What It's Like to Be a Video Game Athlete on College Scholarship
Courtesy Kurt Melcher
Students are getting paid to game at an Illinois university, and the
school says
the first season of its eSports team is such a success that
the program will definitely
continue next year.
There are 35 students on the eSports team at Robert Morris University in Aurora,
the first school to categorize playing video games
as a varsity sport, even offering
scholarship funds for the "athletes."
The team meets every weekday for practice
between 4 and 9 p.m., with an
hour break for dinner, and competitions are every
Saturday, the
school's associate athletic director Kurt Melcher told ABC News.
"It's going great so far," Melcher said, adding that the team's practices are just
"like any other sport."
"The coaches set up different scrimmages, different presentations on tactics," he said.
"And the same dedication is required."
@RMUEagles/Twitter
The eSports athletes are expected to go to class just like any other student, he said.
"The difference is that when they finish class, they walk fourteen steps
over
the arena for practice instead of going to the gym," Melcher said.
The high-end gaming arena was built specifically for the eSports team,
which
was announced this summer. Melcher said the school got more than
100 applicationsfor the 35 spots, and players get up to a 50-percent
scholarship
covering tuition and room and board.
The eSports athletes play "League of Legends" and battle club teams from other universities every Saturday.
Courtesy Kurt Melcher
"You play a best-of-three series of the games. It's all obviously done
online,"
Melcher said. "You record the game, and send the recordings
into the league.
Each game lasts about 25 to 30 minutes."
So far, Robert Morris' gamers are undefeated.
But some critics take issue with the school’s encouraging students to play
video games.
"We are promoting something that's clinically addictive," said Kimberly
Young, a New York psychologist who studies Internet addiction.
"So I
think we need to be very cautious."
"Korea has over 500 inpatient hospitals in their country dealing with
this
problem,"
she added. "They have national screening days for
children to look at
gaming addiction and Internet addiction. There's
obviously a problem.
And here we have American schools that are going to
give you money
to come game?"
Courtesy Kurt Melcher
Melcher said he thinks gaming is fine as long as students maintain a "life balance."
"Our coaches will be on them to make sure they go to class and do what
they need
to do to be successful," he said. "I think this gives them
purpose, and they're
doing what they want to do, what they're passionate
about. I don't want anyone to
play fourteen hours of a game. I think
finding that balance is important."
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