eSports
University of Akron Joins Others With Creation of Varsity eSports Program
Don’t look now, but college eSports programs battling it out for national championships on ESPN looks to be a distinct possibility in the near future as yet another Division I university has created an eSports varsity team.
The University of Akron has created an eSports program with the possibility of students earning scholarships to be a part of the team. Cleveland.com has the scoop:
An associated club eSports program will involve several hundred students. The structure of the program will mirror traditional varsity athletics with team members participating in tryouts, wearing uniforms and maintaining practice schedules.
ESports, or “electronic sports,” have gained popularity on college campuses. UA is the first public university in northeast Ohio to create a program.
In Ohio, Miami University launched a program in 2016. Tiffin University and Lourdes University began programs this year.
Ohio State University students participate in the Big Ten tournament for League of Legends, a popular e-sport.
While universities adopting eSports programs is relatively new, many have already undertaken the effort with more likely coming soon.
It won’t be long before gamers begin getting recruited to play games at their Universities and we’re all debating which four teams belong in the eSports playoff at this rate.
Now if we could just get Universities to get on board with allowing the creation of NCAA Football so we can see them all play each other on the virtual gridiron…
We can dream can’t we?
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