United Kingdom eSports Association

Not to be confused with British eSports Association.

United Kingdom eSports Association
FormationOctober 31, 2008; 15 years ago (2008-10-31)
DissolvedDecember 2011; 12 years ago (2011-12)
PurposeNational governing body of Esports
HeadquartersUnited Kingdom
Chief Executive
Ray Mia
Executive Committee
  • Duncan Best
  • Richard Keith
  • Steve Carsey
  • James Claydon
  • Crawford Balch
Community Council
  • Peter Simpson
  • Stuart Saw (2009)
  • Richard Lewis (2009)
  • Michael O'Dell (2009)
Websiteukesa.co.uk

The United Kingdom eSports Association or UKeSA (pronounced You-Kes-Sah) attempted to be a governing body of eSports in the United Kingdom[1][2][3][4] and a member of the International eSports Federation (IeSF).[5] The headquarters were in London, United Kingdom.

The UKeSA was responsible for governing amateur and professional eSports, building a structure with the government, industry and community in mind.[6] These include Metropolitan Police Service, BBC, Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, Procter & Gamble, Future Publishing, Electronic Arts, Codemasters, The New World Assembly, XLEAGUE.TV, Team Dignitas, Reason Gaming, Team Infused, Fnatic, QuadV and Cadred.[7] The association was launched on 31 October 2008 during the London Games Festival and was chaired by former XLEAGUE.TV channel head Ray Mia.[8] He explained that UKeSA will essentially be the eSports equivalent of The Football Association, offering a centralised infrastructure to UK eSports as well as support towards semi-professional and professional team and UK community led projects with the government.

UKeSA set up leagues and cup tournaments, split between three divisions: Open Division, Championship Division and Premiership Division.[9] Each division represents the different levels of competition from amateur to professional and is played online via the internet through the means of a personal computer or a video games console. Teams can compete in a series of video games including FIFA 09, Call of Duty 4 and Counter-Strike.[10] Competition finals of these divisions were hosted at a specially selected venue in the United Kingdom. Teams are gathered to play against each other in off-line, local area network (LAN) setups as opposed to online play in the initial stages of the tournament.

  1. ^ Ivan, Tom. (2008-10-31) "Big Things Instore For eSports". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  2. ^ T, Steve. (2009-02-11) "Be Broadband Is UKeSA Broadband Provider 2009" Archived 18 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Broadband News. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  3. ^ Varsani, Kishan. (2008-12-22) "Launch of UK eSports Association" Archived 9 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Arm3d.com. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
  4. ^ (2008-12-27) "Poker Launches Campaign To Become An Olympic Sport". Inside The Games. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  5. ^ (2009-05-29) "UKeSA treed toe tot de IeSF en benoemd nieuwe General Secretary" Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. e-sportbond.nl. Retrieved 2009-06-19.
  6. ^ (2009-01-16) "UKeSA Background". GamersHell.com. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  7. ^ Cole, Corin. (2008-11-27) "UKeSA Structure Announced" Archived 25 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Cadred.org. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  8. ^ Silver, Max. (2008-11-20) "Ray Mia Explains the UKeSA" Archived 25 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Cadred.org. Retrieved 2009-02-29.
  9. ^ Silver, Max. (2008-12-05) "Event Structure and Seasons Announced" Archived 8 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Cadred.org. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  10. ^ (2009-02-19) "eSports Pro League Gets Underway". BBC. Retrieved 2009-02-19.