Our History

This year's term 1 is off to a great start! First, we give a big, warm welcome to our new executive committee this year! We see some familiar faces, and more than a few new ones.

Within the first week of term, we've already started with our biggest event: The International Gaming Expo! In collaboration with UCSA, FilSoc, CMSA, PBTech and ESports Otautahi, we welcomed back new and returning students alike to an exciting and explosive first Friday night back in uni! The event consisted of four tournaments going on at the same time: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, FIFA, Mobile Legends, and Valorant! The lucky winners went home with some pretty nifty prizes thanks to our sponsors.

Introduction Night was a massive success, with the biggest turnout we've seen for the event! It was great to see everyone participate and engage with each other with the games we've lined up for the night!

Our first LAN of the year saw the return of the beloved Chaos Tournament! With games such as MarioKart, Ultimate Chicken Horse, Stickfight, Tricky Towers and more! And at the SGM later on, we've welcomed a new member to our executive team as our First Year Representative!

Our Quiz Night was held in Bentley's once more, and what a night it was! Great teams and even greater minds as they answer gaming related questions that even had our exec team scratching their heads!

To cap things off at the end of the term, we held our Movie Night, which included a showing of Arcane's season 1! Season 2 can't come soon enough!

Committee

• President: Jax Miller
• Vice President: Stella Meikle
• Secretary: Kurt Tayong
• Treasurer: Nick Stephens
• First Year Representative: Jess Spackman
• Executive Team: Alex Rutter, Joshua Henderson, Elliot Baguley, Dane Verharen, Annalise Smith, Thomas Julian, Harry Johnstone
• Alumni Exec: Laura Grundy, Jason Motha, Braden Grundy, Véda Stenberg, Sam Spekreijse, Jacob Rogers, Alex Gabites, Ethan Brittain-Morby, Dylan Spackman

2023 had some of our most exciting events yet! We have run some of our most ambitious events to date. Our Introduction Night, Smash Ultimate Tournament, and League of Legends Tournament all got amazing attendance in Term 1!

Term 2 saw the return of our Bar Night, in collaboration with Pokesoc! Additionally, we ran a Mass Movie Night collaboration spanning four weeks, with Pokesoc, Animesoc and JSoc. It was a lot of fun to see what other clubs are all about!

The Smash Ultimate Tournament and League of Legends Tournament have also been the biggest esports events in Christchurch as a whole thus far this year, making our club a big part of Christchurch esports in general!

Collaboration with the UC Student Association and Esports Ōtautahi has made this success possible, as well as our sponsors: Mighty Ape, PB Tech, Oneshot Esports Lounge, Oasis Arcade, and Twitch all coming in super massive with the prizes and overwhelming support!

And in case you missed it, UCGG has won two categories at UCSA's 2023 Supreme Club Awards for 'Supreme Small Club for 2023' and 'Best Sponsorship Opportunity' for Term 1's Ōtautahi League of Legends Academic Cup! Congratulations team!

Loads more awesome events are in the works for you all, so we hope to see you there in 2024!

Committee

• President: Nick Stephens
• Secretary: Jax Miller
• Treasurer: Elliot Baguley
• Executive Team: Alex Rutter, Joshua Henderson, Dylan Spackman, Ethan Brittain-Morby, Kurt Tayong, Grace Nelson, Stella Meikle
• Alumni Exec: Laura Grundy, Jason Motha, Braden Grundy, Véda Stenberg, Sam Spekreijse, Jacob Rogers, Alex Gabites

We have had a refreshed and fabulous year in 2022! We have levelled up many aspects of the club. We ran esports events again after 2 years, with successful Rocket League, Dota 2, Valorant and Smash Ultimate Tournaments during the year!

We also upgraded our social events with many new additions including ice-breaker introduction nights and movie nights.

A highlight is our Quiz Night in term 1 filling up the venue to capacity! Club sponsors like Mighty Ape, Red Bull, PB Tech Hornby and more came in clutch to help us run incredible events.

We had collaborations with familiar faces like the UCSA and FGC plus new ones like One-Shot Esports Lounge and Esports Ōtautahi.

Having built amazing momentum this year and with all the support, we are sure to do more incredible events going into 2023!

Committee

• President: Véda Stenberg
• Secretary: Alex Stephens
• Treasurer: Nader Ibrahim
• Executive Team: Logan Langrish, Elliot Baguley, Nico Wildbore, Nick Stephens, Johannes Jöns, Alex Rutter, Jax Miller, Dylan Spackman
• Alumni Exec: Kai-Phoenix Freeborn, Julia Langrish, Jacob Pfennig, Jacob Rogers, Sam Spekreijse, Laura Grundy, Jason Motha

2021 was a solid year for the Guild. We kept up our weekly gaming nights with our regular crew just about every week during the year.

