For seven weeks from 27 July to 7 September 2020, UniSport will be running the UniSport Australia Esports Championships (UAEC). The competition will be delivered through our partnership with the Australian Esports League (AEL).
The UAEC builds on our current esports offering of League of Legends (LoL). The interest and participation in LoL has grown significantly over the last four years UniSport has presented it, culminating in over 25,000 unique global views of the 2020 National Final live stream.
On average, participants spend over eight hours a week viewing and broadcasting esports. In recent years, many universities have invested heavily in this space. There are currently 34 official esport clubs at Australian universities, many of whom have also introduced elite athlete programs and scholarships for esport participants and esport research and development centres.
Internationally, the university esport landscape continues to grow. In July, three Australian students, Jessica Au (Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine, Monash University), Dillon Henriques-Gomes (Bachelor of Business, Swinburne University of Technology) and Zackary Marceau (Bachelor of Digital Media and Communications, Southern Cross University) competed against students from across the globe in the first FISU eSports Challenge Football, with Jess finishing fourth and Dillon finishing third place in their respective competitions.
The UAEC will run across three titles: Rocket League; FIFA 20 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Teams are made up of three players for each game, adding a strategic team element across the competition. Teams will accrue points will result in awarding both game winners and an overall UAEC champion.
“The AEL are happy to be supporting the development of university esport participation by partnering with UniSport. We are excited to add the UAEC to our repertoire and hope that it becomes a regular fixture in the university esports calendar.” Darren Kwan, Director of the AEL commented.
UniSport CEO Mark Sinderberry added; “We are looking forward to providing additional competitive avenues for our members and their students that expand on our traditional sport model. We are working closely with our members and a number of industry leaders to develop our esport strategy to support the growth of esport across the Australian university landscape.”
The UniSport Australia Esports Championships will be hosted on the AEL’s Twitch channel as well as promoted by UniSport and our member universities via social media.
For more information, please contact:
Natalie Broom
Project Manager – Nationals
UniSport Australia
07 3876 2610