Student Champs Grand Finals 2021/22 Summary

On the 2nd and 3rd July, schools and colleges from across the country came together in Nottingham to conclude the 2021-22 season of the British Esports Student Champs. The in-person event was once again put on in conjunction with the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies.

Across the weekend, 26 teams competed in the Confetti X and Metronome spaces in five different titles – and the action-packed weekend was an overall success.

But, what happened in each match? We look back at all of the matchups, and recap the scores for each series. 

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Rocket League Division 1 – Eagles eXe Vs F6th Penguins

Out of all of the Rocket League matches played across the Saturday, this matchup took the series all the way to seven games.

The Eagles.eXe came out strong in the first match, and took an early lead scoring three goals over the one goal from the F6th Penguins. However, Farnborough Sixth were determined to take the series back, and the next two games worked in their favour.

This confidence on the side of the Penguins didn’t last too long, as the Eagles came back with a vengeance, and made sure that they took this series to its final round.

With three points each on the board, it all came down to game seven – and the close battle concluded in favour of the F6th Penguins, ending the match 3-2.

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Rocket League Division 2 – Alva Alliance Vs QMSamurai Nu

Kicking off this series, the first game was a close call – with both teams scoring quite early on. However, Alva Academy edged forward and managed to take an early lead in the first game 4-3.

In game two, tensions were high as the round went to overtime with both sides scoring one goal each – but Alva’s Raidz only needed seven seconds to make the winning goal.

From here, Alva Academy pulled ahead and were able to edge out the QMSamurai Nu in every match going forward. This led to a clean sweep for Alva Academy, but the QMSamurai put up a strong fight throughout. 

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Rocket League Division 3 – Team Halestrom Vs NWSLC Eagles

Over in the Metronome on Saturday, the Rocket League Division 3 matches were an easy sweep for the Halestrom squad.

In almost every match, Halestrom managed to defend and prevent NWSLC from scoring goals – giving themselves the advantage going into each round.

Moving into the fourth and final match, the NWSLC Eagles had their hopes high being able to score their first goal of the series against Halestrom, but this unfortunately wasn’t enough to take down their opponents. 

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Overwatch Division 1 – QMSamurai Alpha Vs GCS Owls

This final game of the event was one of the most anticipated matchups – and neither team failed to make it an interesting game.

QMSamurai came out very strong in the first rounds of Busan, but this was very quickly followed by the GCS Owls making it known they were not there to lose. Even though the first match ended with a 2-1 victory for QMSamurai, the Owls never let the defeat slip them up.

This same back-and-forth gameplay from both teams went into the next two rounds on Blizzard World and Watchpoint Gibraltar. On an overtime push, the QMSamurai managed to just sneak ahead and take the win on Blizzard World 4-3, but the GCS Owls had a huge comeback taking Gibraltar.

In the fourth and final round, the QMSamurai just creeped ahead and were able to fully hold the Owls on Volskaya Industries – therefore taking the overall win for Division 1.

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Overwatch Division 2 – F6th Nightjars Vs AGSB Esports

In the penultimate match on Sunday, Farnborough Sixth Form’s Nightjars were ready for battle against AGSB Esports, who were the winners of Division 2 last season.

Busan started out really strong for AGSB, giving them confidence by sweeping through the control points, but this pace was stopped in its tracks very abruptly in round two.

The Nightjars managed to fully cap on Hollywood, and put up an incredible defence to prevent AGSB from doing the same; securing themselves a series point with a 3-1 win. Whilst this pace maintained for the Nightjars going into round three on Watchpoint Gibraltar (with them getting a 1-0 victory), AGSB came storming back and fully held on Temple of Anubis – sending this series to a fifth match.

Oasis became the tiebreaker map, and both sides put up an incredible fight to try and secure the objectives, but the Nightjars edged out AGSB, and took the final map 2-1. 

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Overwatch Division 3 – FCOT Pythons Vs NSCG Tigers

Division 3 Overwatch was a clean sweep in favour of the FCOT Pythons, although both sides put up a strong fight.

Map one saw the teams going to Oasis, and the FCOT Pythons were ready to storm this match by not letting NSCG even get a point on the board. Oasis was a clean 2-0 victory for FCOT.

This step ahead for the Pythons didn’t last long, as the Tigers were able to change their strategy and get some points in each round, whilst also holding FCOT on Hollywood and preventing them from capturing a third checkpoint. But this round still ended in favour of FCOT, who beat out NSCG 2-1.

