The British University Esports Championship (BUEC) Spring season is over and with it, the 2023/2024 academic year!
All games are finished and the points have been totalled. A record number of 113 universities entered the battle to be crowned Esports University of the Year. The competition has been fierce this year with second to fifth place being incredibly tight, however one university still flexes its muscles at the top of the table.
For the sixth year in a row, the University of Warwick is the Esports University of the Year for 2023/2024!
The University of Warwick has finished first place with an impressive 3,669 points. The battle for second to fifth place was insanely close with only a 42-point difference separating the teams.
Image Credit - CharlottesArtz
Top 10 Summary
The University of Warwick tops the table with another great showing, Swansea University also put in a fantastic performance coming in second place, followed by the University of Portsmouth, the University of Southampton in fourth, and then Duhram University in fifth.
The University of Warwick sits comfortably at the top of the table after another strong year of performances across the board.
Swansea University has put in quite the shift this year, coming in second place and making the top five for the first time ever as well as being the first ever non-English university to make the top five in NSE history.
Trailing by just a singluar BUEC point, the University of Portsmouth has made its way back into the top three since Spring 2022, narrowly missing out on second place will be hard but making the top three is a great achievement.
The University of Southampton and Durham University continue to be staples at the top of the leaderboard, consistently putting in some top-tier results across the board as we see both making the top five this year.
Looking back at last year’s season, the University of Exeter and University of Nottingham also feature in the top ten once again, sitting in sixth and seventh place respectively.
Compared to last year, three new universities are joining this exclusive top ten group; the University of The West of England, King's College London and the University of Sheffield have all displayed impressive performances the past year to make it in.
The Top 10
You can see the points table overview here. See the full points breakdown here.
Most Improved Universities
Undoubtedly, the most amazing improvement this year comes from Swansea University, they have finished 2nd - a massive leap of 10 places at the very top of the leaderboard, improving with a sizeable 548 points since last year! Other notable improvements are:
New Universities Competing
We've also seen the addition of eight new universities that have competed this year:
Best Regional Esports Universities
There has been fierce competition right across the UK with the regional rivalry hotting up. The standings for this season are:
Back-To-Back Champions
We have an impressive list of teams to shout out this year as we see five teams competing in BUEC win back-to-back championships from Winter to Spring:
It's important to note some other amazing achievements, UWE Sea Stags and Roehampton Esports Gold dropped no matches all season and Swansea Storm obtained a perfect season score, winning their lobby every week.
BUEC, Insomnia i72 and Spring Finals
The British University Esports Championship continues to be one of Europe’s largest organised esports competitions and is the UK’s most active grassroots gaming community in the country with an estimated 15,000+ matches played across this year.
We held our live LAN Spring Finals at the Insomnia Gaming Festival where we had our own dedicated NSE Zone to feature the best of University esports. This featured; a stage for BUEC finalists to compete, a spectator area for attendees to support their favourite universities, a Monster Energy truck packed to the brim with cans to keep everyone fueled, a Pringles booth where everyone could try out their new HOT flavours as well as compete in VALORANT challenges, a UNiDAYS powered by Samsung booth showcasing some amazing student-made indie games from the Games Innovation Challenge, a Scan booth powered by Intel where attendees could win some exciting prizes with the Scan claw machine, play on top-tier 3XS systems, experience a next-level DnD setup with a huge iiyama screen and much more.
See our wrap-up video below for a snippet of what went on during the weekend:
>> See our photos from the British University Esports Championship Finals at i72 here <<
Speaking of, a big thank you to all of our partners for their consistent support and belief in our community; Intel, Scan Computers, Monster Energy, Pringles, UNiDAYS, iiyama, DrayTek and BUCS.
We were also excited to take our Women and Non-Binary VALORANT BUEC Cup finalists to our LAN finals at Insomnia again this year. The University of Warwick and Queen Mary University of London battled for first place on our stage in close games, with Warwick winning overall.
A warm welcome to those who have newly joined the community this year and thank you to the players and teams who have come back to compete. It was amazing to see so many of you at the live finals and we can’t wait to hold more live events for the student community in the future.
Keep your eyes and ears open for sign-up announcements for our summer season at the beginning of June.
>> Get your Offical NSE Merch and check out the exclusive Spring 24 collection here <<
Winning Teams and Players of Spring 2024
Apex Legends
First place: Swansea Storm (Swansea University)
Second place: Durham Defender (Durham University)
Third place: London Legion Apollo (College of Esports)
Counter-Strike 2
First place: Half Natty Head Tappers 6 (Lancaster University)
Second place: Podbots (University of Southampton)
Third place: Crompet Crunchers (University of Warwick)
Dota 2
First place: UCL Instant Reflex (University College London)
Second place: Warwick Ducks (University of Warwick)
Third place: StA dota 2 (St Andrews University)
Overwatch 2
First place: Warwick Angles (University of Warwick)
Second place: Oxford Omnics (University of Oxford)
Third place: Durham Defenders (Durham University)
Rainbow Six Siege
First place: UWE Gatekeepers (University of the West of England)
Second place: Exeterrific (University of Exeter)
Third place: Swansea Storm (Swansea University)
Rocket League
First place: Roehampton Esports Gold (University of Roehampton)
Second place: Lincoln Park (University of Lincoln)
Third place: DMU Foxes (De Montfort University)
Smash
First place: Incineroar fan club (University of Warwick)
Second place: Durham Defenders (Durham University)
Third place: Lincoln Imps (University of Lincoln)
Splatoon 3
First place: SeaSLUGs (University of Sheffield)
Second place: Portsmouth Paladins (University of Portsmouth)
Third place: Cambrian Explosion (University of Cambridge)
Teamfight Tactics
First place: Adi (Brunel University)
Second place: Charles Cheng (University of St Andrews)
Third place: Wasut Yothaitheang (University of Exeter)
VALORANT
First place: Korean Pop Superstars (Staffordshire University)
Second place: Nott Dateable (Nottingham Trent University)
Third place: EXE RATED (University of Exeter)
Women & Non-Binary League of Legends
First place: Orianna grande (University of Nottingham)
Second place: Portsmouth Pink Paladins (University of Portsmouth)
Women & Non-Binary Overwatch 2
First place: Hadleys harem (Nottingham Trent University)
Second place: MeowMeowMeow (University of Southampton)
Women & Non-Binary VALORANT
First place: Pack of Shortys (University of Warwick (Mixed))
Second place: Pink Power Rangers (Queen Mary University of London)
ACC (BUSR)
First place: Ben Gilroy (Durham University)
Second place: Owen Goldsmith (FXU (Falmouth & Exeter Student's Union))
Third place: Jimmy Lin (University of Glasgow)
F1 (BUSR)
First place: Owen Goldsmith (FXU (Falmouth & Exeter Student's Union))
Second place: Matthew Agius (University of Kent)
Third place: Cameron Searle (University of Wolverhampton)
Guilty Gear Strive (UFG)
First place: KetchupNiamh (University of Manchester)
Second place: Phoebiefgc (Sheffield Hallam University)
Third place: MyOwnFailures (Sheffield Hallam University)
Tekken (UFG)
First place: Dhiren_GM (University of Warwick)
Second place: Cyberdude56 (Imperial College London)
Third place: Inf0570 (University of Leeds)
Will Warwick continue to dominate the championship next year, what universities could challenge them in the future with more universities building esports facilities? Keep your eyes and ears open for sign-up announcements for our summer season at the beginning of June.
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