This weekend saw the sixth annual King of the North esports tournament held in Salford’s MediaCity as teams from universities across the country competed in Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, and League of Legends amongst others.
Day 1 saw Grand Finals action in League of Legends as Swansea took on Nottingham after a hard-fought bracket. Stream issues caused upsets for any remote viewers but the direction of the day’s early games remained clear as Nottingham triumphed in two fairly decisive games, earning their victory in a fairly straightforward 26 minute clash.
Later in the day came Counter Strike, with Bath coming up against Warwick’s ‘Stretchyboiz’ in the Grand Finals. Warwick comfortably saw off the first map, Bank, with a 16-7 score, and after taking the first three rounds of game 2 without response, looked to be on a fairly straightforward path to victory. Bath fought hard to regain a foothold in the match, commanding a 6-4 lead at one point, but were ultimately unable to stop Warwick at the second time of asking.
With the Championship at stake going into the third game, Bath raced out of the gates and found themselves ahead with 10 rounds to Warwick’s 2, but only managed to take 3 more rounds before Warwick’s Stretchyboiz reasserted their dominance and finally took home the victory following a thrilling 1 v 1 shootout between Original_G (Warwick) and mystery (Bath).
Overwatch began Day 2 of King of the North, with Swansea Storm coming up against Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) in a hard-fought semi-final, with the first game running through to overtime where it took brilliance from Chimpy’s Zarya to give Swansea the edge. However, GCU responded strongly, taking the next two games to book their place in the final.
Staffordshire Uni had York to contend with in their semi-final, and the team elegantly known as ‘YEET’ continued the dominance they’ve displayed earlier in the year at other tournaments, most prominently NSE. The strength exhibited in their undefeated NSE run continued throughout Day 2 as they marched to a fairly decisive victory against York, setting up a match with GCU in the final.
As most fans of either side somewhat expected, YEET comfortably dealt with their next opposition, ultimately claiming the Overwatch King of the North title and continuing their undefeated run as they look toward the NSE finals this weekend.
Rainbow 6 Seige finished proceedings for what was a memorable weekend. The winners were Baby Wipes from Staffordshire Uni. They beat Keele who were the live finalists since the actual 2nd place team, Warwick, forfeited due to only having 4 players. The score was 3-1, with Keele winning the second last game after being down 2-0.
