit to only 5 rounds. The casters’ comeback hopes were shortly squashed by two instant rounds where the Coventry players displayed some outstanding aim, barely allowing the Attackers to step over the freeze-time barriers.

As the game was now at matchpoint, both Emma ‘Listo’ Liston, the observer, and WaXeN, in the booth, asked and respectively begged the 10 players to square up in an all-time classic, a 5 versus 5 knife duel in mid. After an excellent display of swordsmanship from Slatt, on the KAY/O, with a 4K, the final score for the second showmatch between the Coventry Crosshairs and the Weston Waveriders was 13 to 5.

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Overwatch 2:

To round off the stream, both teams took to their battles into Overwatch 2 – and Bryony-Hope looks back on all of the action in the new title.

Broadcast talent:
Terry ‘Servitude’ May – Caster
Suzie ‘Pro_Suzie’ White – Caster

Player roster:
Coventry Crosshairs:
Mince
Nostalgia
Sneakyninja
King
Caibing

Weston Waveriders:
Gjallarhorn
DevilWood
Lukw1
Sir Britte
Jdep

Map 1 – Busan:

Crosshairs – Zarya, Ashe, Torbjorn, Lucio, Ana
Waveriders – Reinhardt, Torbjorn, Genji, Lucio, Ana

Starting off the first map on Busan Sanctuary, both teams met on the objective ready for battle, but it wasn’t long before both sides became unexpectedly friendly. Between lots of waves, hellos, and emotes, both Torbjorn’s (Nostalgia and Devilwood) chose to break this truce with a hammer fight. But, as soon as Sir Britte’s anti-nade killed the Crosshairs’ Torbjorn, all hell broke loose – and the battle finally began. Gjallarhorn started off this round in true Reinhardt fashion, getting a charge kill on SneakyNinja (Ashe) – before also taking out the Crosshairs’ Lucio (King) and securing the Waveriders the objective. SneakyNinja looked for revenge, and swapped to the Widowmaker to make some quick picks, and did just that by taking down DevilWood on the Ashe. Distance is kept between the teams for a little while, before the Crosshairs made one last push at the 95% capture mark to take down Weston and turn the objective to their control. After lots of trading, and a Winston battle between Gjallarhorn and Mince, Weston managed to sneak back control of the objective and take their first round point. 

Swiftly moving to Downtown, both teams were hunting for victory, so no friendly antics to start off the round this time. King on the Lucio managed to get first blood by killing Weston’s Jdep with a boop, and with one support down, the Waveriders struggled to stop the Crosshairs from taking first control of the objective. Whilst the percentage ticked up, the Waveriders tried to push in several times and take out their biggest threats, but Mince led the charge on Winston again, and kept them away to let the Crosshairs take Downtown 100%-0%. 

It all came down to Meka Base, and Weston began to start changing their tactics. A swap to Zarya and Reaper gave them prime opportunity to take down the Crosshairs at close-range, and five high-charge Zarya kills later, Weston took the objective. The Crosshairs took a page out of Weston’s book and changed their composition in the hopes of taking back control – putting in a Sigma, Cassidy, and Sombra. This worked out in their favour, and they took the objective from the Waveriders pretty swiftly. However, due to the outstanding healing job done by Jdep and Sir Britte, Gjallarhorn was kept alive long enough to continue sweeping out the enemy with high-charge, and got Weston the objective back. To top it all off, a nano-boosted DevilWood took out two with death blossom, and two solo kills to keep the enemy away a bit longer. SneakyNinja was not having this, and snuck behind Weston to get a 4-man EMP to combine with the Junker Queen and get the Crosshairs a team kill. This was not enough to keep Weston down, and Lukw1 on the Junkrat cleared the point and gave the Waveriders the first series point. 

Map 2 – Hollywood:

Crosshairs – Junker Queen, Cassidy, Genji, Ana, Baptiste
Waveriders – Sigma, Ashe, Hanzo, Mercy, Brigitte

Moving into the second map of the series, Weston attacked first to set the standards for the Crosshairs on Hollywood. With ease, DevilWood on the Ashe led the charge straight through the first choke point to the objective, but Minces’ Junker Queen once again pierced through Weston’s composition and held them off. However, the tables turned quickly in the Waverider’s next push – giving them the eliminations and space needed to capture the payload. Just metres into the payload moving, Mince charges forward, with the help of Caibing (Ana) and King (Baptiste), to clear Weston off the payload, and waste some of the time they have to attack. Feeling refreshed, Weston fully charged onto the payload, and utilised Gjallarhorn’s gravitic flux (with a cheeky battle Mercy kill from Sir Britte too) to get a team kill and continue moving the payload. This momentum remained, and as much as the Crosshairs retaliated, the payload made it to the first checkpoint. With three minutes to burn, the Crosshairs needed to up their game – and that’s exactly what they did. With a mixture of tank and support aggression, the Waveriders were unable to make it to the final checkpoint. 

