UK esports body National Student Esports (NSE) has announced a partnership with developer and publisher Nintendo UK.
As a result of the deal, the parties will collaborate to launch the Splatoon 3 – University Championship for the UK student community.
The Splatoon 3 championship will include a range of activities that include in-person and online tournaments taking place across the UK. In addition, Nintendo’s UK branch will continue to support community events taking place throughout the spring season.
Two regional events are planned alongside a live Grand Final, which will take place at the Insomnia Gaming Festival from April 7th-9th. The Splatoon 3 tournament will form part of the NSE’s British University Esports Championship finals which already features Dota 2, League of Legends, and Rocket League on its portfolio.
NSE is no stranger to partnering with Nintendo. In July 2022, they joined forces to create community events for Mario Strikers: Battle League Football. In 2019, NSE also launched a series of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournaments that resulted in the title becoming a mainstay on the NSE platform.
For Nintendo, the deal reaffirms its commitment to growing grassroots esports. Earlier this month, the publisher and developer partnered with scholastic esports platform Generation Esports which will also add Splatoon 3 to its Middle School Esports League product.
Kalpesh Tailor, Head of Communications at Nintendo UK, commented: “Nintendo UK and NSE have a joint ambition to bring communities together that have a passion for video games.
“We’re proud to support NSE again and bring the latest addition in the Splatoon series to university students, offering more opportunities for the engaged student gaming community to compete, online and in-person.”