Why One School Is Giving Out League of Legends Scholarships

This is not even remotely a BuzzFeed headline. If anything, it's more like the title of a research paper. Inserting the word "why" into a headline doesn't automatically qualify it as click-bait.

The same harm that happens when schools give kids who really couldn't handle or afford university a football scholarship. They end up "moving on" but with a goofy degree and end up in a job that isn't even part of the career. The idea that this is okay because it makes it mainstream is farce because in a lot of ways other US college sports is a giant farce!

So again, if Riot, EA, Valve, or who ever wants to give out scholar ships because they play their games then that is fine but unless that school is handing out a degree "Bachelor of Science in Sports" then schools shouldn't pay kids to play their school so a bunch of other people get rich.

No you see he said he could care less which means that on some level he cares enough to comment!

("I could care less" is an American phrase I'll never understand. Surely it's "I couldn't care less?")

"I told my athletic director, 'I’m gonna bring an idea to you, and I want you to be open minded.'" he said. "She was! [laughs] There’s a little buy-in [with it], but once you explain it, what goes into it, and what it’s like, it has all the same elements as traditional sports do. It fits hand-in-hand."

Except for... you know, the athletics part...

I wouldn't call sitting down and playing a PC game exactly comparable to other sports that require tons of actual physical training. The whole E-sports moniker is dumb, and should really be renamed.

Just for my own clarification, what is the harm in schools giving sports/esports scholarships? Yes 98% of college athletes will not "go pro", they just simply move on in life with the education they received while in school. The argument of calling it e-sports or whatever aside, I see this as a step in the direction of having competitive gaming going mainstream, which in my opinion is a good thing.

That's why I also subscribe to using the term "competitive (video) gaming" as opposed to the term "e-Sports". David Philip Graham, a prominent fighting game commentator who is also an attorney, wrote about this a year ago and how he is also pretty much against the use of "sports" as a way to legitimize the various competitive gaming scenes. Its the fastest way to get legitimacy but then there are also some associated caveats to it as well and he feels that its better that "competitive gaming" should try to stand on its own merits rather than try to use the term "e-Sports" and trying very hard to associate it with various types of sports in order to gain legitimacy.

It's a very long editorial but if any of you duders got some free time, I suggest reading that article. He tries to frame it from a fictional perspective in the future where "e-Sports" is extremely popular at the start of every section and then proceeds to makes some very good points in terms of the caveats/disadvantages.

Riot pretty much controls a lot in terms of their competitive gaming scene. They're the ones who are giving the allowances to the players (even though the players are managed by teams that are not owned by Riot), setting up the tournaments, etc. but since the scholarship program in this school already has a direct relationship with Riot via Ferris Ganzman, they can probably work some things out in terms of any ethical issues that might arise. Riot already has a dedicated team that they employed specifically to research online behavior with their community and how they can manage it, I guess they should also have a small team that is also dedicated to the collegiate scholarship aspect of it as well.

I don't think "esports" is the issue but again just like other sports paying amateurs to be on a team for the school and expecting to do anything with it like "go pro" is crazy. This is stuff schools really shouldn't get into at all.

I think the word "eSports" itself is one of the big hangups for people when it comes to accepting competitive gaming. Some people tend to get up in arms when you associate video games even remotely with a sport. I can't remember if it was the Bombcast or another podcast, but someone mentioned renaming the term to something like "cyber games" which I think would think go a long way in quelling those who see the word "sport" and automatically become dismissive.

@branthog: @amirite: I agree with you guys and share that mindset of "fuck the haters" regardless of terminology. What irks me is when people dismiss the entire activity based solely on that terminology. you even see it on forums like this where people theoretically love and are passionate about videogames. Whenever the topic is brought up people feel the need to bring down competitive gaming as a whole and the players just because of the term that stuck. Taking issue with the term is fine, but taking issue with the scene because of the term is shitty.

On the subject of a better term, I think bringing up poker may have cracked it for me. I was young(middle school I think) when the poker craze hit, but I still kind of got caught up in it. I don't believe it was ever called a sport. I also don't believe it was ever called competitive cards/poker/anything. I do remember The World Series of Poker and whatever else certain tournaments or leagues happened to be named. I think this might be a way to approach competitive gaming. Right now the term "esports" is used far more than the word "sports" is(I believe, correct me if I'm wrong) despite there being more sports that people consider legitimate. It would be simple to refer to things on a game by game basis and even a league by league basis. The big League of Legends thing is already the LCS(League of Legends Championship Series. Though it is called LPL and GPL in Korea and China), yet they feel the need to throw the phrase esports into their presentation of the LCS. Starcraft 2 has the GSL, fighting games have named tournaments throughout the year until eventually reaching EVO. I don't see much of a need for a catch-all term unless you're talking about the entire idea of video games as a competition conceptually. In that case I think something like "competitive gaming" is fine since it wouldn't be the first thing someone hears when being introduced to it. They would hear the name of the game, league, or tournament. If they wanted to know more then the term would come into play as the entire movement was explained.