However, there was still a lot of ongoing uncertainty due to COVID and in a disappointing turn, another lockdown was announced the day before our term 3 Bar Night.

We again made the best of a bad situation though, running many online gaming sessions on our Discord and nurturing a great community throughout the year.

We learned a lot in 2021 and these many lessons are still being used to strengthen our club and events for the future.

Committee

• President: Jacob Pfennig
• Secretary: Julia Langrish
• Treasurer: Nader Ibrahim
• Executive Team: Elliot Baguley, Kai-Phoenix Freeborn, Johannes Jöns, Leah Kissick, Jacob Rogers, Alex Stephens, Nick Stephens, Véda Stenberg, Nico Wildbore
• Alumni Exec: Sam Spekreijse, Simon Allen, Laura Grundy, Jason Motha

We kicked off our 2020 with a bang, with many new faces joining us during clubs day and for our term 1 LAN.

Then one fateful Friday night weekly, just after we'd switched on our games, there was news that sent shivers down all of our spines: a COVID case had made it to NZ.

"What does this mean", we all asked ourselves. Well, duh, lockdown. The lockdown didn't stop us though and it became the perfect time to start a new UCGG Minecraft server which enjoyed extreme popularity.

Online hangouts on our Discord kept us connected until in term 3, we finally met each other again in-person after missing each other for so long!

In term 4 our Quiz Night and Bar Night both attracted a great turnout proving that while it may have been a bumpy ride, we had weathered the storm for a bright and sunny 2020!

Committee

• President: Jacob Rogers
• Secretary: Jacob Pfennig
• Treasurer: Nader Ibrahim
• Executive Team: Sam Spekreijse, Johannes Jöns, Kai-Phoenix Freeborn, Gavin Ong, Tiger Huang, Caleb Rippin, Simon Allen, Jay Arias
• Alumni Exec: Egor Khramenko, Liam Oldershaw, Aden Durney, Laura Grundy, Jason Motha

We had a great year in 2019! Our biggest highlights included our Bar Nights in the Foundry which drew in crowds of 50+ people for explosive times.

We had great LANs every term in Rehua with a successful introduction of our 'bingGO' challenge. We also started having bi-weekly game nights every second Friday as a consistent get-together for our members.

Sponsors such as Redbull and Riot Games provided great support in 2019 and helped us make our events incredible! Things were definitely on the up for UCGG!

Committee

• President: Liam Oldershaw
• Secretary: Jacob Rogers
• Treasurer: Hannah Clark
• Executive Team: Sam Spekreijse, Roderick Li, Nathan Humphrey, Jacob Pfennig, Simon Allen, Egor Khramenko, Johannes Jöns
• Alumni Exec: Aden Durney, George Bird, Laura Grundy, Jason Motha

2018 was another awesome year for UCGG! Highlights included a League of Legends Rumble in which 9 teams battled it out over the semester for ultimate glory and awesome prizing from Riot Games.

UCGG's Bar Nights and Freeplay events continued to grow for the better and old faithfuls like LAN parties and the Dota2 tournament took on a new life, being hosted in the Dovedale Wheki rooms after the demise of Kirkwood.

Viewing parties for esports along with the ever steady fighting games community meant there was something for everyone in 2018!

Committee

• President: Liam Oldershaw
• Secretary: Aden Durney
• Treasurer: Nathan Humphrey
• Executive Team: Georgia-May Jensen, Hannah Clark, Jacob Rogers, Egor Khramenko, Liam Diprose, Alex Diprose, Simon Allen
• Alumni Exec: Jason Motha, Laura Grundy, Ben Mitchell, George Bird

UCGG had a stellar year in 2017. The development of Bar Night events boosted club engagement and brought many new gamers into the club.

Our club staple events, PC LANs, Freeplays, Quiz Night and Fighting Games Ranbats continued to grow in 2017 with record attendance being recorded throughout the year.

The esports scene also continued the high note with UCGG representing NZ in the LoL OCE University Championships once again.

2017 culminated in an impressive showing for the club at the UCSA Supreme Club Awards, with UCGG being nominated for 5 awards on the night including finalists for overall Supreme Club!

Committee

• President: George Bird
• Secretary: Ben Mitchell
• Treasurer: Rufus Manji
• Executive Team: Aden Durney, Alex Gabites, Miguel Vidiella-Lopez, Liam Oldershaw, Thomas Milliken, Nathan Humphrey
• Alumni Exec: Jason Motha, Laura Grundy, Braden Grundy

The LoL scene dominated 2016 for UCGG as Riot Games came onboard as an official sponsor of the Guild.

