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Esports Production BSc (Hons)

Start date

  • Level(s) of Study: Undergraduate
  • Typical Offer: 104 - 112 UCAS tariff points
  • UCAS Code(s): I600
  • Start Date(s): September
  • Duration: Three years, full-time
  • Study Mode(s): Full-time
  • Campus: Confetti Nottingham
Information for 2024

Introduction:

Esports isn’t just about gaming. According to Newzoo, the industry is set to generate nearly £1.4 billion in revenues and reach an audience of over 500 million by the end of 2022.

Considered one of the fastest growing sports, it's leading the way in live events production, broadcasting and streaming, and content creation. The industry is made up of professional players, games publishers, event specialists, broadcast/streaming providers like Twitch and Youtube, and global sponsors and technology providers.

At Confetti, you’ll learn all about the esports industry as a global business, studying the principles of esports games, allowing you to explore the world of competitive gaming. You’ll learn what makes a successful esports game. At the centre of your learning will be production and technology; you’ll develop your ability to understand and apply the technologies associated with putting on an esports event.

Unlike other universities, we’re specialists in creative technologies and have over 25 years of expertise in games, media and music. That means we’re in a unique position to draw upon our existing teaching expertise and industry contacts across gaming, technical events, production technology and broadcasting, and creative entrepreneurship to enhance your learning experience. We also run our own commercial businesses, including Confetti X (a purpose-built esports and virtual production venue), which means you'll learn and work alongside experts from the industry in a professional setting.

This course is taught at Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies in Nottingham.

What you’ll study

You’ll learn and practice in our brand new esports hub Confetti X and in our world-class live events complex, Metronome, which boasts a 400-capacity venue and industry-standard live events production workspace.

We're well-connected in the world of esports, playing host to tournaments and events for the NSE, British Esports Association and other organisations. All these real-life work experience opportunities will complement your learning.

Global Esports Industry (40 Credit Points)

Esports is now one of the most significant sectors within the global games industry. The growth of this market sector has led to new business opportunities, emerging technologies and social trends. This module introduces you to the technological, business-focussed and social factors that are related to the development of Esports through academic research and analysis. This knowledge and understanding is vitally important for the development of new business concepts, products or services related to Esports.

Principles of Esports Production (40 Credit Points)

Esports has grown ten-fold in just over five years to a staggering global business. The games themselves have engaged players and viewers alike with developers and publishers always searching for the next big, competitive product. This module focuses on the mechanics and conventions of competitive games design, allowing you to conceptualise your own ideas in relation to competitive Esports games. This knowledge and understanding of how games mechanically work and why we play them is essential to game design, and will support the conceptualisation of/within your own game portfolio.

Production & Technology (40 Credit Points)

Being able to understand the importance of technology in Esports broadcasting is essential for those working in the Esports events industry. This module will allow you to explore the technical theory involved in broadcast technology for Esports, whilst developing your practical skills working with equipment.

Emerging and Disruptive Technologies in Esports (20 Credit Points)

This module focuses on improving your ability to identify and understand key developmental areas of the Esports industry. This will require you to analyse emerging technologies used throughout Esports games development, events production, training and online streaming. Through extensive research you will be asked to propose innovative strategies on how to shape the industry moving forwards.

Esports Event Operations (40 Credit Points)

This module focuses on event management through a range of key areas. You’ll study core event-planning strategies which include resource management and allocation, audience research and the user experience, and digital media production technologies, teaching you how to effectively push the event experience and journey to audiences.

Live Esports Broadcast Production (40 Credit Points)

You’ll further your knowledge of all the associated event production technology required to deliver a live Esports event including broadcast, live sound, stage lighting, live video and streaming technologies. You’ll work with a range of technical and mathematical data to study and design the technology configurations that can support a live Esports event. This module will have a strong practical emphasis in a workshop environment that will allow you to practise and evaluate skills and techniques using industry-standard technology and software. It is expected that you’ll specialise in one or more areas of production technology, and by working collaboratively you will have the skillset and understanding to deliver a successful Esports event as a production team.

