Te Ōtautahi Ace - Valorant tournament.
2022 High School Valorant Exhibition match run by local esports caster Reuben “Oparer” Roberts with Tautoko – support from gaming organisations Ngāti Gaming, Digital Natives Academy, Esports Ōtautahi as well as all the excellent volunteers from the NZMA esports course. This Tournament was held at Te Hāpua Halswell Centre. Along with the Valorant Tournament Library staff ran a Beat Sabre competition whilst the UCGG University of Canterbury Gaming Guild ran a Rocket League LAN in the the Library PC Lab. Amazingly at the end of the day it was a yr 9 Valorant Team from Christchurch Boys High playing off against a University team in the finals. Narrow win to the UC team but an incredible effort from such as young CBHS team. A great day.
National Finals journey for Burnside High School
A combined team of ākonga – students from Burnside High School and Christchurch Boys High – the “best of the best” from Ōtautahi – Christchurch win the Regional High School Esports League of Legends competition and compete at the National Finals at Sky City in Tamaki Makaurau – Auckland. This video shows a little of their pre-finals journey and includes footage of their weekly competition matches at Upper Riccarton Library. Great example of the gaming community coming together in one space to meet and compete. Big thanks to Enable and SMART Cities Christchurch for helping to get them to the event. They even made their own t-shirts at the Library. Ōtautahi gaming community are very proud of this team. Huge thanks go to their dedicated kaiako – teachers as well for their dedication and support. Narrowly defeated in the finals gave them 2nd place in New Zealand, a fantastic result.
Sport Canterbury Esports event at Tūranga Library
A fun opportunity for Ākonga – High School students, to teach staff from Sport Canterbury New Zealand how to play Esports titles Valorant and Rocket League. The hope here was that they would recognise the skills, teamwork and tenacity required to play these games competitively. To really see the “sport” aspect of esports It was a fun day with a lot of laughter and some great feedback. Big thanks to Andy Thawley and students from Christchurch Boys High and Burnside High school for giving up some time to coach. This was at our Auahatanga – Creative Spaces at one of the Library facilities where we provide esports PCs and peripherals for schools and the local community. It was Halloween and our resident esport fairy dropped in for the festivities as well.
2022 NZMA Valorant Exhibition Match
A successful Valorant Exhibition Match very professionally run by a group of NZMA students studying Esports in Ōtautahi. Specifically run as part of their course work, this tournament also allowed for some of the younger esports teams that weren’t entered into the National High School competition a chance to compete. After a day of matches it was down to Riccarton and Hornby High Schools in the finals. Final result – a win to Riccarton High School.
Minecraft Wero Hanga - Speed Build Challenge
Based on Sir Ian Taylor’s Matauranga – Voyagers kaupapa, this “wero hanga” combined education with the fun of an esports challenge that saw 12 local schools put up teams of four yr 7 & 8 ākonga to produce the best waka hourua – twin hulled vessel. With just two sessions of 10 minutes per school group, it was amazing to see what they managed to produce. Regardless of the outcome, the engagement is plain to see in the video below. This may end up being the first of many incorporating the educational aspect of Sir Ian’s voyagers kaupapa . Delivered as a collaborative effort including Christchurch City Libraries, Esports Ōtautahi, ImpactEd, Victory Up, Ngāti Gaming and Digital Natives Academy. Playtech supplied the gaming rigs and Harvey Norman some amazing prizes. A great day.
Sport Canterbury Gaming Equipment Unboxing
Esports Ōtautahi was extremely excited to gain Sport Canterbury recognition for Esports as a legitimate sport for High School Teams. The community benefits of Esports in Libraries is such that Sport Canterbury gifted a large amount of Mechanical Gaming Keyboards and Mice to the Libraries for use in our esports sessions.
League of Legends Tournament Pentakill
Great piece of commentary from Evie Howell our amazing League of Legends Commentator accompanied by Tyler Coster, one of our PBTech collaborators. This piece is very exciting as it shows a brilliant Pentakill during a tournament coming from a talented Christchurch Boys High School player.