Grace Matthews is one of our most talented Esports students, based at ACC’s Norwich campus. We spoke to her about her recent Esports Student award win, her time on her course, and her plans for the future.
Hi Grace, please can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi, I’m Grace and I’ve been studying Esports Management for a year. I’ve loved gaming since I was 6 years old, I got my first console then and was obsessed with The Sims and Minecraft. From then on, especially during lockdown, I started streaming online and made a few friends through that, some of which are now my closest friends who I go on trips all the time.
Congratulations on winning the award! How did it feel?
Receiving my award felt awesome, especially as I’m not a huge competitive gamer, my skill level isn’t even close! It was nice to be appreciated for the role I play, which is more behind the scenes. For context, I ran a lot of the live streams and video content surrounding my coursemates and their games, especially the BEA Student Champs.
How do you find studying at ACC?
I’ve loved my time at ACC so far, bonding with coursemates has been good since we’re such a tight-knit group, but also branching out! I got to work with some media students and open myself up to some photography and film-making along with hosting two events: “Games Day” and “Access to Smash Bros” (a smash tournament that proved pretty popular!).
I’ve been streaming for a while and learning new techniques and new things about the platforms I already interacted with allowed me to do some experimentation of my own with some content. The events I ran, and the content I produced alongside Kyle Scillitoe interviewing some esports professionals in the Norwich area were really fun extracurricular projects to take on!
What is your biggest achievement so far?
My proudest achievement while studying at ACC has to have been our smash tournament! The day involved setup and collaboration with the Film, Videography and Photography students, Esports students, and students across the college. We fully exceeded our expectations for the turnout and were complimented on our professionalism by the tutors! Overall it was a really rewarding event.
What are your plans for the future?
I plan to study more media-based things, and go into a career in TV or Live Events. I’ve massively loved the events side of things and learned so many skills, so there’s definitely more where that came from.
What advice would you give to students thinking about joining ACC?
The advice I’d give is to properly research it by going to open days etc. For me, studying at ACC was my first choice, even before starting because of the calm environment and the supportive friendly tutors. There’s a huge amount of opportunities for collaboration, I’ve even been involved in some music events planning and taking photos, you really can take advantage of your full creative spectrum here!
You can check out some of Grace’s work on her portfolio. This includes her video editing and photography work, and links to all of her platforms that she produces content on.
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