● Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports Masters Mena Series is the culmination of the university competition season, in which more than 10,000 students from over 220 universities took part.
● The best teams from the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Morocco will battle it out to determine the region’s university esports champion.
- Sheraa Hub at American University of Sharjah will host the final battle of the region’s reigning competition for University esports, owing to its growing popularity among young talents pursuing creative expression, excellence and innovation.
Dubai, UAE, July 10, 2023: – The Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports Masters (AUEM) MENA Series Finals are set to take place with a live audience at the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) Hub in the American University of Sharjah, culminating the pinnacle of university esports in the region. This event is the conclusion of an academic year in which over 10,000 players from over 220 universities competed to make it to the final stage of the competition.
The best university teams from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Egypt will go head to head to determine the regional university champion in League of Legends and VALORANT.
The event will take place from July 13-16, and is free of charge and open to all who wish to attend.
Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports Masters is run as a whole by Spanish technology company GGTech Entertainment, and the finals will be delivered by MENA Tech, the Middle East division of the group.
What is new in this edition
This second edition of the AUEM will be the first time that the public can attend the event live and in person, cheer on the players and interact with them and each other.
The event is sponsored by brands – HP Victus, Shahid and stc play – will set up various spaces where different activities will take place for those attending. Personalities and celebrities associated with the entertainment ecosystem will also be invited.
Finals schedule
The League of Legends semi-finals will take place on July 13. The team representing UAE will be ‘WE SCALIN‘, a team formed by players from Zayed University, United Arab Emirates University, American University of Sharjah, College De Paris and from the Abu Dhabi University. They will be competing for a place in the final alongside KSA representative ‘WinnersQ’ Egyptian team ‘123‘ and ‘Fox Gaming‘ from Morocco.
On July 14, the losing teams will play the third-place play-off, followed by the Grand Final at 16:00.
The VALORANT semi-finals will take place on July 15. Representing the UAE will be Zoomers with players from Ajman University, University of Birmingham, Heriot-Watt University and the Rochester Institute of Technology of Dubai.The other three teams taking part will be ‘NASR Academy‘ from KSA , ‘3BL Esports‘ from Egypt and ‘ATLAS LIONS‘ representing Morocco.
On July 16, the 3rd and 4th place match will be played from 12:00. The match to determine the MENA University Champion will then take place at 16:00.
Mario Pérez, CEO of MENATech commented: “It is a pleasure to once again host the Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports Masters MENA Series. We are very excited to give the students the opportunity to meet, compete, have fun and learn. For most of them it will be their first time traveling abroad and their first time playing on stage in front of a live audience, something many of them have wanted to do since they were children. All of this is a further step in our commitment to contribute to the education, training and human development of the students.“
Abdelrazak Al-Sharif, Head of Programs at Sheraa, said: “The Sheraa Hub is a youth-driven platform at the heart of one of Sharjah’s and the UAE’s largest and most vibrant university spaces. This open, accessible hub where experimentation, innovation, risk-taking, questioning and creativity, and healthy competition reign supreme will offer the perfect backdrop for the finale of the AEUM MENA series. As seen in our hackathons, festivals, competitions and pitching events, the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) is deeply committed to bringing young talent together to explore innovation in diverse fields, in vibrant community-driven spaces, and this competition perfectly aligns with our goals to empower the youth to ‘up their game’ through the opportunities for critical thinking and experiential learning offered by the world of gaming.”
More than just an esports competition
Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports is not just an esports tournament, it is a project present in 21 countries across 4 continents, which seeks to integrate the recreational and competitive aspect of video games with educational activities. Each of these countries offers workshops presented by professionals in the esports industry to university students interested in learning more about the industry.
This program also gives students the chance to get their first paid work experience in areas such as broadcasting, event planning, marketing, and community management.
