UB revolutionizes e-sports with a fair competition careful with players’ health

The initiative of the UB and Omashu, a start-up company born in the UB’s business incubator, represents a clear commitment to promoting values such as gender equality, sustainability and the use of Catalan in e-sports. It will also place the UB at the technological forefront with the application of artificial intelligence in this field.

Joan Guàrdia, Rector of the UB, said that “today is the first day of an enormously entertaining story”. "UB Alma Mater is breaking the mould after our almost 575 years of history. It is reasonable that today the UB wants to occupy this space, that of e-sports, and thus connect more with its students”, said the Rector.  

Mercè Segarra, Vice-Rector for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Transfer, stressed the values that emanate from the UB Alma Mater, a special project for the University: “UB Alma Mater is an initiative that is in line with the values of the University, because it is committed to gender equality, promotes Catalan in the field of e-sports and seeks the welfare of the players”.

UB Alma Mater is possible thanks to the sponsors who have supported the initiative, as Aitor Mier, CEO of Omashu, pointed out. Among the participating companies and institutions are the Institute for Lifelong Learning and Sony, as sponsors, and Garmin, La Sirena, Viena, Elgato, Inzone, Veri, Red Bull, Newskill and Nfortec, as collaborators.

The event closed with a group photograph of the students competing in the tournament, the organizers and the sponsors. Previously, the representatives of the teams received the T-shirts and headphones that they will wear during the games from the Rector and Sony.

Start and development of the game

From 10 October, 56 UB students, divided into eight mixed teams, will compete for victory in the first edition of the UB Alma Mater tournament. The game will take place at the Penyafort-Montserrat and Ramon Llull Hall of Residence, while the finale will be held at the SAGA Saló del Gaming. The UB Alma Mater competition has aroused enormous interest among the university community of the UB, as evidenced by the fact that more than 280 registrations have been received.

To guarantee a quality spectacle, the UB has adapted the theatre of the University Hall of Residence with the leading technology necessary to hold the League of Legends games, which will be open to the public and free of charge.

UB Alma Mater will be a tournament of League of Legends (LoL), a multiplayer video game by Riot Games. In the game, two five-member teams compete to destroy the enemy base, using champions with unique abilities. The groups, representing different colleges and campuses, will take on Summoner’s Rift, LoL’s most famous game map.

During the games, player performance metrics will be analyzed, which will serve, for example, to provide real-time information to optimize strategies throughout the game.

The show will be streamed on UB’s Twitch account, and statistics will be available on the Omashu website.