These days, instead of going to college to play traditional sports, you can play esports—and even get a scholarship to do so.
Schools such as Robert Morris University, University of California Irvine, and UC Berkeley provide gamers the chance to pursue their passion beyond their high school bedrooms and potentially translate it into a career after graduation.
Esports players practice as much as traditional college athletes, sometimes up to six hours a day. They balance the same kind of hectic schedules as traditional athletes, but without some of the same perks. Zuhair Taleb, who played Overwatch for UCI the same year, had a nearly identical schedule."I don't go out—maybe I'll go out once every two weeks with my teammates, with my friends," he said."I practice, I play, I scrim, I practice more, I scrim, and I study. That's my entire schedule. I barely have time for anything else."
"There's a lot of real critiques that games deserve, whether it's the hyper sexualization of women, or the lack of diversity on the teams," he said."There are some things that deserve a critical look." At UCI, scholarship recipients on varsity Overwatch and League of Legends teams receive $6,000, while junior varsity players receive $1,000 per semester. Additionally, UCI esports recently announced that it will offer $6,000 scholarships to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players. Riot only officially partnered with Berkeley in the fall of 2018 to provide scholarships to its Division 1 League of Legends team, which gives each player $1,666.
"When we first opened our center, Nvidia put the PCs in," said Berkeley esports program manager Kevin Ponn."We got 54 of them. And then Corsair came in with the keyboards, the mice, the headsets. Our sponsors have also invested into on-campus amenities, like women in gaming initiatives in an effort to connect industry experts with our female students.
UCI League of Legends head coach James Bates and team huddle before the LoL College Championship 2019 finals.It's no secret that attending college in the United States is expensive. Finding grant or scholarship funding to lessen or avoid student loans is crucial for many Americans. Even if some parents don't understand all the esports hype, free college money is free college money.
"I wouldn't be surprised if, hopefully, I did become pro and I won something," said Taleb,"and then [my parents would say] 'Congratulations! Are you going back to school now?'"Not every player has supportive parents like Welling and Taleb's, and Adam Farm, head League of Legends coach at RMU, says he sees parental apathy often.
"Having that career tangent or option anywhere within that range is very important to selling it to those people that are against it," Jiang said."If you're coming in for business, marketing, or design, you can get a degree along with the potential scholarship not to play games but to work inside of the esports landscape," said Wisnios, RMU's esports executive director. He's been working for the last year to expand those types of scholarships offered.
There's still something to be said for that dream, though. Taleb told me that the great training he received at UCI is a big reason why he not only went pro in Apex Legends, but also why he wants to take a break from college to pursue going pro in Overwatch. He's still young enough to try, he points out. If it doesn't work out for him, he'll return to school and finish.
It just takes a glance at the professional esports landscape to see the scope of the problem. For instance, Hafu Chan, one of the best Hearthstone players in the world, has spoken candidly about the abuse she has received in the past. A former World of Warcraft pro, she stopped playing competitively because of incidents including a team being named"Gonna Rape Hafu At Regionals" in a WoW Tournament Realm.
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