Colchester Institute Esports team make it to national final!
Colchester Institutes Esports team the Braintree Basilisks are celebrating making it to the final of the British Esports Association College Championships.
Playing Overwatch, a team based multi person shooter game, the Braintree Basilisks emerged triumphant in a back and forth contest against the Owls from Gower College Swansea, ultimately coming from behind to win and secure a place in the final!
The Braintree Basilisks have now made it into Division 1, the very top of the national further education colleges Esports league!
Course tutor and team coach Matthew Tatham explains how the competition has enriched his students learning experience. “Competing against other colleges nationally has been fantastic and has really added something special to our learners curriculum this year! Getting to the final in our first year is an amazing achievement! The players should be incredibly proud of themselves to have finished in the top two teams out of over seventy teams who were competing!”
The Electronic Sports (Esports) industry is an upcoming, growing industry and the UK is home to some of the world’s top Esports talent. Esports is by definition a multiplayer video game, played competitively for spectators, at events, normally by professional gamers.
Luke Holman, a student in the competition expressed his excitement to have made it to the final. “From playing the game just on a regular level to getting the chance to play it at a competitive standard has been an amazing experience! Heading into the BEA tournament expecting nothing at all, I was happy that we got into the top five as a team. We battled through, improving with every game played to then making into the finals and getting the chance to play at LAN, which has been a once in a life time opportunity.”
Matthew Tatham was full of praise for their success, “having a successful team in a national championship gives us great momentum and opportunities going into our first year of running the Esports course at both the Braintree and Colchester campus this year!”
