A new era of sports has dawned where top-tier players aren’t working out to get better, but rather are sitting down on chairs and playing video games for multiple hours a day.
Electronic sports, better known as E-sports, have taken the world by storm. Professional gamers and organizations have sold out arenas and paid millions for it. This has inspired many top-tier colleges to create an Esports team to represent their college, and are now offering college scholarships to upcoming players.
In 2021 The Esports industry was valued at over one billion dollars, with top teams like team Liquid making millions of dollars and paying their best players like Ivan Ivanov aka MinD_ContRoL around four million dollars in tournament earnings alone, per Influencer marketing.
There are other income sources that players receive, ranging from sponsorships, affiliate links, and personal donations from fans. These assets haven’t been added to the player’s tournament incomes and aren’t released publicly. These players are being signed like pro athletes with the same benefits, fame, signing bonuses, in-season bonuses, and personal merchandise.
Senior Sean Gomes talks about his opinion on Golden Valley having an Esports team. ” I think that Golden Valley should have an esports team, honestly since it would be a program to bring opportunities for students who aren’t interested in (traditional) sports.” Golden Valley students do have interest on a Esports team.
This sentiment has led many colleges, and universities, such as Clemson University, Miami University, University of Utah, UCLA, and many more, to create Esports organizations. Many of them offer full-ride scholarships to their upcoming players. They have different teams for different games like Overwatch, Hearthstone, League of Legends, Rocket League, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Fortnite, Super Smash Brothers, and many more.
Seans Gomes adds on to his opinion about what games should be played in E-sports tournaments. “If there was an esports team I would like to see Madden and Rainbow Six Siege”, As I play those games the most. I can see how competitive it becomes.”
Schools all around the United States have started to create their own Esports organizations and clubs, This has lead to the creation national rankings and divisions for high schools just for the Esports team, with high schools like Shrewsbury Sr. High School (Mass.) bringing their high school over 10 championships and being seen as the #1 high school for Esports.
The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) is a member-driven organization that focuses on the positive development of esports programs at the high school level. They advocate for varsity programs that can include scholarships for its players. NACE is the largest member association of college and university-sponsored esports programs that promotes the education and development of students through esports. These websites provide information on how a school can join NACE, and how players get recruited by colleges.
We asked Sean gomes whom has experience in competitive gaming on whether or not if he would join a gaming team if Golden valley offered one. “I would not join if there were a team since It’s my last year here at Golden Valley, and I spend more time on my other hobbies rather than Video Games.” It seems like some athletes dont have interest in competitive gaming.
These competitions are held in small internet cafes to stadiums across the world. Millions of dollars have been played for and small cheating scandals have occurred with players hacking and having them fined or removed from the team like in professional sports. In the end with all these benefits and scholarship opportunities, Golden Valley making an ESports team would be a huge benefit and great opportunity for the students as E-Sports have been on the rise, and seems like it won’t stop anytime soon.