Industry Practice (20 Credit Points)

During this module you’ll undertake appropriate self-directed projects, working collaboratively on creative concepts, allowing you to directly apply the knowledge and skills learnt throughout the programme in the context of the workplace. This module aims to develop your overall professionalism and provide you with the knowledge and resources to begin a career in both the Esports and creative industries. The nature of creative industries is increasingly defined by freelance and self-employed models of work. Consequently, individuals seeking work in industry need to appreciate the pressures of working on multiple projects to strict deadlines and the subsequent demands this places on time and resources. Similarly, an understanding of professional practice and the legal and economic imperatives in industry is important, as is effective communication, self-efficacy and autonomy. This module aims to develop these skills by challenging you to develop a range of self-directed projects.

Social Media Production and Management (20 Credit Points)

This module focuses on developing a thorough and critical understanding of the role and function of social media within the creative media industry, with emphasis on Esports events. During this module you’ll learn about the different social media platforms that form the online community driving Esports. Through research and study, you will understand and apply innovations in advertising campaigns to form your own digital marketing campaign for an Esports event. This will encompass digital media production technologies applied to understanding public relations and intellectual property protection.

Capstone Project (60 Credit Points)

This module encompasses all that you have learned throughout your studies into a final major project. The project is based on the development of a live Esports exhibition drawing in a variety of guests, sponsors, performances and tournaments. To achieve this, you’ll engage with a number of live events, from which you will critically analyse  and evaluate techniques, and apply them to the design of your own event. You’ll focus on a core area of this event and apply innovation with technology, work collaboratively with other course areas, and as a result be the driving force behind a large-scale Esports spectacle.

Technology Investigation (40 Credit Points)

This module provides you with the opportunity to undertake sustained investigation into a specific area of live Esports production and broadcast, building on your previous knowledge, experience and skills acquired during Levels 4 and 5. This module will allow you to critically explore a specific issue or area of personal interest within your chosen field. You will achieve this by undertaking a self-initiated practical research project supported by tutor supervision. As part of this investigation, you’ll also enhance your abilities to communicate your findings with an audience and consolidate your skills in project management and self-directed work, both of which are vital for a career within the creative media industries. The module serves to acquaint you with the key skills and practices required to undertake and complete an independent research project. The module will also enable you to understand the role of Intellectual Property (IP) in supporting the creative economy and how you can identify and legally protect your ideas and innovations. The module will offer an insight into how you can manage and license your IP, and what you do if someone else uses your ideas or without your permission.

How you’re taught

Within individual modules the delivery of the material encourages increasing levels of skill development and student participation, ensuring that as you progress through the course, you become a more confident and independent learner. We aim to include a range of methods of delivery that may include;

  • Lectures
  • Seminars
  • Workshops
  • Group tutorials
  • Academic tutorials
  • Blended learning including online lectures​ and workshops
  • Presentations and pitches
  • Team working
  • Independent learning
  • Visiting industry professionals

All the modes of delivery are structured to develop ongoing abilities and skills through exploring ideas and problem solving. The course will offer a broad range of assessment methods.

Our motto is ‘Do It For Real’. This means learning from teaching staff with industry experience, taking part in live projects, getting industry insights from guest lectures, and clocking up valuable work experience.

Industry Week

We hold an annual Industry Week, the biggest of its kind in the UK, where guest speakers and mentors from the music industry are invited in to talk to students. Our students have the opportunity to learn from people working in the industry right now, and can make invaluable contacts during this week.

Past Industry Week guests have included:

  • Mark Garvey Candella - Director of Student & Education Programs at Twitch
  • Unequalled Media
  • FACEIT
  • JD Wu - award-winning Technical Director
  • Ubisoft
  • Rockstar Games
  • TSM
  • Jacky - award-winning esports commentator
  • Sumo Digital

Check out our talks OnDemand here.

Esports experience

We’re well-connected in the world of esports, and, thanks to our world-class facilities, we've played host to the NSE British University Esports Championship Finals and the British Esports Association Student Champs Finals.

Confetti and its students recently hosted a ‘Halo Clash Series’ international esports tournament for charity and the hugely popular ‘Six Memevitational’; a global celebration of the Rainbow Six Siege game with the biggest casters, pro players and content creators involved from around the world.

Students from Confetti have been working with The NUEL and GGTech to host the Amazon University Esports UK and Ireland finals, with more tournaments with The NUEL on the horizon.

