Communications and Marketing
TeSSA - the official e-sports team of H-BRS
Who is behind TeSSA?
TeSSA was co-founded by Sarah Marie Lange and Jonathan Kemper, who both began their studies in technology journalism at H-BRS in 2016. They were supported along the way by numerous friends and like-minded people to further develop the project. By now, TeSSA is organised by students from a wide range of disciplines.
How can I reach you?
Does e-sport also work in real life?
With its three locations, H-BRS is spread throughout the entire Rhein-Sieg district, and despite our name, we of course intend to support all students. Thankfully, e-sports works virtually, so it doesn't really matter where you play from. We don't have our own premises at the moment, but for events we work together with our friends from eSports Uni Bonn, among others. When we organise team meetings or public viewings, we can access rooms in Sankt Augustin free of charge and thus bring all e-sports enthusiasts together in real life.
TeSSA at the Premier Tour in the Telekom Dome
How can I join you?
Our communication platform with well over 600 members is Discord. There you can get in touch with hundreds of gamers from the university, chat and arrange to play games. Various channels are used to organise our teams. The registrations for the Uniliga tournaments are usually announced at short notice and shortly before the start of the semester, so first-year students are also welcome to join in.
What kind of tournaments are there?
E-sports associations like TeSSA are now represented at colleges and universities all over Germany. This is how the Uniliga was founded in 2015, which is held every summer and winter semester in the disciplines of
- League of Legends (LoL),
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO),
- Rocket League,
- Hearthstone and
- Overwatch tournaments
organised for the students.
So far, we have participated with at least one team in LoL and CS:GO every year. If you want to stay up to date with the latest standings of our teams, events or general news, just follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook or join our community on Discord. If you want to play in one of the teams yourself, then simply contact us or sign up for the registration lists that we publish before the start of the semester.
Do I have to be a professional to play in tournaments?
Very important: You do not have to be a professional to participate in the Uniliga. In League of Legends, four leagues have been formed in order to be able to sort the several hundred teams according to their Elo rating. This ensures that even players at a lower level can compete with equal opponents and have a realistic chance of progressing in the tournament. However, you must be aware that you will need to set aside regular time for training and the competitions for several weeks. As a rule, these take place at weekends and in the evenings. At the same time, we try to set up the teams in such a way that at least one substitute player is on board.
And what have you done so far?
Since our formation, we have been an integral part of the Freshers' Rally, which kicks off each winter semester in the EMT department. Here, we give everyone the chance to prove their skills or to operate a controller for the first time ever - and of course to get to know us and get infected by e-sports fever. When we announced our first public viewing on a Saturday early in the morning in a lecture hall in Sankt Augustin, we definitely didn't expect the crowds and the bombastic atmosphere that eventually accompanied the "League of Legends" Worlds Final 2018.
TeSSA at the Premier Tour
At the beginning of 2019, a dream came true that we had not even dared to dream: Not only did the Premier Tour, the biggest e-sports event to date, take place in Bonn. Riot Games asked us to come to the Telekom Dome one day before the big game and warm up the keyboards for the pros. Seeing the scene celebrities and the crew eye-to-eye was definitely a highlight, in addition to the exciting match the next day.
A big thank you goes to ESL, who provided us with tickets for ESL One Cologne 2019. Our CS:GO team was delighted with the excursion to the finals in the Lanxess Arena, where you could literally breathe e-sports.
In November 2019, we attended the 1st Uniliga Conference in Mannheim at the invitation of UEG (University eSport Germany), met with dozens of organisers from Germany and discussed what the future of the student e-sports landscape could look like.