With the seventh annual Ubisoft Toronto NEXT Challenge underway, it’s clear the level of talent in Ontario’s students has never been higher.
Ontario post-secondary students have had to adapt to a lot of challenges in the last few months —from school closures to a pivot to virtual learning — but their hard work and resilience continues to shine through. After our team extended the deadline for this year’s NEXT competition, we were excited to see a plethora of impressive submissions.
Our annual competition for Ontario students and recent graduates showcases the province’s emerging talents across 3D art, animation, concept art, level design, programming, tech art, and user interface art. With more than 250 submissions, Ubisoft Toronto judges in each discipline had their work cut out for them in selecting this year’s finalists. After an extensive review, we are excited to share the 30 students from 15 different schools who have made it to the final stage.
Introducing the 2020 Ubisoft Toronto NEXT finalists:
3D Art
Acie Suralta – George Brown College
Dong-hoon Choi – Centennial College
Lynden Sylvestre – Durham College
Animation
Ashutosh Chawla – Centennial College
Bruno Sampaio Leme Dias – George Brown College
Lucas Holling – Seneca College
Thedrick John Lancaon – George Brown College
Yonghwan Seok – Centennial College
Concept Art
Adam Homonylo – Max the Mutt College
Aldi Abujan – Sheridan College
David Mattiacci – Toronto Film School
Nan Shi – Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD)
Zoe Blackbourn – George Brown College
Level Design
Carsten Booth – Sheridan College
Julian Disterheft – George Brown College
Kyle Richardson – George Brown College
Nawaf Bahadur – Sheridan College
Sukhraj Johal – Sheridan College
Programming
Haorui Zhang – University of Waterloo
Jacob Pratley – Ontario Tech University
Michael Ward – University of Windsor
Oktay Comu – University of Toronto
Robin Vandenbrande – Centennial College
Honourable mention: Oleksandr Voronin – University of Guelph
Tech Art
Dongyoon Lee – Humber College
Mohamad Salame – Durham College
User Interface
Perry (Chen Hang) Wang – University of Toronto
Shane Saxton – Niagara College
Vicky Tran – Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD)
Wilson Truong – Sheridan College
Congratulations to this year’s finalists!
Watch Our Awards Ceremony Live
For the first time ever, we will be livestreaming the Ubisoft Toronto NEXT Awards Ceremony on the Ubisoft Toronto YouTube Channel: Wednesday, May 27 at 5 PM. Tune in (and comment along!) to celebrate with us, and hear from our NEXT judges in each discipline on how the finalists tackled this year’s challenges.
Ubisoft Toronto NEXT: More Info
Ubisoft Toronto NEXT is an annual competition designed to display the talent of video game development students in Ontario, and to kickstart their careers in the industry. With paid apprenticeships in hand, winners of each category receive the opportunity to learn from top talent and further hone their skills.
