This year, for the first time ever, the Commonwealth Games will feature esports as a pilot event. Better yet, we’re hosting the qualifying rounds of the Commonwealth Esports Championship right here on campus! Read on to find out how huge an opportunity this is for Confetti and our students.
The arrival of the Commonwealth Esports Championships comes off the back of our new partnership with the Global Esports Federation (GEF). We are thrilled to be working with GEF, an organisation that promotes the credibility, legitimacy and prestige of esports worldwide. Alongside our Nottingham Trent University counterparts, we will work with GEF to advance esports education and create career pathways in the esports industry. Our first collaboration will be in bringing the qualifying rounds of the Commonwealth Esports Championships (CEC) to Nottingham, along with countless ‘Do It For Real‘ opportunities for our students!
Confetti campus will become GEF_house
Competing teams will train and participate in qualifying tournaments in Nottingham from Monday 1 August – Friday 5 August before the CEC Finals at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Birmingham on August 6 – 7. Our campus will serve as GEF_house, offering accommodation for athletes and creating a community space. Meanwhile, crews of Confetti tech colleagues and students on work experience will support GEF’s Esports Partner, FACEIT, in providing broadcasting and live streams. This won’t be the first time we’ve worked with FACEIT either, as they graciously offered up their time to appear at this year’s Industry Week, find out more about that story here.
We caught up with Paul J. Foster, Chief Executive Officer for GEF, here’s what he had to say about our exciting new collaboration:
“We are delighted to partner with the world-class Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies to create a home this August – our GEF_house for the #CEC2022.
“It’s a place for our #worldconnected community to thrive, be together, make friends for life, have fun, and importantly, GEF_house is a place to belong.
“We aim to create a safe, peace-filled, happy place for our community to live, prepare mentally and physically, and keep healthy. It will be something our athletes remember long after the first Commonwealth Esports Championships.”
Turning students’ dream jobs into real jobs
We’ve been establishing ourselves on the esports market since 2020 when we became the first educational establishment in the UK to offer esports production qualifications at both college and degree level. These courses focus on esports, live events production, broadcasting, streaming and content creation, we have recently added a new postgraduate esports production course to our offer, expected to come online soon.
Our Chief Executive Officer, Craig Chettle, had the pleasure of being presented with an award by the Global Esports Federation in honour of our new partnership, he said:
“Esports is built around communities and our long-term partnership with GEF will enhance our global network, which will bring many wider economic and cultural benefits to Nottingham and the UK.
“With support from our parent company, Nottingham Trent University, we’re delighted to be hosting the CEC qualifiers on our Confetti campus in Nottingham. Our community of students will benefit hugely from this collaboration, and we can’t wait to welcome the participating teams from across the Commonwealth to Nottingham.”
We are now busily working with GEF to finalise the arrangements for the Commonwealth Esports Championships, along with applying the finishing touches to our new dedicated esports production facility, Confetti X. The CEC is just the beginning of our long-term partnership vision and together we aim to provide the best, most relevant and most inspiring creative industry education and training, helping to turn students’ dream jobs into real jobs, and advancing the creative and technological industries for the better.
Check out some photos of GEF’s visit to Confetti, including some more sneak peeks of Confetti X!
