Campus Clash is an event that began in 2022 as a friendly two-team tournament pitching players from the main Stoke-on-Trent campus against a team from Staffordshire University London campus.
The event, to be live streamed on Twitch, has now evolved to include six teams - including an alumni team and staff team - who will be competing in seven games; namely Counter-Strike 2, Valorant, League of Legends, Guilty Gear Strive, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Nintendo Switch Sports. The action runs from 9.30am today, Friday 17 May, and will culminate with a closing ceremony at 7pm on Sunday 19 May.
Campus Clash has been organised by final year BA (Hons) Esports students Benito Marlay-Nicolson and Tarjei Torvik who have been working on preparations for the event with lecturer Joshua Wales-Ferguson since October.
Benito said: “Teams will go head-to-head in the three-day event until we find out who takes home the title. We are partnering with brands such as Overclockers UK, Ducky Keyboards and Noblechairs who are providing prizes and we also have a good number of industry professionals coming in.”
The event leads are supported by a team of student casters and hosts who will be making use of the brand new £2.7m facilities which includes a 60-seat arena, multi-camera studio and two professional production galleries.
Students will be vision mixing on Panasonic’s KAIROS live video production platform, using an EVS XT-GO system for action replays and Allen and Heath Avantis audio desk - the same state-of-the-art equipment used by professional broadcasting companies.
Benito added: “The addition of the Arena means that for the first time, we’ll be able to have a live audience, added to which, we’ll be making use of some of the best industry standard equipment available. Working on industry events is the ultimate goal for many Esports students and our course equips us with the knowledge, skills and experience we need to do this by running our own professional standard events. This is testament to the encouragement and support offered by our lecturing team.”
Esports lecturer Joshua Wales-Ferguson added: “Students involved in Campus Clash have been fully involved in the testing of the new equipment and consequently we’re looking forward to the biggest and best Campus Clash so far. We’re also delighted to be welcoming our industry partners to the event and anyone interested can book to be part of the live audience over the three days.”