Mansfield students reach second place in online sports tournament

That’s because the competition was run online in the British Esports Association’s annual challenge.

Public services students Jack Hart and Samuel Churchill together with sport, fitness and personal training student Kieran Batchelor won four out of five FIFA matches played at the online championships, challenging students from Tynemet College, the overall winners, Bolton Sports College, The International Football Academy in Stamford, Selby College and Coventry College throughout March and April.

Students had form teams of three per tournament using the Xbox or Play Station 4, each playing a 12-minute (six minutes per half) 1v1 match in the kick-off game mode against the opposing team in classic match.

Fixtures ran for ten weeks and at the end of each match players have to take a screenshot of the final score on their phone.

Jack said: “It was a great challenge, quite easy really. We played five other colleges. I’ve always been good at FIFA so I just made sure I practiced before the games. I also enjoy playing real football too.”

Elodie Fleet, sports tutor, said: “I’m beyond impressed with how well the team have done. This is the first time we have entered an ‘esports’ event so the fact that we finished second in the league is amazing!

“The players were all very professional in their conduct and with arranging the fixtures online. I’m looking forward to next year’s league where we’ll be aiming for first place.”