Multiple successful League tournaments were held and our very own University representative team made us proud when they qualified for the Australasian university tournament finals.

On top of all of that UCGG's regular program of events ran steady. PC LANs, Freeplay events, esports tournaments and more helped make for a successful year of gaming on campus.

Committee

• President: Jamie Getty / George Bird
• Secretary: Alex Gabites / Moss Lilley
• Treasurer: Rufus Manji
• Executive Team: Braden Grundy, Aden Durney, Ben Mitchell, Jaln Rodger, Miguel Vidiella-Lopez
• Alumni Exec: Jason Motha, Laura Grundy

UCGG continued to grow in 2015. The usual PC LANs continued to prove a fan favorite with mini tournaments of games such as CounterStrike, Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty 4 becoming LAN staples.

Casual gaming in the undercroft, retro nights, esports tournaments and Fortnightly Fights also continued to thrive throughout the year and bigger tournaments were held for games such as DotA2, Hearthstone and Smash.

One of the most exciting developments of 2015 was the push for more online video streams of UCGG's own events.

Committee

• President: Laura Grundy
• Vice Pres: Braden Grundy
• Secretary: Alex Gabites
• Treasurer: Jamie Getty
• Executive Team: Rufus Manji, Tim Campbell, Niall McAndrew
• Alumni Exec: Jason Motha, Tamate Tolo

2014 was a steady year for the UCGG. PC LANs continued to be held throughout the year including PC LAN#1 being the first major UCGG event to be held in Bentley's Bar.

Bentley's Bar also set the stage for another UCGG first as the first Gaming Themed Quiz Night was introduced to an enthusiastic crowd, putting their video gaming knowledge to the test in many creative ways.

2014 also included retro gaming nights, streaming parties for pro tournaments and our first ever League of Legends event.

Committee

• President: Jason Motha
• Secretary: Laura Grundy
• Treasurer: Jamie Getty
• Executive Team: Niall McAndrew, James Eagle, Tamate Tolo, Alex Gabites

2013 saw a passing of the torch from old exec members to a brand new team. Fresh faces on the committee helped to revitalise and invigorate the club.

In 2013 UCGG hosted numerous events, including four PC LANs, Halo events and Arcade Cabniet gaming in the undercroft.

Most notable was the introduction of the Friday Night Fortnightly Fights - a regular event meetup for those interested in fighting games such as Smash, Tekken and Street Fighter - kicking off an awesome sub-community which is still growing today!

Committee

• President: Jason Motha
• Secretary: Isaac Ching
• Treasurer: Niall McAndrew
• Executive Team: Greg Signal
• Assistant Exec: Tamate Tolo, Laura Grundy, Peter Kipping

2012 was a slower year for UCGG but things progressed along steadily. Notable events included the first Barcraft event which attracted over 70 attendees despite being organised less than 2 days before the event.

A LAN party was hosted in conjunction with UC Accommodation at Sonoda where students had fun trying our some sweet eyefinity setups.

Once again UCGG made an appearance at Armageddon Christchurch - Minecraft, Halo and Stormtroopers played racing games and entertained the masses.

Committee

• President: Andrew Wright
• Secretary: Karine Tan
• Treasurer: Steven Bates
• PC Events Lead: Peter Kipping
• Console Events Lead: Henry Ashton-Martyn
• Webmaster: Mason "Garry" Drew

The beginning of 2011 was disrupted for UCGG by the earthquake hitting Christchurch on the second day of uni. Nevertheless, the club bounced back for a stellar year.

The first PC LAN of the year was held in one of the many large temporary marquee spaces on campus after the earthquakes.

This was followed up by two more awesome LANs later in the year (including the first appearance of the UCGG legend, LANcat) along with numerous smaller events.

Also notable was UCGG's Gaming Lounge appearance at Armageddon Chch 2011.

Committee

• President: Andrew Wright
• Vice Pres: Karine Tan
• Secretary: Louise Piper
• Treasurer: Steven Bates
• PC Committee: Thomas Scott, Peter Kipping, Matt Jackson
• Console Committee: Henry Ashton-Martyn, William Cheng
• IT consultant: Mason "Garry" Drew

The UC Gaming Guild was founded in Feb 2010 by Dom Cook. The Guild had a strong start with its first ever event, a Fighting Games Tournament, attracting a decent crowd and a great atmosphere.

In 2010 UCGG went on to successfully host Halo events, PC LANs, Smash events and more.

The beginnings of a great gaming community had been seeded and UCGG was rapidly becoming firmly established as the one-stop shop for video gaming events on the UC campus.

Committee

• President: Dom Cook
• Secretary: Karine Tan
• Treasurer: Rosalia Rowher
• PC Committee: Scott Marshall, Thomas Scott, Michael