Esports University of the Year 2025/2026

All games are now finished and the points have been totalled. A whopping 117 universities entered the battle to be crowned Esports University of the Year but only one can claim the crown.

For the eighth year in a row, the University of Warwick is the Esports University of the Year for 2025/2026! 

The University of Warwick has once again finished in first place, with a total of 3852 points - an increase from last year of almost 500 points! Despite losing out in Winter to the University of Southampton, the University of Warwick have managed to pull it back and retain their crown. 

Top 10 Summary
The University of Warwick tops the table, followed by the University of Southampton in second, King's College London in third, University College London in fourth and the University of Portsmouth rounding off our top five universities in fifth. 

Despite falling into second place in Winter, the University of Warwick remained stable across Spring and managed to hold onto their first place finish for another year.

After an impressive Winter split defeating Warwick, the University of Southampton has risen up to second this year! They last finished second in our 2020/2021 British University Esports Championship. 

King's College London have swiftly climbed the leaderboard, taking third place overall - seven spots higher than their 10th place finish last Spring.

Following on from their successful Winter performance, University College London have achieved their highest ever finish in fourth place!

The University of Portsmouth continue their success, finishing in the top five for the sixth year in a row. 

The University of Manchester rise three positions on the leaderboard to claim sixth, just narrowly missing out on the top five by 9 points.

Loughborough University re-enter the top 10 universities, having last been seen on this leaderboard in 2022. Massive congratulations! 

Proving themselves as one of the best cities for esports, the universities of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham finish in eighth and ninth respectively.

And last but not least, we have Cardiff University finishing in tenth, making them the only university outside of England in our top ten! 

The Top 10

You can see the points table overview here. See the full points breakdown here.

Most Improved Universities
Each year we see massive improvements from different universities with a fresh intake of talent, this year's most impressive comes from Brunel University which sees them leap an incredible 30 places, finishing in 42nd, a huge improvement from 72nd last year. Other notable improvements are:

• University of the West of Scotland finished 85th place up from 114th
• Northumbria University finished 49th place up from 74th 
• Dundee & Angus College finished 77th place up from 98th
• The University of Essex, the University of Brighton and Newcastle & Stafford Colleges finished 55th, 54th and 76th respectively, all up 16 places from last year

New Universities Competing
We've also seen the addition of five new universities that have entered teams this year for the first time:

• Norwich University of the Arts
• Arts University Bournemouth
• Arts University Plymouth
• St Mary's University
• University of Worcester

Best Regional Esports Universities
There has been fierce competition right across the UK with the regional rivalry hotting up. The standings for this season are:

• Best in Scotland: University of Abertay Dundee
• Best in Wales: Cardiff University
• Best in Northern Ireland: Queen's University Belfast
• Best in the South of England: University of Southampton
• Best in the Midlands: University of Warwick
• Best in the North of England: University of Manchester
• Best in London: King's College London

The Top Universities for Each Game
You don't always have to win the tournament to earn the most points for any given game. Here are the universities who scored the most points across the season and their spring statistics:

• Apex Legends: University of York - 385 points, 2 teams. Highest placement: 6th
• Counter-Strike 2: University College London - 520 points, 2 teams. Highest placement: 11th. In Winter, UCL had four teams, all in division 1. 
• League of Legends: University of Warwick - 906 points, 9 teams. Highest placement: 13th
• Marvel Rivals: Loughborough University - 349 points, 3 teams. Highest placement: 2nd
• Overwatch: University of Warwick - 680 points, 7 teams. Highest placement: 9th, with two Warwick teams tying for this position! 
• Rainbow Six Siege X: University of the West of England - 388 points, 3 teams. Highest placement: 1st
• Rocket League: University of Warwick - 566 points, 6 teams. Highest placement: 3rd
• Splatoon 3: University of Portsmouth - 157 points, 4 teams. Highest placement: 4th
• Teamfight Tactics: University of Warwick - 315 points, 7 players, 6 Double Up teams. Highest placement: 2nd (Double Up)
• VALORANT: University of Southampton - 799 points, 6 teams. Highest placement: 10th
• University Fighting Games (UFG): Nottingham Trent University - 30 points, 5 players. Highest placement: 1st (SFG)

Repeat Champions
We have an impressive list of teams to shout out this year who have claimed repeat BUEC victories:

• Rainbow Six Siege X: Gatekeepers, University of the West of England - 5th Victory
• League of Legends: Imperial Esports, Imperial College London - 4th Victory

A special shoutout to one of our new champions, University of Liverpool, who took down NSE's most successful Rocket League team, Roehampton Esports, in our Spring Finals, handing them their first loss since Spring 2024. 

