Digital Schoolhouse kicks off Splatoon 3 Tournament regional qualifiers

This week saw the Digital Schoolhouse team bring together teams from across the south of England for our first week of regional qualifying events. After months of preparation, schools brought their top team of four competitors to represent their them and battle it out for the title of regional champion across 4 locations.

For this academic year, Digital Schoolhouse together with Nintendo UK announced a new title for the senior tournament: Splatoon 3. We have had 55 schools sign up to compete, our largest sign-up rate since the pandemic, including 17 non-Schoolhouses who have all been able to enjoy some incredible new benefits as part of the launch of the new title. We are proud to be partnered with Nintendo UK who have continued to support us by providing over 450 Nintendo Switches for competing schools to use in their classrooms and clubs.

All this new activity has been a great cause of excitement across the team and, as we have witnessed, for the students too as they demonstrated incredible skill, passion and teamwork at each of the qualifying events. Students aged 11-18 have been able to come together to play, coach and champion each other through the tournament. The sportsmanship has been evident at each regional qualifier, with players actively setting up friendly games between matches and ultimately forming new friendships across school groups.

One of our new lead teachers, Paty Mogio from The Abbey School, Reading, signed up to compete in the tournament and was inspired to deliver an assembly earlier this year about the impact of esports:

“My message has been very well received within the school community, teachers included, it was impactful and I am glad I have done it. In fact, parents are thanking me for organising the esports event next week and I can see that these girls that didn't know each other that well on day one, didn't have many friends in the team, or were struggling in school, have now got a passion to share together. I can't be prouder of them and I [couldn't] be thankful enough for this amazing opportunity”.

Digital Schoolhouse will also once again be running its Creative Careers Competitions, allowing students with interests beyond video games to get involved in the tournament and support their school, building on a wider skillset that is vital in the wider digital and creative industries. Each competition category will be judged by an expert panel of professionals from within the video games industry and students will be provided with feedback on their submissions to help build on their skills for future careers.

The regional qualifiers have allowed students from a range of backgrounds to try their hand at commentating and production so far, with additional categories in journalism, brand design and content creation. The winners from each competition will be announced at our grand final event at WASD in April, giving all attending students a valuable opportunity to meet, learn from and network with industry professionals.