It's no surprise that in American Education, the public loves sports. Additionally, with the evolution of technology and videogaming, more and more young people are becoming involved in competitive videogaming and an entire new genre of ESports has developed into a massive industry over the last 30 years. As you can see above, a single video game "League of Legends" has viewership that is rivaling NFL Football's Super Bowl viewership. The natural consequence of this is that Football no longer has the same connection and representation of much of the student body. More and more ESports, being significantly more accessible of a sport than Football, is where young people are seeing their own hobbies represented on the big stage.
Football used to be a way that students could leverage their differences, overcome diversity, and through hard work achieve scholarships and self-efficacy. This is now the landscape of ESports as well, and we in schools need to work to replicate the high-sch ool sports model with high-school ESports. If trend predict anything, it won't be long before ESports significantly overtakes Football, and we would be disenfranchising an entire generation of young people by keeping funding locked up in a field which no longer represents the student body.
Finally, colleges are offering a TON of scholarships now because they have already gotten on board with ESports! We want to be sure to give every student all of the opportunity we can to continue their education, and seeking these scholarships requires experience in ESports, so let's hurry up and get them that experience!
If you are interested in Scholarships for ESports, check out Scholarship.com and their detailed information on how to locate and apply these scholarships.
Interesting post Andrew! I think esports is great because of its implications for inclusivity. I actually didn't know that schools offer scholarships for this. I also had no idea how popular they were to stream. Rivaling the Super Bowl? That's incredible! I personally am a huge video game fan, but could never participate in something like this because I prefer a non-competitive environment such as RPG's.
ReplyDeleteEven without participating in the competitive event, having the organized environment available to students with various interests can help students feel a sense of belonging and representation! There have been many cases where the establishment of an ESports club functions as an additional launching point for the connection of other people who play non-competitive games. I'm for sure going to try to get involved wherever I end up!
DeleteGreat post, Andrew! My husband is into ESports so I am a little familiar with them. He's jealous that ESports were not a thing when we were getting our BA's because he would have been on his university's team for sure! haha My old college I played basketball at introduced an ESports team a few years ago, and I think it is really cool way for students to earn scholarships for their education. While I was subbing at SIA last year, they introduced after school clubs for their students and one of them was ESports. I believe it was their most popular club, which does not surprise me now after reading your blog and seeing the stats regarding the superbowl views vs Leagues Worlds.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome, and yeah it's really cool to see!
DeleteI'd love to hear about what ESports he is interested in. I also am totally jealous about how much more prominent it is now, but I'm just really excited to get involved with it at the leadership level for schools!
Thank for posting about this and hope you are enjoying the eSports mini-series.....WIAA here in Washington already has a eSports league across our state. As a new teacher this is a great way for you to instantly add value to your school/district if it's something you are passionate about. https://wiaaesports.com/
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