The British Esports Student Champs 2025/26 grand finals have come to their thrilling conclusion this week, with four teams announced as winners in their respective games!
The UK’s best collegiate esports teams with students aged 12+ once again competed in the finals, this time taking place at the University of Staffordshire on Tuesday June 23rd and Wednesday June 24th 2026, following bootcamp practice sessions and content days at our National Esports Performance Campus in Sunderland.
We look back on what happened at this year’s grand finals in League of Legends, VALORANT, Overwatch 2 and Rocket League, with photos by Tom Platinum Morley and the broadcasts run by esports students from Sunderland College and the University of Staffordshire.
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League of Legends: Croydon Prime (Croydon College)
Croydon Prime (pictured top) have now won back-to-back Student Champs finals after defeating Belfast Met Esports 2-1 in this year’s League of Legends grand final.
Belfast Met went ahead in game one, but Croydon came back to take the win 20-13 with a 9k gold lead at the half hour mark.
Game two started similarly, with Belfast ahead 6-1 at 18 minutes, but Croydon managed to keep the gold difference relatively even, and slowly found their way back into the game, however it was Belfast who took this game 18-10 at the 40 minute mark.
In the third and final game, Croydon took the W 20-8 with a gold lead of almost 10k to emerge as champions!
MidRare said after the match: “Those were very stressful games! We inted a lot but at the end we won and did the back-to-back, which was our biggest challenge and no one has done that before.”
The winning team:
- Rexpher
- sleepy^^
- Sassa
- MidRare
- Alluka
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VALORANT: CCP Lighthouse (City College Portsmouth)
CCP Lighthouse from City College Portsmouth became British Esports Student Champs 25/26 VALORANT champions after their victory over NSCG (Newcastle and Staffordshire Colleges Group).
They took the first map 13-6 and the second map 13-8 to be crowned champions.
Sn0w said after the win: “They’re a strong team, I hope they go home today and know that they played well. Biggest respect to them. But in the end I love my team, I love my players, I play well for them and proved that.”
When asked what the win condition was, he joked, saying, “me!”
The winning team:
- Sn0w
- Cadence
- Jak3y
- Mesa
- nrth
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Overwatch 2: Iūdicium.eXe (Exeter College)
In Overwatch 2, Exeter College was named the UK’s best esports team in the 2025-26 British Esports Student Champs!
Their Iūdicium.eXe team took the first two maps in what was a very lively final, with a super engaged and vocal crowd, but the GCS Owls of Gower College Swansea came back into it and took the third map, making it tough for Exeter.
But it was Iūdicium.eXe who took the third map, and the final.
MVP Tuna, still trembling with adrenaline, said on stage said after the match: “Before today, I was probably a bit nervous, but we roll out, we take two maps really well and held it. Our mentality [was the win condition today], we lost a map but we kept going!”
The winning team:
- Exo
- Rorcka
- Storm
- Tuna
- Miu
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Rocket League: SGS Firstshot (South Gloucestershire and Stroud College)
SGS FirstShot of SGS College beat YCV-Deception of York College in the 2026 Rocket League grand final!
They started off very brightly, taking game one without conceding a goal, but Deception controlled game two to win that, with a very close game three and also game four being taken by SGS.
Deception looked like they were going to take the fifth game, but two late goals from SGS saw them take the game – and the final – with cymitry named MVP.
The winning team:
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What’s next? How to compete in the Student Champs in the future
The Student Champs 26/27 season will kick off later this year! The tournament is not only about competition, but it promotes transferable skills, builds friendships and is linked with career building too.
If you’re a school or college and want to find out more about taking part in the Student Champs, email us at champs@britishesports.org.
You can also register interest in the British Esports Student Champs here – see you next season!
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