Switching sides, the compositions stayed relatively the same for the Crosshairs, but Weston needed a much stronger defence setup – bringing in Genji, Junkrat, Kiriko, and Moira. A strong first push from Coventry split up the Weston defences, but DevilWood let everyone know that they were not there to mess around. Pushing in towards the attacker spawn, Devilwood puts pressure on the Crosshairs backline , and even deflected Caibing’s sleep dart back into them to secure another elimination. After a clean triple kill, the Waveriders began to loosen up their defences, but these cracks were easily smashed open by Nostalgia on the Pharah to clear the objective for Crosshairs to capture. The game became quite back and forth from this point as the payload floated along, but one Kitsune ultimate from Jdep gave Weston the power they needed to stop the payload in its tracks – taking another series point.

Map 3 – Route 66:

Crosshairs – Junker Queen, Sombra, Genji, Brigitte, Lucio
Waveriders – Zarya, Torbjorn, Genji, Zenyatta, Kiriko

Going into map three, Weston decided to sub out Gjallarhorn, and bring in Aterra to switch the playstyle up for their attack. Coventry began this round with a spawn hold, and the Waveriders were wiped out within seconds of the round starting. King on the Lucio worked very hard this round to both make sure their team was fully healed, but also getting a few eliminations on the way. But unfortunately, this hold crumbled and Weston was able to begin moving the payload forward. Holding just before the first checkpoint, SneakyNinja came out again with a huge EMP, this time getting all five Weston players with just 23 seconds remaining. In the final push, Weston pulled out a huge dragonblade from DevilWood to take the round into overtime, and they captured the first checkpoint swiftly. After two team kills, one from each side, Weston managed to secure the second checkpoint, and move ever so closer to another victory. King’s sudden switch to Moira provided that little bit of extra damage to the Crosshairs, and along with another huge EMP the payload was stopped in its tracks just after the second checkpoint. 

Now attacking, the Crosshairs need to replicate their performance in the previous round to secure themselves a series point. Running with SneakyNinja on Cassidy, and Nostalgia on Genji, the Crosshairs were ready to face off against Weston with whatever they brought to the table – in this case it was the same composition as the previous round. Opting to hold at the garage, Weston gave themselves a lot of space to work with, and Coventry got a lot of payload distance due to this. More back-and-forth trading continued as the timer ticked down, and both sides were trying to get some ultimates online. As the payload edged closer to the first checkpoint, Weston got desperate and used four ultimates to try and stop the push – but Coventry just brushed these off and captured the checkpoint with complete ease. In the blink of an eye, Coventry pushed the payload through up to the second checkpoint, and made it very clear they were not taking a loss. One final team kill is all they needed to get their first series point, and the Crosshairs were back in the game. 

Map 4 – Esperança:

Crosshairs – Junker Queen, Cassidy, Genji, Moira, Lucio
Waveriders – Zarya, Sojourn, Mei, Lucio, Ana

Moving into the final map, both teams faced off on unfamiliar ground – with the map and gamemode only being just a few weeks old. The match began once again with a lot of trading, but eventually Mince and Caibing secured the robot and began the first push. Just 25-metres into the push, Aterra on Zarya came bursting in, and cleared any sign of the Crosshairs off of the robot to turn the push in the opposite direction. A triple kill with overclocked from DevilWood on the Sojourn continues to keep the Crosshairs off of the objective, and Weston keeps charging the push forward. With a forward spawn activated, Weston had the advantage, but this did not last for long when Coventry came in with the return fire to take the robot back for themselves. 

As with all of the other matches in the series, this is very back-and-forth with both teams juggling possession. A team kill from Coventry gave them space to catch up, however Weston came back and pushed the Crosshairs back once again. Aterra’s graviton surge opened up the game once again, and Weston was able to continue this momentum getting the robot closer to the final checkpoint. A huge rampage from Mince was exactly what the Crosshairs needed to get back in the game, as they were able to take back control, once again, and try to make up the distance. This push was cut short by a quintuple-kill from DevilWood on Sojourn that brought Weston back on track. Just as Weston got comfortable with their lead, an EMP Blade from SneakyNinja and Nostalgia completely cleared the robot, and gave Coventry one last chance to win going into overtime. As they neared closer to winning, Coventry were team wiped, and Weston claimed the last point they needed to win the series.

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We would like to thank the Coventry Crosshairs and Weston Waveriders for their continued support on all British Esports events and projects – including the Student Champs and World Esports Day.

Again, if you feel compelled to donate, please follow this link to contribute to the campaign and support a great cause.

Also make sure to follow the Crosshairs and Waveriders, and follow their journey as they compete in the Student Champs.