>University of California to give E-Sports scholarships
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2629013-university-of-california-irvine-to-offer-league-of-legends-scholarship?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial
>California
as expected
>>332680047
Ebin memes aside what's the problem with this? Sports scholarships are primarily about money and marketing for a college, and LoL is now bigger business then a lot of their other small sports. Not only that, but the costs are VASTLY lower then basically anything else, all you need is some computers which players are going to supply themselves anyway. Maybe a somewhat fancied up room/stage and some booths too woudl look good, but compared to a even a track or tennis court, let alone an actual stadium, the costs are so hilariously ludicrously lower then it's basically a rounding error.
Hell, it's probably better for academics even, they aren't going to get concussions, the kind of people into it are more likely to do STEM class stuff which is all the rage, etc. I'm almost surprised it didn't happen years ago with Starcraft (or I guess it probably did somewhere small and just never heard about it). It's marketing geared directly at a demographic they all want: young wealthy tech kids. From a college administration's perspective I frankly see zero downsides.
>>332680837
>No Alumni is going to donate money to a schools LOL program
>No Alumni is going to buy Season tickets to a LOL program
>No Stadium is going to sell out for a local LOL game
>>332680837
E-sports pros probably have less staying power than actual athletes, and the post-game job prospects are even shittier than athletes. At least a pro sports athlete can become a manager/talking head/trainer afterwards. A MOBA player? pff, nobody's going to listen to them after they're too old to play anymore.
>>332680837
>better for academics
If you need to offer a LOL program to draw intelligent students in your school is already shit
>>332681094
>No Alumni is going to donate money to a schools LOL program
What makes you say that? Silicon Valley has created tons of multimillionaires in their 20s. I would not be the slightest bit surprised if there are growing numbers of alumni who would RATHER give to an e-sport they like then a traditional one, particularly at a tech school.
>No Alumni is going to buy Season tickets to a LOL program
>No Stadium is going to sell out for a local LOL game
There's no Stadium period, that's the point. Stadiums cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Objectively most sports colleges do lose money, there are only a few that even break even let alone make a profit. E-sports costs are so low that it doesn't take much to be better then the rest, and then they still get marketing for free. I don't think you understand accounting very well anon, might want to take a course on that one.
>>332681170
>E-sports pros probably have less staying power than actual athletes
Seriously: the career of profitable athletes tends to be REALLY short. Like, a couple of years for pro football. There are some that can last significantly longer, but for most their competitive peak is a relatively narrowband. What you say about becoming a manager/talking head applies just as much to e-sports. And again see above: benefits don't need to be stratospheric when costs aren't stratospheric.
>>332681391
Dank.
Doesn't surprise me. Irvine is gook central.
>>332681391
Offering a LOL program is entirely to draw lower intelligent students to your school, the same as sports programs. These universities are banking on the idea that e-sports are only going to become bigger and they're hoping to be at the forefront of that pie.
>>332682928
E-sports teams don't have managers in the same way athletic ones would, they'd have reps from their sponsors not former players. Talking heads for your big tournaments are going to be whoever earns big views on Twitch, who aren't neccesarily competitive players, just some douche who can get the views in.
>>332683505
Leave it to Commifornia to want the idiot students
>>332682928
>There's no Stadium period, that's the point.
So you have a sport that no one can pay money to go see. Good luck convincing schools to support that
>>332683750
>E-sports teams don't have managers in the same way athletic ones would
So you don't know anything about e-sports basically? In fairness I don't know about professional LoL at all, I never really got into that type, but for Starcraft you're absolutely wrong and I don't see why it'd be different for e-sports in general.
>>332683505
>everyone who does any sport is obviously dumb
whew lad.
>>332684431
>So you have a sport that no one can pay money to go see
>what is the internet
>what is a standard auditorium they all have already and are 10000x cheaper then a full stadium
>WHAT IS THE INTERNET
Man I sure hope you're just pretending to be retarded.
>>332684674
Whose going to pay money to watch the game online. As for the auditorium you're telling me that in a school of 30k students that 10k will come out to every LOL game?
