South East Technological University (SETU) has made history by becoming the first Irish collegiate team to qualify for a world championship - The Collegiate Rocket League (CRL) World Championships, with a prize pool of $75,000!
SETU's impressive run began way back in Winter 2022 by winning the Nativz Collegiate Winter season and qualifying for UniRocketeers Spring, the highest level Collegiate Rocket League tournament for the EU region. Their impressive run in the tournament included qualifying out of groups in third place after being seeded 9th out of 10 teams, and making the playoffs. However, they were eventually eliminated in the Lower Bracket Round 4 by Exeter Emperors.
Despite this bump in the road, SETU dominated the Nativz Collegiate spring season in the meantime, taking down TUD 4-0 in the grand finals. Their grand finals spot and participation in UR Spring earned them a place in the UniRocketeers CRL Last Chance Qualifiers, where they had an initial stumble against UEA Bluejays early in the upper bracket. However, they mounted an incredible lower bracket run of 7 straight wins, which included exacting revenge against Exeter for their previous UniRocketeers elimination and overcoming UEA in their Lower Bracket Quarter Finals rematch, and defeating two more UK teams; Roehampton and Keele, with scores of 4-3 and 4-2 respectively, to qualify for the CRL World Championships.
Congratulations to the team - Shallow, Tomster, Solo, Paradox, and Coach Decomp, as well as the SETU Esports club for their continued support of collegiate esports, including their recent 2nd place overall in Nativz Collegiate’s 22-23 season, esports scholarship, and recently opened gaming hub. The news of their qualification for CRL Worlds is the cherry on top!
Rocket League Admin, Captain Pudding, said, “All of us at Nativz Collegiate, and everyone in RL Ireland are extremely proud of SETU’s accomplishment in qualifying for the CRL World Championships in Dallas. This is a big moment for Irish Esports as a whole and I can’t wait to see how the boys fare on the big stage!”
The Collegiate Rocket League World Championships will take place from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th June at DreamHack Dallas 2023.
Following Nativz Collegiate on Twitter will keep you up to date on SETU's performance, and you can tune in and show your support live here!