Moving into the third and final round, NSCG were not going to lose without a strong fight on Watchpoint Gibraltar – and this game was the most tense in this series by far. Both teams were able to capture all three points with ease, and take it all the way to a third round. But FCOT just managed to take those extra steps and won this round 4-3 – giving them that third series point to take the victory.

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League of Legends Division 1 – AGSB Esports Vs Hexed.eXe

Out of all of the League matches, this series between AGSB and eXe went back and forth for all three rounds.
In the first round, AGSB came out and absolutely stomped Hexed.eXe, taking an early lead straight from the start. But, this was completely reversed in the second match, where eXe pulled out all the stops to get themselves a point on the board.

In the last match of the series, both teams needed to up their game to come out on top, and that is exactly what they did. Whilst it was a closer match than the previous stomps, AGSB pushed themselves to the limits and secured another point – meaning they took the series 2-1. 

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League of Legends Division 2 – Sandstorm Red Vs QMSamurai Psi

In this best of three match, it was very clear that both teams were ready for a tense battle – but only one team managed to completely sweep their competition.

Sandstorm Red were able to take control from the start, getting first blood and going well ahead in kills compared to the QMSamurai. This lead helped then secure the first point in the series with ease, and put a lot more pressure on Psi to catch up.

This stamina from the side of the Sandstorm maintained into the second match, and although the QMSamurai put up a strong fight, it was not enough to stop their opponents from going on a rampage. The series ended in a clean sweep for Sandstorm, with the final score being 2-0. 

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League of Legends Division 3 – SDC Seagulls Vs Team Halestrom

Similarly to the match in Division 2, this series resulted in a clean sweep – and both teams put up a solid fight in the two matches.

Team Halestrom pulled out all the stops in the first match to try and push away the SDC Seagulls, and this is exactly what they managed to do. Whilst the Seagulls fought back brutally, it wasn’t enough to hold Halestrom back – giving them their first series point.

Halestroms’ confidence was sky high moving into the second match, while the Seagulls needed to push twice as hard to try and take back the point advantage. Unfortunately, the Seagulls were unable to keep up with the rapid pace of their opponents – giving Halestrom the means to win their second series point and win the match 2-0.

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Valorant Invitational – NSCG Tigers Vs Coleg Sir Gar

Our two finalists from the Valorant Invitational met face to face to battle it out for the title, and it became very clear that it was going to be a fierce fight.

Game one was the closest of the two matches, with the NSCG Tigers kicking off with a very close call. After getting their first point on the board, NSCG maintained this performance, but Coleg Sir Gar came back with a vengeance to get some points on the board for them too.

The first match ended 13-7 to the NSCG Tigers on Ascent, but Coleg made sure not to let them win without a fight.

In the second match, unfortunately the Tigers were too much for Coleg to handle, and an almost perfect game took place. Only losing one round, the NSCG Tigers took Icebox 13-1 – giving them another series point to win the first ever Valorant Invitational.

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AoC FIFA Playstation Finals – Bsix College Vs Barking & Dagenham College

In this FIFA PlayStation finals, we saw David ‘LunaticD83’ Romeo from Barking and Dagenham College go head to head with Faramarz ‘Abs’ Azizi from Bsix College.

The first match was quite close coming up to half-time, with both sides scoring a goal each, but this all changed in the second half. Abs managed to pull ahead, and secured a 3-2 victory over Lunatic. However, Lunatic was out for blood coming into the second round, and pulled off an incredible 6-0 win to even out the scores and take the game all the way to match point.

In this final match, both sides played a bit more cautiously to increase their ball possession throughout, but Lunatic edged ahead, and took home the win for Barking & Dagenham College 2-1. 

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AoC FIFA XBOX Finals – EVO Academy Vs Warwickshire College

Following all of the action from the PLayStation finals, Harvey ‘Benno’ Benton from Warwickshire College went up against Evan ‘evanperry8’ Perry from EVO Academy.

Benno came out very strong in the first match, and was able to push ahead and secure an easy first point in the series. However, this pace was stopped in its tracks when Evan scored two goals to force the match to go the distance with another round.

Game three ended in a very close draw, with Evan scoring 2 goals in the final minutes to close that gap in the score – ending this round 4-4, and triggering a final round.

After a lot of passing back and forth in this final match, Evan was able to sneak past Benno’s defence and secure that golden goal for him to take the victory 2-1. 

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Make sure to check out all of the content from the Student Champs Grand Finals over on the British Esports YouTube channel.

Further information about the upcoming season of the Student Champs is due to be released over the next few months, so keep your eyes peeled for updates.