One final thing(it won't let me tag for some reason, this is for amirite). I don't care if people like or hate it, I just think that a lot of people hate it for the stupidest reason possible. And I also don't like when people diminish what these guys do. As someone who has put a lot of time into Starcraft II(DIamond teetering on Master at one point) and League of Legends(platinum highest reached so far, but man fuck the matchmaking sometimes. I think I'm still significantly better than where I'm at) these games are fucking hard. The pros practice and train just like athletes do. It's absolutely a different skill set, but I don't think one is any harder than the other. The problem doesn't arise from comparing things that are too different, it comes from people thinking that oranges should be vegetables because they're a joke compared to fruits.

The article is the kind of quality writing we have come to expect @patrickklepek, thank you for the work. The story itself is pretty interesting too. I am curious to see how this type of thing expands and grows at a collegiate level. While at first it seems like the only response would be "Are you fucking kidding me?" I think that much like traditional sports in their infancy, the question of revenue generation is more about infrastructure and support than about potential and interest. Obviously there is interest in the game itself, and certainly the potential to generate revenue is there. I mean, take The International 4, for instance. Crowd funding and public support put that tournament over 10 million dollars in prize money, is it not possible that a collegiate league could use a similar crowd funding model to build a collegiate tournament, particularly if Riot Games supports the initiative in a similar manner to Valve's support of professional Dota 2 teams and content creators.

For profit schools are the worst.

I'm commenting, too!

It will be interesting to see where this goes. These students will be the same age as the Pro players (older in some cases). Judging from Valve's Free to Play documentary it seems like Pro players struggle to balance a post-secondary education with their job. I would assume this program will require students to maintain a certain GPA to stay in the program.

I should clarify that I have a pet-peeve about people abusing words in a disingenuous way to promote their own agenda; this falls right in line with that. So I have an inherent pedantic dislike of this whole thing. :)

Anyway, Poker isn't a sport, but had huge coverage on ESPN and lots of people enjoy watching it. Nobody was fooled into thinking "well, poker is obviously a sport!". Likewise, calling video games a sport isn't going to fool anyone, so they might as well just call it what it is.

A lot of skill and talent goes into basketball or counter strike or chess or ballet or playing the cello, but these are all different activities. Sports defines a particular activity that employs a certain subset of skills and talents. Other things define activities focusing on other ones.

I think part of the reason people shit all over it is the audacity of trying to claim you're a sport when you are definitively not. If you don't call yourself a sport, there's one less thing for people who don't like your event anyway and never will to shit on.

Someone who is going to dismiss "Counter-Strike Tournament/Competition" is also going to dismiss it if it is called "eSports". So, I say, why not use the one that is actually appropriate? At the least, anyone judging the form of competition will have to do so on its own merits and not merely dismiss it because it isn't a sport.

@branthog: @yi_orange: And good conversation going on, you're both representing these sides well I think... I do tend to agree more with the camp that it is not a 'sport' - something that seems quite obvious to me - but in no way diminishes my interest or building respect for it, OR it's similarity to the way physical sports are presented. I think you're making the wrong argument if you're trying to make gaming sound like an impressive physical feat or equating it to sports 1:1. I think professional gaming and competitive tournaments are super cool. My interest in them definitely overlaps with my interest in baseball but at a certain point those reasons do diverge. We're talking about apples and oranges here - they're both delicious, they both make delicious fruity treats but stop trying to fucking force feed me orange pie because that sounds fucking gross.

Of course, we're not talking about me we're talking about Small Businessman out there who just wants to kick back after his small businesswork and watch some competitive events on his television, maybe some Football, maybe some Poker, or maybe someday soon some LoL or DOTA on the Competitive Gaming Channel (CGC?).

I'm not really sure I see the terms Gaming Competition or Professional Gaming as silly at all actually, they have way more gravitas than eeeeeeSports, but what do I know, again I'm not Bob American. I just think if you're someone who is serious about supporting the professional gaming community, the answer is NOT to be reactionary and try to force it into legitimacy with cool terms and marketing shit. The (I actually just typed sports by reflex as I typed this) competitions need to be rooted in a history and in people's passion. Which it does! And that's something to be proud of. But it needs to be honest, and there is just no reason to try to conjure up reasons that competitive gaming should be legit. Simple terms are not going to make or break competitive gaming in the eye of the public - they just aren't.

So why not choose terms we're actually proud of? Fucking NOBODY loves the term eSports.