The types of role include:

  • Technical Director
  • Observer
  • Replay Operator
  • Graphics Operator
  • Replay Operator
  • Audio Engineer
  • Production Assistant

It’s events like these that provide you with the opportunities to gain real-life work experience, learning from the pros and making those all important industry connections.

Degree Show

In your final year you will exhibit your work as part of Confetti's Degree Show. This event includes all final year students across Confetti's courses and is a great platform for you to showcase your work to key influencers across the creative industries.

Careers and employability

Your time at Confetti doesn’t have to stop once you finish your undergraduate course. Choose to continue your studies on our postgraduate degrees that can help you further develop your skills and obtain the experience you need to get a head start in your career.

After an action-packed, intellectually-stimulating three years, you’ll leave Confetti with a host of invaluable technical and critical thinking skills that will allow you to work in the esports industry, with a focus on production and technology. As technology continues to develop, you’ll be one step ahead in being able to adapt to emerging technologies.

You could find yourself working in areas such as event management, broadcast and production, marketing, games design, event production, or in a role as an analyst, streamer, observer, shoutcaster or consultant.

Campus and facilities

You’ll learn, practice and develop your skills in some amazing facilities.

Confetti X

Scheduled to launch in 2022, Confetti X brings together years of expertise in live events, content creation, streaming and competitive gaming.

The complex is a space for students to access the very best facilities and technology for esports production and other emerging technologies, home to a busy schedule of amateur and professional tournaments, productions and other esports-related events; all of which will offer up unique work experience opportunities for students studying on the course.

Here are just some of the features:

  • A 100-seater 4k sqft multi-event esports venue and content studio
  • 4k broadcast and content creation infrastructure
  • Virtual live productions with Unreal Engine
  • 10m x 4m 4K LED video wall with LED wings
  • Multiple shoutcaster and analyst studio
  • Multiple streaming cubicles
  • Green screen studio for virtual sets
  • Scrim rooms and private warm-up rooms for competitors

Specialist kit

Each of our esports studio spaces are kitted out with top of the line gaming and streaming gear, allowing our students to effectively and simultaneously study, game and stream.

You’ll have access to:

  • Esports scrim room and studio fully equipped with Alienware machines and peripherals
  • Games Studios fully equipped with Workstation PCs
  • Latest industry-standard software packages including Autodesk Suite, Adobe Creative Cloud, Unreal Engine, Unity and more
  • Hardware suites focused on research and development in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Motion Capture

Our esports scrim rooms and studios have:

  • Alienware Aurora R12
  • 11th Gen Intel Core i9 processor
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU
  • 32GB RAM
  • 2x Alienware 240Hz Gaming Monitors
  • A combination of Razer and Alienware peripherals including webcams, microphones, headphones, keyboard and mice.
  • Corsair T1 Race Gaming Chairs

Entry requirements

  • Standard offer: 112 UCAS Tariff points from up to four qualifications
  • Contextual offer: 104 UCAS Tariff points from up to four qualifications

To find out what qualifications have tariff points, please use our tariff calculator.

Contextual offers

A lower offer may be made based on a range of factors, including your background (such as where you live and the school or college you attended), your experiences and individual circumstances (you may have been in care, for example). This is called a contextual offer and we get data from UCAS to make these decisions. NTU offers a student experience like no other and this approach helps us to find students who have the potential to succeed here but who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university. Find out how we assess your application.

Other qualifications and experience

We may also consider credits achieved at other universities and your work/life experience through an assessment of prior learning. This may be for year one entry, or beyond the beginning of a course where applicable, for example, into year 2. Our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy outlines the process and options available for this route.

Getting in touch

If you need more help or information, get in touch through our enquiry form

Meeting our entry requirements

Hundreds of qualifications in the UK have UCAS tariff points attached to specific grades, including A levels, BTECs, T Levels and many more. You can use your grades and points from up to four different qualifications to meet our criteria. Enter your predicted or achieved grades into our tariff calculator to find out how many points your qualifications are worth.

Getting in touch

If you need more help or information, get in touch through our enquiry form

  • 112 UCAS Tariff points from up to four qualifications.

