Avid gamers whose parents nag at them for playing video games too much can now plead: “I’m playing to improve my game and get an esports scholarship for college.” Esports is a form of organized, multiplayer video game competition played for spectators.

People who hear about esports for the first time might scoff. But the reality is, it’s not just the general sports industry but colleges and universities across the country that are adopting esports as a varsity athletics sport.

In January 2017, the Big Ten Network (BTN), an American sports network dedicated to covering collegiate sports, partnered with Riot Games, an American video game developer best known for the “League of Legends,” to launch the official BTN “League of Legends” college season. The first official season featured 12 schools, and its finals were televised on BTN.

To date, 70 universities and colleges across the country have joined the National Association of Collegiate Esports, a nonprofit membership association organized by the member universities to advance video games as a legitimate college sport. 

“Colleges and universities need to adapt to new trends of their students and that’s what we’re seeing with college esports,” said Mark Deppe, the acting director of UC Irvine Esports, the world’s first esports program at a public university with the nation’s first arena dedicated to esports. UC Irvine currently offers scholarships in the amount of $5,610 for “League of Legends” and $2,500 for “Overwatch” players.

Like other popular traditional sports, esports has a huge fan base. While 22.3 million and 103.4 million people watched the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2018 Super Bowl respectively, 360 million people watched the 2017 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational.

Newzoo, a data analytics service covering esports, predicts that esports will reach 380 million viewers and generate $905.6 million in revenue in 2018. So esports may be the next big stop for the sports audience.

Recruiting Top Gamers

Just like they recruit players for other traditional sports, colleges and universities like Ashland University are recruiting top gamers.

“Right now, we’re building for competition, like an athletic team,” said Joshua Buchanan, head coach of Ashland University Esports. “I believe that the most successful esports program is based on forming a community.”

Ashland first announced its intent to compete in intercollegiate esports in February. Starting this fall, the university is offering up to $4,000 per year in esports scholarships.

Ashland is the first university to add “Fortnite,” a video game that launched last fall and is quickly gaining popularity worldwide, to its esports program. Ashland’s “Fortnite” team will participate in its first tournament next month.

“Right now our preparation for this tournament consists of at least 3-4 hours of playing together every night. Then we go back and watch certain match replays,” said Josh Marchand, a main tank in “Overwatch” and an incoming freshman at Ashland with an intended major in cyber security.

In addition to “Fortnite,” Ashland’s varsity and junior varsity teams will compete in the “League of Legends,” “Overwatch,” “Hearthstone,” “CS:GO,” “Starcraft 2,” and “Rocket League.”

Is it really a sport?

But just because it’s trending, does it make esports a sport?

By definition, a sport involves all forms of physical exertion and skills by individuals or teams competing against each other for entertainment to participants and, if any, spectators. To people who can only think of feet running and hands dribbling when it comes to physical exertion and skills, esports may never be a sport.

However, if you consider your brain activity as a form of physical exertion and skill, esports make sense. Just like any other traditional sports, esports require strategic planning, skillful execution and team coordination to win the game.

“As a team, if we had time before matches or during the day, we would schedule practices so we could warm up not only individually, but as a team,” said Behrod Baghai, an in-game leader and main support for “Overwatch” and a junior studying public health science at UC Irvine.

According to Baghai, mechanics, communication, coordination, execution, and theory-crafting are just some of the many skills esports require.

In simple terms, the only difference between a traditional sport and esports could be the very body part players are using to play. In fact, many professional esports players spend hours in the gym to keep with the saying that a healthy body makes a healthy mind.

Amidst differing opinions, in 2017, the International Olympic Committee acknowledged the growing popularity of esports and future possibility for esports to be considered as an Olympic sport.

Before the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, Intel sponsored exhibition esports events and five South Korean professional esports players joined the world’s biggest celebration of sports by walking in the Olympic Torch relay.

“People are beginning to understand the level of skill, tenacity, communication, and critical thinking needed to compete at the highest level,” said Deppe.

Why now?

There may be many reasons why colleges are joining the esports movement. But the biggest one is the generational shift. As even the most quoted generation of millennials are also growing older, the relatively younger and the most recent generation, Generation Z is becoming the main college population.

To those who grew up using Siri and Facebook and seeing self-driving cars in the streets, the concept of esports naturally comes across as another type of sport.

It’s not so much about whether esports is a sport or not, but whether you’re a fan or not — just like you can prefer basketball over football.

“Many students/adults in that age group between 18 to 24 play esports/video games in general, so there is a large demand for it,” said Baghai.

Also, more than ever, many prospective and current college students aspire to work in the technology industry, which is perceived to be both lucrative and innovative. Knowing that they’ll not only attract talented students, but also get the heads up in the industry, college and university administrators are willing to grant scholarships to gamers.

“Schools want to create diversity on campus,” said Buchanan. “This is a good way to do that. I think it’s about thinking towards the future. They think that esports will just keep growing and if they can start early, and be one of the first colleges to support the industry, that will only benefit them.”

The older generation often worry about the lack of social contact among young people. While their worries should not be overlooked, that shouldn’t be the whole story about esports either.

In fact, the most popular esports are very social. Games like “League of Legends” and “Fortnite” are heavily based on forming communities and working together. This is why all collegiate level esports involve multiple players.

“I think now people are realizing that there’s a lot of benefits, both socially and psychologically, and perhaps for your careers. If you end up getting a scholarship to play esports or end up getting a job in the industry,” said Buchanan. “And I think the more to expand, the more that stereotype of a gamer sitting in their basement, playing by themselves, this is gonna disappear.”

As it gets ready for the fall semester, Ashland’s esports team is excited to join many other colleges and universities at both regional and national conferences and hope to create a community with good sportsmanship.

Whether esports is a sport or a game, one thing is clear. This is the future.

Other esports scholarships

Robert Morris University, Illinois was the first US university to offer gaming scholarships up to 50 percent tuition and 50 percent room and board, with scholarships available for the 2014 fall semester.

Many other colleges and universities followed suit.

Starting with a successful pilot program in the fall of 2016, Southwest Baptist University was one of the first 15 universities in the country to offer esports as a varsity athletics program, offering scholarships up to $10,000.

In 2017, the University of Utah became the first Power 5 school to offer video gaming scholarships. Its team of 33 players, each receiving $1,000 per year, is fully funded by the school’s Entertainment Arts and Engineering video game design development program. In the future, the university hopes to offer full scholarships and build a gaming arena.

Just last month, the University of California, Berkeley, one of the most frequent champions at esports tournaments, crossed two milestones: creating their first esports community center and partnering with Riot Games to give scholarships of varying amounts to their “League of Legends” team.

These are just a few of the esports scholarships available. Gamers interested in exploring esports scholarships can click here to find more esports scholarships.