I understand the feeling that it needs to be defended, but it really doesn't - gamers need to snap out of this mindset, we can stand on our own, be fucking proud that you are obsessed with the intricate wonderful chaos of a LoL match, this is the NUMBER one way to get other people interested.

Personally, I hate the term eSports, and will never say it myself. I tell people Competitive Gaming is getting pretty big. And they listen because I know what I'm talking about (kinda) and that shit is fucking interesting. It will be able to stand on it's own merits, but it will take time.

I've been seeing local Robert Morris commercials here for years and years. Now when I see them, I'll tell everyone at lunch that this school gets... well, it gets something.

@branthog: I see what you're saying, but I think the defense of esports as sports and being athletic might partially come from people shitting all over it. Yeah, it's not the best term but until we get something better the people who hate it because of the comparison to "real" sports should back off because whining about how they aren't throwing enough balls doesn't help anybody.

The problem I see with "gaming competition" or something to that effect is the fear(or reality) that they will be dismissed as silly games. Mainstream sports seem to have transcended the idea of being just a game even if they are just that. I don't love the term esports either and I feel a little silly whenever I say it but a better term doesn't exist at the moment. I also dislike when people attempt to detract from the amount of skill and effort that goes into these games. It might be a different skill set but I would absolutely argue that it's just as difficult as any other sport.

And for the record, I know you're not one of the people I'm talking about, just making conversation.

The NCAA is a bloated, antiquated, corrupt organization that desperately needs either massive reform or something else entirely to replace it. Setting aside the idea of giving scholarships to eSports players, let alone student athletes in general, college athletics are just in dire need of change.

Did you missed the snipes I took at NCAA? Yes I think that is a problem. Swapping out "football" for "video game" just highlights the issue.

How is this headline linkbait?

So every school that offers a football or basketball or any other sport scholarship is offering money that isn't going towards a degree.

@yi_orange said:

Poker, chess, and Yahtzee have their degrees of physical exertion, too. And many sports involve a degree of mental exertion. However, one is primarily built around competition on physical attributes and the other mental. I don't see that either is superior.

I don't think anyone who actually plays these competitively wants to be considered an athlete or a sports star. I suspect this is primarily an assertion by promoters of various ilk and those who benefit off the competitors.

My assertion is simply that they do themselves a disservice by piggy-backing on something else rather than building public mind-share and interest on their own merits. The words "gaming competition" sound respectable. When I hear "esports" I feel a tinge of sleaze.

In case it wasn't clear before: I believe there is a conflict of interests when any school is using their resources to offer a scholarship that isn't going towards a degree. I also have a lot of reservations setting up leagues proactively supported by schools.

If Riot wants to give out scholarships then that is their prerogative. Schools should not be in the practice of enticing students to do anything but work towards their degree with school funds.

@branthog: just wanna say that if you don't think competitive gaming has any physical exertion(or at least RTS/MOBAs) then you have never played one at even a mid - tier level. I'm not gonna claim It's the same as your footballs and what have you but it is certainly there.

@jasonr86: Riot Games themselves set up a lot of the structure for collegiate level teams and foot the prize money themselves at the higher levels and it's a split in the contract between money to the college and the players. There's a booming industry in setting up tournaments for things like these and league gets a lot of interest as it has a very defined path to becoming a salaried player on a team and Riot games are supporting that from the bottom up to the top.

Do you guys need to use those clickbait titles?

You can argue that Riot is the overseeing organization for League of Legends. They broke up the entire world into regions, each have their own league and compete in a season through out the year, which leads up to the worlds, where the top 3 teams from each region compete for the world title. So yeah the structure is all there. Now about schools making money from ticket sales and prize money I am not sure about that.

The money is coming from these scholarship recipients and the rest of the students of RMU. The scholarship covers half their tuition, the school is still making its profits, just at a lower rate from these guys.

You really need to stop doing these buzzfeed headlines, Patrick.

I must say that is awesome!

Yeah really.

Makes as much sense as any other sports scholarship.

But he said he cares about it. Good for him.

Wow that seems entirely pointless.

First, we all know the reason this was done. Promotion for the school. Duh.

Second, it's kind of ridiculous that the idea was brought before the athletic director. Does the athletic director also make determinations for the debate team and the chess team and the school robotic's team?

<rant>I like esports, but I hate the term esports. I heard some podcasters last week who were pretty fucking full of themselves as they ridiculed people who "claim video games are not a sport, because a sport is physical". These podcasters are professional journalists who are paid to write. Presumably, words should matter to them and the definition of 'sport' begins with "an activity involving physical exertion..."