International qualifications

We accept qualifications from all over the world – check yours here:

English language entry requirements

You can meet our language requirements by successfully completing our pre-sessional English course for an agreed length of time, or by submitting the required grade in one of our accepted English language tests, such as IELTS:

Undergraduate preparation courses (Foundation)

If you don’t yet meet our entry requirements, we offer Foundation courses through our partner Nottingham Trent International College (NTIC), based on our City Campus:

Advanced standing (starting your undergraduate degree in year 2 or 3)

You may be able to start your undergraduate course in year 2 or 3 based on what you have studied before. This decision would be made in accordance with our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy.

Would you like some advice on your study plans?

Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.

Fees and funding

Preparing for the financial side of student life is important, but there's no need to feel anxious and confused about it. We hope that our fees and funding pages will answer all your questions.

Additional Costs

Your course fees cover the cost of studies, and include loads of great benefits, such as the use of our library, support from our expert Employability team, and free use of the IT equipment across our campuses.

All course specific software and hardware is accessible on site however it is encouraged that you invest in a workstation/gaming PC to aid your study and progression into the creative media industry and more so the games industry. A suitable workstation or gaming PC can cost from £650+.

Library books

Most study modules will recommend one or more core text books, which most students choose to purchase. Book costs vary and further information is available in the University’s bookshop. Our libraries provide a good supply of essential text books, journals and materials (many of which you can access online) – meaning you may not need to purchase as many books as you might think! There may also be a supply of second-hand books available for purchase from previous year students.

Print and copy costs

The University allocates an annual printing and copying allowance of £20 depending on the course you are studying. For more details about costs for additional print and copying required over and above the annual allowance please see the Printing, photocopying and scanning information on the Library website.

Getting in touch

For more advice and guidance, you can contact our Student Financial Support Service.

Tel: +44 (0)115 848 2494

Preparing for the financial side of student life is important, but there's no need to feel anxious and confused about it. We hope that our fees and funding pages will answer all your questions.

Getting in touch

For more advice and guidance, you can contact our Student Financial Support Service.

Tel: +44 (0)115 848 2494

Scholarships

We offer scholarships of up to 50% of your tuition fee. You can apply for your scholarship when you have an offer to study at NTU.

Living costs

Get advice on the cost of living as an international student in Nottingham and how to budget:

Paying fees

Find out about advanced payments, instalment plan options and how to make payments securely to the University:

Would you like some advice on your study plans?

Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.

How to apply

Application for this course is through the UCAS application form.

Ready to join us? Then apply as soon as you can. Just click the Apply button at the top of the page and follow the instructions for applying. Make sure you check the entry requirements above carefully before you do.

Selection for this course takes place through UCAS application form.

Application deadline

This course starts in September and applications should be submitted by the UCAS deadline.

Applications received after this date will only be considered if places are still available, after all applications received by the deadline have been assessed.

Mature students

We welcome applications from mature students (over the age of 21) for this course. We will assess applicants of this nature on an individual basis.

If you are a mature student, you will still need to apply to us by UCAS form, but you don't necessarily need to meet our minimum entry requirements.

Writing your application and personal statement

Be honest, thorough and persuasive in your application. Remember, we can only make a decision based on what you tell us. So include all of your qualifications and grades, including resits or predicted grades,

Your personal statement is a really important part of your application. It's your chance to convince us why we should offer you a place! You've got 4,000 characters to impress us. Make sure you use them to show how your skills and qualities are relevant to the course(s) you're applying for. For more hints and tips, take a look at our page on how to write a good personal statement.

Keeping up to date

After you've applied, we'll be sending you important emails throughout the application process - so check your emails regularly, including your junk mail folder.

You can get more information and advice about applying to NTU on our Your Application page.

Getting in touch

If you need any more help or information, please email our Admissions Team or call on +44 (0)115 848 4200.

You can apply for this course through UCAS. If you are not applying to any other UK universities, you can apply directly to us on our NTU applicant portal.

Application advice

Apply early so that you have enough time to prepare – processing times for Student visas can vary, for example.  After you've applied, we'll be sending you important emails throughout the application process – so check your emails regularly, including your junk mail folder.

Writing your personal statement

Be honest, thorough, and persuasive – we can only make a decision about your application based on what you tell us:

Would you like some advice on your study plans?

Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.

The University's commitment to delivering the educational services advertised.