Robert Morris now offers gaming scholarships
Robert Morris is changing the college sports landscape. On their website it was announced that they now offer gaming scholarships. More specifically, eGaming scholarships.
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"“Robert Morris University Illinois is pleased to announce the addition of an online sport to its athletic program. Commonly referred to as eSports, the activity consists of organized video game competitions.Specifically, RMU students will compete in League of Legends, one of the largest and most popular eSport games. Although eSports have long been a part of the culture of gaming, competitions have seen a large surge in popularity in recent years. Robert Morris University recognizes the value and legitimacy of eSports and is excited to add eSports to its already rich athletic program.Associate Athletic Director Kurt Melcher states, “Robert Morris University has always been at the forefront of providing opportunities for a diverse student population with different interests and skills. League of Legends is a competitive, challenging game which requires a significant amount of teamwork to be successful.””"
That’s right, video games are a college sport.
These scholarships at the moment are 50 percent tuition and 50 percent room and board. However, as any college student will tell you, any percentage off of that college price tag is a huge help.
Robert Morris will begin the program September of 2014 and will join the Collegiate Star League with 103 other schools.
They are the only ones offering scholarships for it.
At the moment, it’s just League of Legends but how much longer until there are competitions to see who can speed run Mario 64 the fastest without any glitches? This can open the door for all kinds eGaming competitions.
This isn’t something small. Twitch.com averages thousands of viewers per day watching League of Legends. It’s arguably the most popular eSport in the world right now with hundreds of thousands of players competing online every day for fun and, for some, cash prizes.
The only question Robert Morris didn’t answer in their statement was, are they offering free cans of Monster to the participants or is that also only 50% off?