game on eSports
A New Realm of Collegiate Athletics :
Get Paid to Game
All those gamers out there , this one ’ s for you !
Can you think of anything better than getting paid to play your favorite video games ? Good news : Colleges and universities around the world are recognizing eSports ( electronic sports ) as Varsity Sports and are launching programs with scholarship opportunities and competitive rosters .
eSports have become a massive and lucrative industry with millions of active followers and viewers . The professional eSports players and teams that compete globally have paid sponsorships and an avid fanbase . An article by Digital Trends announced , “ eSports as an entire industry is projected to see 29.6 million viewers in 2022 , with those numbers only set to rise in the coming years .”
In addition to eSports exploding in the streaming / gaming world , it has also become a nationally recognized collegiate athletic ! Colleges across the country and beyond have launched or are in the process of launching eSports programs with paid coaches and scholarship opportunities . Whereas many college eSports programs may have started as student-led organizations or clubs for extracurricular enjoyment , it has now taken hold and become widely funded by the participating schools ’ athletic organizations .
According to ncsasports . org , there are 175 colleges that are members of the National Association of Collegiate eSports ( NACE ) and offer officially recognized varsity eSports programs . These schools offer partial or full-ride athletic scholarships .
To help us better understand how these collegiate eSports programs work , we talked to Caleb Colquitt , Faulkner University eSports Head Coach . He shared some helpful information on how Faulkner ’ s eSports team started , how the scholarships work , and how they compete .
20 | Winter 2022 www . potentialmagazine . com