We connected more than 40 ambitious students from the University of Twente, Saxion and other educational facilities in the country to come together as the Esports Team Twente. Next to our highly successful competitive teams, we also established 2 research teams, a data analysis team, and a highly passionate marketing team that supports our mission to spread awareness about eSports and gaming in the Netherlands. In order to push the boundaries of Esports even further, we are always looking to expand our teams and establish meaningful collaborations with local and (inter-)national companies.

Next to our awesome gaming research partnership with the Royal Dutch Navy, we managed to set up other impactful research projects like the Play2Game project with Sportaal. In addition, we introduced many individual student and graduation projects that reach from exploring 21st century skills among gamers to creating algorithms and heatmaps in CS:GO to improve our athletes’ in-game performance. As we are always striving to push the boundaries of eSports research and look beyond our expertise, we apply a cross-disciplinary approach that allows us to enter new areas of research and shape the future of how the world views eSports and gaming. 

In addition to our academic work, we also represent the University, the Team and our projects at major national events and fairs, for example by taking part in the Invictus games in the Hague, conducting research at the Expeditie next in Franeker, or spreading awareness about eSports and possible career opportunities at the Educational Fair North-East in Zwolle.

We formed Esports teams in eight different eSports titles where we compete on the highest national and European level, outperforming and exceeding our expectations and goals for the second year. Together with our coaches, data analysts and a sports psychologist, we try to give our athletes the best and most professional training experience possible by translating our research findings into action points.

We reach up to 20.000 online spectators each time our competitive games are livestreamed on major international events. Our games are mostly streamed on Twitch (national and international tournaments), but we also make sure that we stream on our own channel. As we are gaining new opportunities to expand our own broadcasting skills with the Esports Lounge next year, we expect to start streaming on a regular basis on our own channel.

Throughout the last 2 years, we managed to establish a passionate and creative marketing team consisting of a social media manager, a photo- and videographer, different content creators, a video editor and a very talented graphic designer. We enhanced our social media presence on all channels, resulting in a fast and continuous growth on our main platforms. 
Next year we are planning to launch our first own merch line, dripTT, which will become available in September. 

After 2 years of designing, planning and hard work, we are finally able to announce the opening of the 2nd biggest competitive Esports facility in the Netherlands! As we strive to be ambassadors for Esports in the area, the lounge will be accessible to a broad range of students at the University of Twente. The Esports Lounge allows us to establish and strengthen our impact in the national Esports scene even further as we will be able to host professional Esports events on our own. It will be a place where gaming and eSports fans can come together and play on high-end gaming equipment that will allow them to grow and develop themselves in their eSports career.

In our first year, we established a research partnership with the UT Esports lab and the BMS lab. With their help, we are able to frequently organize Esports research demo events as well as conducting different research projects together. We also establish collaborations with popular influencers, e.g. the well-known Youtuber ‘Gamemeneer’, who has a following of more than 1.2 million subscribers. Through the recent launch of the Esports Minor, we introduce students into the world of eSports research as they are able to conduct their own eSports related research projects in the Esports Lab.