Reminds me of people who get pissy when people say that content made using what are traditionally video game tools are not games, like Gone Home. They get really defensive and swear that you are wrong for suggesting it isn't a game, even though by definition, a game is an activity or competition in which the results are determined by skill, luck, or strength. A book, movie, or short virtual reality experience is decidedly not a game if it does not have any relation to one of those traits.

I don't know why people in both of those camps are on such a high horse. Why they're so defensive. Why they're so insistent that they should be defined by words which inherently contradict the events they're wanting to label with them. Gone Home is a good experience and well crafted, even though it isn't a game. Saying it isn't a game doesn't somehow strip it of its value or enjoyment or meaning. Same with "esports". Competitive video games are fun to watch and participate in and follow. I hope they become huge and I would like their presentation to become more polished and informative and inclusive. But they're gaming competitions; not sports (even if, as these podcasters/journalists asserted, using your finger to click a mouse button is somehow a physical exertion).</rant>

I think that people using video game tools to make "experiences" demanding that they be called "games" and competitive video game players demanding that they be considered "sports" is something that will be detrimental to both their causes, ultimately. Both want some sort of short time benefit of being associated with these other things, but they are not these things and down the line, they will find themselves severely constrained by limitations that come with being considered sports and games rather than their own things. By the time they come to this realization, it will be too late to do anything about it.

@jasonr86: My conjecture is that since they are a private college that recently expanded to being a private university, they need to get their name out there and bring in a lot more students. So a scholarship paying half the tuition of a few dozen students will get press like this, and make thousands of the millions of teenage LoL players aware of the school. Out of them, there might be hundreds more kids who end up enrolling in the first university cool enough to do this. That's the only way I see the expenditure making sense.

Oh man, that's pretty awesome! I haven't heard about any of that. Seems like things are progressing. I'm with you, I bet even in just as little as two years, we'll see more and more leagues popping up with professional salaries for competitive gamers.

You should definitely read up more about eSports. The international is not the biggest tournament, League of Legends worlds is. It might not have had or will have the prize money, but it is bigger.

Also, LCS (League Championship Series, the North American Tournament circuit) pros do get a salary plus prize money. They do now have legitimate jobs with a legitimate salary. Now, how long that will last is anyone's guess, but if I were a betting man, I would bet that eSports is just going to get bigger and bigger the older "kids" get.

What's next? "One weird trick they don't want you to know about"?

Non-scholastic scholarships are always funny and I'm not entirely convinced that any university should bother with these. But if they are going to allow them then why not for any game?

I can't wait for the NCAA to try to get in on this and claim that "student athletes shouldn't get paid to protect the sanctity of game". :)

Kind of odd that this is happening before e-sports has become a legitimate profession.
I mean, sure, there's the international, but how many professional gamers are getting a steady salary?

I would have expected e-sports to get on TV long before any of this happened.

@tehbull:

Could care less about the actual topic.

and yet you commented anyway.

Eh that picture is old. Note the Robert Morris *College* part. They've been a University for at least 2-3 years now. I work in the area and walk by that building everyday thats all. Could care less about the actual topic.

Hey why not, if a school is gonna offer it that's cool. Also hey someone at Giant Bomb talking about League. Will wonders never cease?

@yesiamaduck:

The NCAA is the big organization that oversees all college sports in the US. They, along with colleges, have broken up schools by region and size. So in college football, for example, a big university most often play other big universities located in the same general area of the country.

For all sports there's some end game, such as tournaments and championship games, that teams compete to enter during their regular season. Schools make money off sports through ticket sales during these games, merchandise sales, donations, and if they enter the 'end game' games they get a big pool of money that they split up among the other schools in their region (and even more money if they win that game).

E-sports as of now, at the collegiate level, doesn't have anything like that.

I'm very torn about this. On one side, good on them for doing that, recognizing a potentially new market and being ready to at least experiment with it, and I suppose good on any e-athletes that will be benefited by it.

On the other side, I don't know if this is is just a publicity stunt.

In any case, having played LoL and Dota, and other Mobas, and having interacted with the community on a mid-high tier, the prospect of actual professional Game Jocks... scares the crap out of me. I don't want ANY of that in my lawn.

Holy crap, I went to a private university in Canada and everyone complained about tuition being about $20,000, I can't imagine how much it would suck for that to only be half of your education costs.

I guess merch and sponsorship would be one way to go. I'm not American myself so have a very lose understanding of college sports and how they raise money.

@yesiamaduck:

Maybe. But there could be an ethical problem there. It's my understanding that e-sports teams get all the money from prizes and whomever owns the team doesn't. The owner makes money on sales of their actual product or see the team as advertising to increase sales elsewhere. The school probably can't take any money from the prize pool and, unless they hold an event themselves, they probably won't make money directly from the sport itself. Maybe if they sell merchandise?