Amazon University Esports Season 2 first split concludes in KSA with more than 60 universities taking part

Amazon University Esports Season 2 first split concludes in KSA with more than 60 universities taking part

• The participating teams accumulated points towards an overall scoreboard that will determine which teams qualify for the international on-site competition.
• The competition involving university students from all over the country will continue in February.

Riyadh: Gulf Tech

— Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports has concluded its Winter Split Competition of the 2022/2023 season, with students from over 60 universities participating in the competition for a grand total prize pool of 10,000 dollars. Hundreds of students have taken part every week in a spirit of community and competition to determine the top teams in a range of games including League of Legends, VALORANT and Rocket League.

All teams who participated in this first split accumulated points for the overall scoreboard, and those who will take part in the second split will do the same. As a result of this scoreboard, the teams with the best rankings in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Morocco, and Egypt will qualify for Amazon University Esports Masters MENA Series 2023, a live event where they will compete to become the region’s champion.

The full list of winners

In Riot Games’ League of Legend, the trophy was for team ‘Washed up Boomers’, composed of players from the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals and from the Royal Commision Yanbu College.  

The best team in VALORANT’s finals was ‘Squeezed’, made up of students from King AbdulAziz University, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, and Taif University.

In Rocket League, the winning teams were ‘Miracle makers’ from King Abdulaziz University, ‘ANM’, from Taif University, and ‘NXT LVL’ from King Saud University.

Next split

Besides continuing to score points for the cumulative scoreboard, which will grant  teams places in the Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports Masters, the second split will feature the first Teamfight Tactics championship. This will be the first regional competition for university students on this Riot Games’ individual strategy title, which is gaining popularity around the globe. 

Mario Pérez, CEO of MENA Tech, said: “It is a pleasure to have successfully concluded a new Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports split in the KSA. Our commitment to providing high quality competitive environments and supporting students in their educational journey will  continue during this year. Consistent improvement of the experience and addition of more participants are our main goals while helping develop the grassroots and community tournaments in the Kingdom”.

Esports, a growing environment

With a population of almost 40 million in KSA, and more than half are under 25, gaming revenues have skyrocketed in KSA as players today have higher purchasing power and hours in gameplay. Online and multiplayer games have the largest number of players.

According to Newzoo, the games market will exceed $200 billion at the end of 2023. Currently standing at $1.8bn, revenues generated by the gaming industry in the MENA region are expected to reach $5bn by 2025.

The government is readily supporting this industry evidenced by the National Gaming and Esports Strategy, which aims at making the country the global gaming hub by 2030. It will improve the player experience, garner more entertainment opportunities for the public and propel the industry to contribute around SAR50bn to the GDP. The 10-year plan sent out a message to the world that the MENA region is ready to play by welcoming talents and building a gaming/esports community like no other.

Supporting the student esports community

Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports is made possible thanks to the support of top-level publishers such as Riot Games and Ubisoft.

stc play, the gaming arm of top-ranked Middle East telecom (STC) continues its commitment to the innovative program for youth, sponsoring Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports KSA for the second time.

Registration for the second split competitions will open soon, and will be announced on Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports social media, and on their website: (www.sa.universityesports.net).