>>332680047
It doesn't surprise me Commiefornia would do something as stupid as this.
>>332683505
Not really. I went to UCI and the starcraft team was all intelligent dudes in STEM fields.
Been like 3 years since I graduated though so things could have changed.
>>332684479
So you cherry pick the first fragment of the point, and assume bullshit based on a completely different type of esports, not only from my point, but also the OP's. Ok, i'm the one chatting out my ass here, sorry to waste your precious time.
>>332684813
>Whose going to pay money to watch the game online.
Presumably the thousands who pay money to watch games online? Like, right now. Starcraft and LoL are hardly brand new things anon. Did you know that they invented a way to send video over the internet in real time a while back, and also ways to use credit cards and "subscribe" to things? You might want to look into it sometime.
>>332684813
>As for the auditorium you're telling me that in a school of 30k students that 10k will come out to every LOL game?
At UCI, you're likely to get more people watching every LoL game than actual sports. School is almost 50% Asian and literally everyone there plays it.
Why not tho? At some point e-sports could get huge, hell, they're already pretty damn big. Why not jump start the process? This was bound to happen eventually as e-sports grew. A college league effectively gives e-sports a development league.
Kind of interesting to see that happening. I don't even watch them but it's cool to see how they might be similar to actual pro sports leagues in the future
>>332685684
>hell, they're already pretty damn big
Presumably a lot of /v/ has zero exposure or memories of actual sports so they just meme about it, and when they consider it at all they only touch on giant ones like football or basketball. In reality "college sports" covers tons of stuff from the big boys all the way down to tennis, track & field, crew, skiing, riding, etc. Lots of them are regional (can't do crew without access to water or skiing without access to snow), all of them tend to be money losers. They're there as part of the overall package to attract talent, because a lot of smart people have some non-pro sports they like to do for fun and/or to keep in shape. E-sports isn't football/basketball/hockey or whatever, but it certainly can already be up there as part of the mix of small ones just fine.
>>332685152
I understand thousands pay to watch online. But that is the whole world watching these large tournaments. If a college got a LOL team presumably only people from that college would watch.
>E-Sports
>>332686069
Why do you presume that anymore then you would for any other small college sport? If they college team does well, then they'll end up competing on the world stage just like any other team that does well and in turn people will watch it. If they suck then no of course no one will bother but that's literally true of anything.
And also again, it doesn't actually need to make much of anything to accomplish their goals anymore then tennis or whatever needs to be profitable. Colleges have bigger overall plans then that anon.
>>332680047
そ
う
だ
ね
>>332680047
So? Europe has already 3 schools like that and a new one will open soon plus there is even a porn one
>>332687110
>porn scholarships
The world is a strange place.
>>332680047
>>332687110
Real life has become a parody. We're living in a Mel Brooks comedy.
>>332687435
Schools adapts to the needs
>>332685139
I would gamble that the average intelligence of professional level starcraft players far exceeds that of their LoL piers.
>>332686069
>If a college got a LOL team presumably only people from that college would watch.
US college sports get national followings, international in some sports if you count Canada. People pay money to cheer for a college they never went to. Major conferences have their own nationally-televised sports channels. E-sports is already on ESPN, now it's going to be shown on the Big West channel, and more as more colleges get on the e-sports bandwagon. Just wait until Vanderbilt gets in on this, we're going to be hearing rednecks yelling about SEC Speed during a LOL tournament.
>>332687110
>Scholarships for porn and video games
Because west coast colleges really need more international asian students that don't speak English
UC I University of Chinese Immigrants
>>332680332
why is it always that fucking state?
This doesn't phase me at all after hearing that Japan is giving out working visas to eSports players
>>332690275
Because it was traditionally the place where people went to in order to escape the east coast-based establishment. Hollywood itself was founded on this premise. Also lots of immigrants, especially Chinese academics and anti-authoritarians who fled the communist takeover and cultural revolution buoyed by a wave of westernized Hong Kong Chinese following the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule.
>>332687962
silly /pol/lac
the reich loved the arabs.
