esports BSc Welcome Pack
Welcome to esports BSc 2025.
Congratulations on receiving an offer to study with us!
Our esports course focuses on the educational, professional, and ethical principles that underpin esports. It is practical-based, stimulating, and research-informed, covering a range of topic areas including esports coaching, performance, events, management, marketing and media.
We focus too on the applied nature of the course and as a result have a lot of practical elements using our purpose-built laboratories to develop your technical skills and understanding of the key issues within esports.
We utilise our strong industry relationships such as with Epic LAN and DreamHack to support your study in a real industry context and not just classrooms. Developing your employability skill is one of the priorities throughout your study with us since Year 1, so there are many practice-based assignments.
We invite a range of esports industry professionals as guest speakers to not only broaden your industry connections but also relate industry context of the teaching. We aim to support every student on the course to success their university study and accumulate various experiences to complete a competitive CV.
We value students voices, experiences and feedback. If you would like to communicate with our current students, or see what you did before, please follow us on X@EsportsUON and Instagram@esportsuon.
You can expect to study in your first semester (September 2025 – January 2026) the following modules:
- SPO1052 – Ready Player 1. Gameplay and Academic Skills
- SPO1055 – esports Business Fundamentals
- SPO1053 – esports Event Fundamentals
In the second semester (January 2026 – May 2026) you can expect to study the following modules:
- SPO1054 – Digital esports Marketing
- SPO1051 – Doing Sport and Exercise Psychology in the Digital Age
- SPO1050 – Understanding esports Media
Your Course Leader
Dr Lucy Zhu
Lecturer in esports
Welcome and Induction Sessions
There will be a Freshers Week, where we will have various induction activities and ice-breaking, but we would love to greet you all to the course before that, and help you prepare best for your university life and study. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact induction organiser Lucy Zhu: Lucy.Zhu@northampton.ac.uk.
Tuesday, 9 September
- Session Title: Online Induction Session 1
- Session Content: Preparing for this course and what to expect on it
- Time: 10 – 11am (BST)
- Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting
Friday, 19 September
- Session Title: Online Induction Session 2
- Session Content: What your Fresher’s Week look like and Q&A
- Time: 3 – 4pm (BST)
- Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting_
Monday 22 September – Friday 3 October
Welcome Week activities
From karaoke to outdoor cinema, wellbeing walks to Silent Disco, and much more – there’s something suitable for everyone.
See our Welcome timetable to find out more.
Monday, 22 September
Session: Welcome Talk from your Course Leader
- Time: 10:30 – 11:30am (BST)
- Location: Senate, SN208 (second floor), Waterside campus
Session: Checklist – connecting to the WiFi, NILE, Outlook, adding your timetable to your calendar, and the role of the Personal Academic Tutor (PAT).
- Time: 11:30 – 12:30pm (BST)
- Location: Senate, SN208 (second floor), Waterside campus
Session: Pizza Lunch!
- Time: 1 – 2pm (BST)
- Location: to be confirmed
Session: esports Course Rep talk, activity timetable and icebreaking activities.
- Time: 2 – 4pm (BST)
- Location: Senate, SN208 (second floor), Waterside campus
Tuesday, 23 September
Session: Introduction to the room, logins, NILE, discord, LinkedIn.
- Time: 10:30 – 11:30am (BST)
- Location: Creative Hub, CH105 (first floor), Waterside campus
Session: BSc esports Student Gaming Events with Second Years and Third Years – Riot Play Club!
- Time: 11:30am – 4pm (BST)
- Location: Creative Hub, CH105 (first floor), Waterside campus
Wednesday, 24 September
Session: Assignment and Study Plan talk from Course Leader, and meeting the esports teaching team.
- Time: 10:30am – 12:30pm (BST)
- Location: Senate, SN305 (third floor), Waterside campus
Session: Library Induction & Investigation.
- Time: 1 – 4pm (BST)
- Location: Learning Hub, Library (second floor), Waterside campus
Thursday, 25 September
Session: Teambuilding Activity: Staff vs Students.
- Time: 10:30am – 12:30pm (BST)
- Location: Creative Hub, CH105 (first floor), Waterside campus
Session: esports Society Introduction and Activities.
- Time: 1 – 4pm (BST)
- Location: Creative Hub, CH105 (first floor), Waterside campus
Friday, 26 September
Session: Trip to HADO (AR Sport), Coventry.
- Time: all day
- Location: meeting place to be confirmed.
Equipment
You are not required to purchase any mandatory kit or textbooks to start this course. We will provide all students with one of our course branded t-shirts, and students can purchase further course branded kit such as an additional pair of tracksuit bottoms / leggings for circumstances from Kit Locker. Purchasing this is not mandatory.
University laptop will be sufficient for any course work and class activities. You also have access to our esports lab 25/7 for study or gaming (Out-of-hour form is needed so security can look after you in case of emergency). If you play competitively, you are encouraged to bring your own gaming laptop/computer/consoles. University accommodation offers gaming WIFI.
All important messages from university and the teaching team will be communicated via Outlook email, so we encourage you to download Outlook on your phone and computer. To help you stay well connected with the other students on the course, we encourage you to download and register an account for Discord. You will be invited to join the server in the Fresher Week.
Most of the core textbooks for your first years are available in the university library.
Enhancing skills, building networks and engaging in the wider University community
In your first year, you will have opportunities to visit and work at EPIC LAN and go on a trip to London for experience-based learning. There are also a broad range of on campus esports events you can participate or volunteer.
We have esports teams for various titles to compete in NSE/NUEL and other student competitions. Make sure you do not miss these opportunities by checking your University email everyday!