Sunderland College’s eSports team are celebrating a double win after dominating the 2020 British eSports Championships Grand Finals.
The Sunderland Seers, Jake McGough, Mitchell Armstrong, Jake Gawthorpe, Federico Tocca, Corey Brennan, Alex Bratton and Katie Butterworth, faced Spring Series rivals Farnborough Peregrines (Farnborough Sixth Form) in multiplayer shooter Overwatch on Friday, winning 3-0 to retain their title.
Then, after a rocky first match against Glasgow Clyde Hotshots (Glasgow Clyde College), Ben Knowlson, Ryan Fielder and Ryan Dewart, won 4-2 to claim their first Rocket League championship two days later.
Ben Marriot, NextGen lecturer, said: “Our teams have done amazingly, they really gave their all and knocked it out the park.
“We were the underdogs going in to our first Rocket League Grand Final, but the team showed that all their training and hard work paid off.
“Congratulations to our students, I am so proud of them and everything they’ve done.“
Due to the extraordinary circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the British eSports Associated relaxed their rules on gamers playing at home to ensure the Grand Finals went ahead after the Insomnia Gaming Festival at Birmingham’s NEC was cancelled and colleges were closed.
Sunderland Seers, made up of students from the college’s NextGen computer game design, animation and visual FX programmes, are the British eSport Championships’ most successful team, with wins in Overwatch, League of Legends, and now Rocket League.
The team will return to the British eSports Championships next season to defend their titles.
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98% of our students progress to a positive destination
(*Destination data for Sunderland College students aged 16-18, academic year 2017/18).
Our achievement rates are well above the national average.
We are the College of the Year.
(*Top college nationally for BTECs, Pearson 2019)
100% of our HND and HNC students progressed to employment or further study.
(*Destination data, academic year 2016/17, HNC 19+)
We have recently invested £50 million in our facilities.