A big thank you to our partners for their consistent support and belief in our community: BUCS, Vita Student and Pot Noodle.

A warm welcome to those who have newly joined the community this year and thank you to the players and teams who have come back to compete. It was amazing to see so many of you at the live finals and we can’t wait to hold more live events for the student community in the future.

Keep your eyes and ears out for sign-up announcements for our summer season towards the beginning of June! 

Winning Teams and Players of Spring 2026

Apex Legends

First place: Bohemian (Bath Spa University) 
Second place: SHIHULONG (University College London)
Third place: Imperial Knights (Imperial College London)

Counter-Strike 2 

First place: EU CS (University of Exeter)
Second place: Soton BlueDeer (University of Southampton)
Third place: Buzz Off (University of Manchester) 

League of Legends

First place: Imperial Esports (Imperial College London)
Second place: KCL Lions (King's College London)
Third place: GENG (University of Southampton)

Women & Non-Binary League of Legends

First place: Spectrum Soldiers (Birmingham City University & Manchester Metropolitan University)
Second place: please speed I need this (University College London) 

Marvel Rivals

First place: UWE Sea Stags (University of the West of England)
Second place: Marcel Rivals (Loughborough University)
Third place: Portsmouth Paladins (University of Portsmouth)

Overwatch

First place: Oxford Omnics (University of Oxford)
Second place: Winston is found by a police helicopter (Imperial College London)
Third place: SMCL6700 (University of Strathclyde) 

Women & Non-Binary Overwatch

First place: MeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeow (University of Southampton & University of Kent)
Second place: Scary Scots (University of Edinburgh & University of Strathclyde) 

Rainbow Six Siege X

First place: Gakekeepers (University of the West of England)
Second place: Lincoln Swans (University of Lincoln)
Third place: Swansea Storm X (Swansea University)

Rocket League

First place: UOL Arctic Foxes (University of Liverpool)
Second place: Roehampton Esports (University of Roehampton)
Third place: Warwick Esports (University of Warwick)

Splatoon 3 

First place: Solent Cardinals (Southampton Solent University)
Second place: Annakists (University of Staffordshire)
Third place: TENTACLE NUKE INBOUND (University of Manchester)

Teamfight Tactics (Solo)

First place: Thea Dickinson (University of Southampton) 
Second place: Adi (Brunel University) 
Third place: Kenny (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Teamfight Tactics (Double Up)

First place: Fast 9 _fish_bait_emoji_ (University of Oxford)
Second place: 2 Poros 1 Cup (University of Warwick)
Third place: Pandoras Hope (University of Manchester)

VALORANT

First place: Nottingham Archers (University of Nottingham)
Second place: Hagrids Hermiones (University of Staffordshire)
Third place: QMUL Aces (Queen Mary University of London)

Women & Non-Binary VALORANT 

First place: Roewick (University of Roehampton & University of Warwick)
Second place: Cheese and chapati (University College London & University Campus of Esports)

2XKO (UFG)

First place: sstegy (University of Chester)
Second place: reddevil0507 (Nottingham Trent University)
Third place: blondexed (University of Exeter)

Guilty Gear Strive (UFG)

First place: MyOwnFailures (Sheffield Hallam University) 
Second place: doottio (Bangor University) 
Third place: logical_builder (University of Glasgow)

Street Fighter 6 (UFG)

First place: reddevil0507 (Nottingham Trent University)
Second place: FlyingKing8 (University of Bath)
Third place: milk (De Montfort University)

Tekken 8 (UFG)

First place: xd.dark (University of Leeds)
Second place: uajk (University of Reading)
Third place: thelionsnakes (University Campus of Esports)

Keep your eyes and ears open for sign-up announcements for our summer season at the beginning of June.

FOLLOW NSE
X/Twitter | Instagram | TikTok