College gamers going head to head in national FIFA 2021 tournament

Gamers at Loughborough College are preparing to face students from across the country in the FIFA 2021 College Lockdown Championship.

The College is entering two, three-player teams on Xbox and PlayStation 4 in the second annual national college FIFA tournament from the Association of Colleges (AoC) Sport and the British Esports Association.

The Xbox team is made up of Kian Cusack, Chris Peacock and Mitchell Waters while the PS4 team consists of Callum Simons, Solomon Al-Salloum and Harlee Edwards. Kian will captain the team.

They will take to the virtual field in qualifying fixtures on Wednesday, 10th March 2021 and hope to progress to the finals in April and May.

Originally designed to be played during the national COVID-19 lockdown last year, the tournament proved so successful that the AoC is running it for a second year as an ideal activity for students to build teamwork, communication and sportsmanship.

Kian, who is studying a BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Sport at College, said: “It is a really exciting opportunity to represent College in a national competition. I was lucky to be selected last year and to be asked to lead the team this year is fantastic. I’ll be hopefully trying to improve on our top eight finish last year and make the playoffs this time round.”

Danny Lee, the College’s Sport Academy Curriculum Manager, said: “We are delighted to be entering the AoC FIFA Cup for the second year in a row. This time we have teams in the Xbox & PS4 formats and we are looking to make the national playoffs.

“It will be a tricky ask, with over 50 other FE colleges around the UK trying to do the same thing. It’s an exciting time to be involved with Esports at Loughborough College with the college offering the new Level 2 & 3 BTEC Esports, Enterprise & Entrepreneurship from September.” 

The tournament works like this - teams are drawn against other colleges in a Swiss Tournament format and use their Xbox One and Playstation 4 consoles to take part in weekly rounds, with scores entered online each week. Learners will also be given the chance to compete against English Colleges Football Association (ECFA) national footballers in a showcase final on 1st July.

Find out more about Loughborough College’s Level 2 and 3 Extended Diploma in Esports programme here:

• https://www.loucoll.ac.uk/courses/btec-level-3-national-extended-diploma-in-esports-enterprise-and-entrepreneurship
• https://www.loucoll.ac.uk/courses/btec-level-2-in-esports-enterprise-and-entrepreneurship.