STUDENTS showed their business acumen, sustainable credentials and creative thinking when they took part in an inter-college Esports challenge at Wiltshire College & University Centre.

The Esports students from the college’s Trowbridge campus took on their counterparts from New College Swindon and South Gloucestershire and Stroud College in the day-long challenge that was designed to test their imagination and teamwork.

They were asked to come up with ideas for a fictional Esports team, Avalon, which has received a £100,000 investment on the condition that it rebrands as a sustainable team in conjunction with at least two of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“It was a really stiff test of many of the things they have covered in their course,” said Quality and Innovation Lead Rhian Ramsden. “They had to write a mission statement explaining the use of the SDGs and the importance of sustainability in the Esports sector, select sponsors and design a new logo and jerseys.”

The teams spent the morning designing team jerseys, choosing sponsors and selecting which SDGs would form part of their mission statement, then in the afternoon present their projects to a panel of judges.

The panel was made up of Esports journalist and educator Nik Turner, Cameron Vanloo, an Esports lecturer at Staffordshire University, and the Emma Cross from the college’s quality team.

“It was a really close competition because the judges were very impressed by all three teams,” said Rhian. “There were only a few points between first and second place, which went to Swindon and Wiltshire, and third.

“The students really understood the brief and understood sustainability was the absolute central part of what they were being asked to do. Every point they made came back to that.”

She said the teams even considered the materials the jerseys would be made from. “They chose bamboo and recycled plastic and even thought about selecting ethical manufacturers,” said Rhian.

“They came up with lots of other considerations as well and the South Gloucestershire and Stroud team talked about gender equality because Esports is quite a male dominated space. They made the point that we should be making sure this space is for female competitors too so that was really good.”

In the brief each was given SDG 12, which aims for responsible consumption and production, additionally Wiltshire chose SDG 13 for climate action.

Rhian said every team impressed the judges with their presentations. “They were all very good because it was a nerve-wracking thing for them,” she said. “It underlined the sheer importance of these competitions in skilling students, getting them demonstrating and displaying their skills, all of us were really blown away by it.

“Esports is more than just about gaming and the students showed that through their courses they have grasped that, they demonstrated a real understanding of the marketing and business that is behind it.”

Click here for more information about Games Development and Esport courses.