York the centre of the sporting universe – in e-sports, at least

E-sports has taken off in Britain and York is playing a key role.

Ten years ago, did you think that computer gaming would become a multi-billion pound global sport?

Me neither, but that’s exactly what’s happened.

E-sports – or electronic sports – is the umbrella term for organised, competitive computer gaming, usually between professionals.

It is a massive industry in both the US and the Far East, with regular tournaments watched by live audiences and millions of online viewers every week.

And University of York hosted the UK’s first national online gaming event at the weekend (November 25-26).

Counterstrike hits the city

[arve url=”https://youtu.be/qLVIgyrRk28″ title=”Counter Strike Global Offensive Tournament ” /]
Eight university teams battled it out in the FragSoc CS:GO Invitational computer gaming tournament, which boasted a £500 cash prize.

The event was streamed live on Twitch TV on both days and a live audience watched the semi-finals and finals on the Sunday.

Each team competed in a best-of-three-series of the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which is one of the most popular gaming series in the world.

The game is a multiplayer first-person shooter, where two opposing teams – the terrorists and the counter terrorists – compete in different game modes to complete objectives.

The team who completes the most objectives, such as securing a location to plant or defuse a bomb and rescuing or guarding hostages, wins the match.

The winner of each match up was the first team to win two games. Lancaster University took the title after defeating Warwick in the live finals, who put up valiant fight to only loose by two rounds.

Digital York

It’s fair to say that in order to achieve a fully successful e-sports tournament, you don’t want to be rebooting your wi-fi.

But the internet was provided by sponsor Ultra Fibre Optic from TalkTalk ensuring everything was superfast.

Full fibre is the future of internet connectivity globally and York is the first place in the UK to develop a city-wide network.

Daniel Meilak, the chairman of FragSoc at the University of York pointed out the integral importance that high speed internet has for the sport after the tournament, saying:

Access to high speed internet is an integral part of gaming and streaming especially for competitive games or esports, as it puts all players on a level playing field where their skill is not hampered by slow broadband.

– Daniel Meilak

TalkTalk sales exec Andrew Carn presented the trophy to the winners, Lancaster City.