<p>"... Mr. Tran is not a star on the football team, or a leader in student government. He is a top player on the school’s competitive video game team, helping San Jose State claw its way to victory in June over California State University, Fullerton, in a tournament watched online by nearly 90,000 people. When the new school year started this fall, classmates’ heads swiveled toward him when professors said his name during roll call." ...</p>
<p>Interesting. </p>
<p>Unlike every other sport up until this point though, there is far, far more money to be made at an individual level by streaming than by being on a team (if you’re good and likeable). I wonder how schools will deal with that fact. </p>
<p>The highest paid LoL streamer goes to U of M. </p>
<p>Sort of ashamed to admit that one of my kids is on a university gaming team. (Undefeated so far!) I just hope he doesn’t lose his academic scholarship because of all the time he spends on this. Maybe his school will give him a gaming scholarship instead? </p>
<p>I’ve heard some bad things about Robert Morris’s gaming scholarships—apparently about half the students are there on “athletic” scholarships (will try to dig up the source), and there are only five bachelors degrees and a handful of concentrations. The collegiate and challenger scene wasn’t well supported by Riot until about Season Three, so it will be interesting if new talent will emerge. Generally, you don’t see new blood coming out of colleges—existing players put college off for their gaming careers.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.robertmorris.edu/”>http://www.robertmorris.edu/</a></p>
<p>Streaming is a far more lucrative option. One of the more popular streamers earned about $8,000 a month from ads and donations the last that I checked.</p>
<p>[Something</a> interesting about total earnings in esports. League, the subject of the article, is a fairly new game.](<a href=“http://esportsearnings.com/players"]Something”>http://esportsearnings.com/players)</p>
<p>Sorry for the double post, but I forgot to add that the chart is for total prize earnings in tournaments. It doesn’t include salary or income through streaming.</p>
<p>Hoping my son doesn’t see this </p>
<p>These are not sports…lol. </p>
<p>@saintfan love the new kitty pic</p>
<p>This is as much of a sport as something like golf. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You have never played golf, have you?</p>
<p>Yeah, you could actually get some exercise playing golf. And a sunburn. That’s why S prefers esports–no risk of either of those.</p>
<p>Maybe not athletic sports, but if schools give scholarships to players in band and orchestra and money can be earned in music competitions, then why not video games?</p>
<p>IMO, what sports are NCAA-sanctioned is purely due to history (and what appealed to the WASP upper-crust pre-WWII). Crew, fencing, rifle, and water polo are NCAA sports but not table tennis, chess, archery, or gaming? The various conference networks probably would draw more viewers showing the latter than more talking heads.</p>
<p>S’s school gives scholarships for chess–so why not for egames? </p>
<p>Interesting topic, and I’d like to throw my own two cents in (my username betrays my decent experience in gaming, although not sure how much to this crowd):
Most of these hobbies and activities all require a decent amount of investment and focus to achieve. Of course, the main benefit of sports beyond this is huge physical upkeep and healthy(generally) practices, we do award people for success in mental activities/hobbies as well. Of course, video games aren’t sports (sports are in essence, physical activities), I agree with the previous posters that it might not be unreasonable to treat it as a mental competition (excelling at these kinds of video games requires superb hand-eye coordination, reactions, planning and tactics, while other hobbies like chess might require planning and strategy).</p>
<p>However, gaming also has the detriment of being highly time consuming, beyond that of these other hobbies, and while those who devote their lives to any hobby/entertainment thing/sport/game already spend most of their time, for the majority a dedication to gaming can often be quite more addicting (subjective opinion) than other activities.</p>
<p>This is dangerous because gamers are the first to drop out of college. My professor earlier this semester warned me about not playing too many games because he’s seen it is the number one factor in kids dropping out. My roommate also had to drop out because he was a nonstop gamer. The problem with gaming is that it does not require physical exertion whereas other sports (yes even golf) are incredibly draining physically. You can play video games all day and it is easy for gamers to give in to that temptation. Also it’s just physically destructive having people play games all day as a profession. If you’re not healthy in areas of exercise and diet it could lead to weight problems and illness. Giving scholarships for video games and card games is probably not a wise choice for the students themselves.</p>
<p>It’s also easy not just because of the lack of physical activity required, but also:
-addictiveness of winning. (50%)Especially with these types of games which aren’t as structured yet are so easy to “play just 1 more game”-success can be euphoric, but then leads to continued playing, kinda like gambling-and considering 1 side must lose and 1 must win in this type of competitive game, the ease of which you can start another is hard to move away from.
-pain of losing. (The other 50%) Hilariously sadly (incorrect adverb use, yes), the only other option in this binary results of playing these competitive games is that you devote so much time, yet fail-yet, you can quickly play another, and once again, you suddenly are already starting another game.
-Devotion to a group-Even more dependent than real life, one might be pressured to continue as part of a group of friends, and being online, it’s easy to have at least a few ready to play at any time.</p>
<p>All around, gaming covers its bases for being heavily addicting by design, and too much (quite easy to achieve) kinda nullifies what games do best: relaxation and a quick fun and immersive outlet, not a replacement for one’s life.</p>
<p>Just as a friendly reminder, the vast majority of us who play online esports like LoL do it casually and for fun. Those who become addicted are the outliers. </p>
<p>^ It happens more often than you think.</p>
<p>@romanigypsyeyes
I’d have to disagree. Most of these games online are very intricate and require time to play even at a casual level. Most of my friends who play it casually still devote at least 2-3 hours a night four or five hours a week. Like I said those are the casual players. To get to the point where you were worthy of earning scholarships I would think you would have to invest even more time which is the point where I think it can be detrimental even to well-adjusted people. I could be wrong because I don’t play these intensive online games anymore but this has been my experience with having friends who do play them and noticing the consequences of such behavior.</p>
<p>@PlzRito
I think your list is probably a source of the addictiveness of video games but I’ve experienced all those feelings while playing sports. </p>
<p>What I would like to know though is if heavy gamers (4+ hours a day) experience the same healthy growth in terms of camaraderie, determination, and responsibility that one would gain through sports. Sports have benefited me very much in terms of my thought processes and values. I would really like to know if gamers get the same psychological benefits; my intuition tells me they would but I’m not sure because of the reset factor. You can always start over if a result doesn’t go your way whereas with sorts you have people watching you, people depending on you, and the opportunities to play go down each time you finish a game.</p>
<p>You can both disagree all you want. I literally know hundreds of gamers through being involved in two different university egaming clubs. The VAST majority play without addiction. </p>
<p>Yes there are outliers but literally millions of students play egames. You’re going to tell me that a majority have it be a problem? Give me a break.</p>
<p>Im sorry but this is absolutely hysterical… slowing killing their health and eyesight by staring at millions of colorful pixels, and it’s now a sport.</p>