EDWARDSVILLE, IL (October 14, 2020) Ultimate Gaming Championship (UGC), one of the nation’s leading esports events companies, has launched UGC EDU, a new company arm dedicated entirely to producing scholastic esports competition across the country. UGC EDU will produce both live and online tournaments across a multitude of competitive titles for high school and collegiate level students, providing its best-in-class event operations and leaning on its more than 15 years of industry experience.
This new initiative, in partnership with LG Electronics USA, Intel, Acer, and global IT reseller SHI Int’l Corp will debut with Battle Academy, an online, scholastic esports event series featuring both VALORANT and Rocket League tournaments. The competition series, available to enrolled high school and college students in the United States, will take place between November 9 and December 12, featuring a total of $25,000 in scholarships. Additionally, each of the first place finishing schools will receive an assortment of leading gaming equipment provided by event partners to help establish, or enhance existing, esports programs at the institutions. The tournament series will be played exclusively on UGC’s competitive gaming platform, UGC Esports.
“After months of optimizing our digital infrastructure, we’re thrilled to launch Battle Academy as the first initiative of UGC EDU,” says Matt Jackson, CEO & Founder of Ultimate Gaming Championship “SHI Int’l Corp, LG, Intel, and Acer share our vision for enhancing the future of esports by serving institutions and students across competition, scholarship, and curriculum sectors. We believe esports will fit the same missional properties to that of traditional sports and are excited to support the next generation of students on the digital playing field.”
As part of the partnership, UGC named the award-winning LG UltraGear™ as the Official Monitor of the Battle Academy. LG UltraGear is the most popular gaming monitor on the market thanks to top-tier components and features including vivid graphics ranging from Full HD to 4K Ultra HD, blistering refresh rates from 144Hz to 240Hz, easy One-Click V-wing stands and an incredible 1ms GtG response time on IPS or Nano IPS panels.
“As esports attract more talent and fans around the world, demand for premium gaming equipment has reached an all time high,” said Aaron Addison, gaming monitor expert at LG Business Solutions USA, which supplies commercial versions of LG UltraGear monitors to esports clubs, teams and schools. “The world’s best gamers know better technology means better performance, and LG’s UltraGear series monitors are the gold standard for competitions like Battle Academy.”
Audio visual equipment provider Horizon AVL and digital esports curriculum platform Learn2Esport have additionally been named Battle Academy event partners. As a means of enriching the educational aspect of the event, Learn2Esport will offer a one year membership to its esports management platform, Gameplan.gg, which provides students with access to esports classes and curriculum modules.
“SHI is proud to partner with UGC, LG, Intel, Acer, Horizon AVL, and Learn2Esport to bring a unique experience to schools and students. Esports programs are booming in schools and the launch of Battle Academy supports the continuous growth we are seeing at SHI,” says Dr. Katrina Adkins, Senior Program Director: Education Solutions for SHI. “Schools are tasked with preparing students for both the job market and college, and esports is a clear path to many jobs and degrees. From broadcasting, marketing, programming, and journalism, to shout-casting, sales, and accountants, esports has paved the way for millions of students. Battle Academy brings opportunity to life and we are excited to bring this to schools and students across the county.”
Battle Academy is free-to-enter and available to enrolled high school and college students in the United States, learn more and register online at: https://battleacademy.gg. Fans can also follow the new UGC EDU Twitter at https://twitter.com/UGCedu to stay up to date with scholastic esports tournaments, news, and updates.
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About Ultimate Gaming Championship: Since 2004, Ultimate Gaming Championship (UGC) has set out on distinguishing itself as the world’s most experiential esports events company. Through the company’s creative vision, UGC has evolved into a full-service esports brand providing live tournaments, an online competitive gaming platform, and dynamic content engine to provide customizable products for players, fans, and partners. UGC has organized sanctioned live and online events for Microsoft, DreamHack, Activision Blizzard, Red Bull, and the U.S. Army. Visit https://ugcevents.gg/ to learn more.
About LG Business Solutions USA: The LG Electronics USA Business Solutions division serves commercial display customers in the U.S. lodging and hospitality, digital signage, systems integration, healthcare, education, government and industrial markets. Based in Lincolnshire, Ill., with its dedicated engineering and customer support team, LG Electronics USA Business Solutions delivers business-to-business technology solutions tailored to the particular needs of business environments. LG Electronics USA Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics Inc., a $53 billion global force in consumer electronics, mobile communications, home appliances and air solutions. LG is a 2020 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year-Sustained Excellence. For more information, please visit www.LGSolutions.com.
About SHI Int’l Corp: Founded in 1989, SHI International Corp. is an $11 billion global provider of technology products and services. Driven by the industry’s most experienced and stable sales force and backed by software volume licensing experts, hardware procurement specialists, and certified IT services professionals, SHI delivers custom IT solutions to Corporate, Enterprise, Public Sector, and Academic customers. With over 5,000 employees worldwide, SHI is the largest Minority and Woman Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) in the U.S. and is ranked 10th among CRN’s Solution Provider 500 list of North American IT solution providers. For more information, visit https://www.SHI.com. SHI Blog: http://blog.SHI.com
About Intel: With industry-leading PC gaming innovations and unrivaled support for the esports ecosystem, Intel has fueled the progression of professional gaming – from the beginning. Intel has partnered with the leading esports leagues, brands, and publishers for nearly two decades, delivering end-to-end pro gaming solutions built on world-class technology that bring spectacular events to the world. Intel is driving innovation for a thriving PC gaming market with technology advancements for the ecosystem of developers, leagues, and players — making the PC the place to play and create now and going forward. Visit https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/esports.html to learn more.
