The stigma of the past says gamers are lazy losers with no lives living in their parents’ basements, but that has all been erased as gamers now compete on stages across the world in front of thousands of adoring fans.
College athletes have been receiving scholarships since the 1890s, and LSU has almost exclusively reserved them for the University’s most physically gifted. This needs to change.
E-sports athletes deserve to receive scholarships and represent LSU just as much as traditional athletes.
Short for electronic sports, e-sports is a blanket term given to all forms of competitive gaming.
E-sports competitions come on all platforms of gaming, from shooters to fighting and everything in between. The most popular e-sports game, though, is League of Legends, a multiplayer online battle arena game.
The 2015 League of Legends World Championship drew 36 million viewers, according to LoL Esports. The event drew more viewers than the NBA Finals with 19.94 million viewers, the MLB World Series with 14.7 million viewers and the Stanley Cup Finals with 5.5 million viewers.
These numbers are not the be-all and end-all, but they do show e-sports are up-and-coming and belong among other professional sports leagues.
What makes the numbers more impressive is that the championships were only broadcasted through online streams.
In comparison, NBC’s stream for the 2015 Super Bowl had 1.3 million viewers. Albeit, a lot of people were watching on TV, but to outdraw the Super Bowl in any capacity is impressive.
These huge numbers show there could be a potential fan base for college e-sports teams.
Before you pick up your pitchfork and hunt me down, the idea is not as far-fetched as it sounds and is already happening at other universities.
Columbia College in Missouri became the fifth school in the United States to add eSports to its athletics program in November of 2015.
“E-sports aren’t the future,” said Columbia College President Scott Dalrymple in a statement according to Dailydot.com. “They’re the present. True skill at video gaming is just as impressive — and just as legitimate — as excellence in traditional sports.”
Columbia hired Bryan Curtis as the school’s eSports director who is finding a coach for the university. The school’s 12-man roster will consist of two five-man teams and two alternates.
If everything stays on track, the teams will begin competition next fall exclusively in League of Legends.
Not only are colleges already giving scholarships to these athletes, but the United States government also considers e-sports players athletes.
Professional e-sports athletes were having difficulties obtaining visas to enter the country for competitions, but the U.S. government changed their stance on the issue and began recognizing players as professional athletes in 2013.
I know some will make the argument that e-sports players are not athletes and they are only playing video games.
That could not be more wrong.
“Mental fitness is the important thing. Our League of Legends team in L.A. live in a house 24/7 during the season, and players play a lot — that’s what they do,” said Michael O’Dell, the managing director of Team Dignitas, one of the world’s largest professional gaming teams, in an interview with ESPN.
Most e-sports careers end by the time players reach their mid-20s due to the rigorous practice schedules of competitions.
Greg Fields, a former StarCraft II champion, played in South Korea from 2008-2011 and described his training routine during his e-sports career in an inteview with ESPN.
“The training schedule excluded any activity that wasn’t eating, sleeping and practicing,” Fields said. “We played for 12 hours a day with one or two days off a month.”
Obviously, with current NCAA restrictions and balancing classes, this type of practice schedule would not be feasible for a college athlete. However, this is the training used by the best professional teams, and I see college e-sports following the model set by college soccer.
If an elite player is talented enough to play professional soccer they have most likely been signed by the time they reach 17 or 18 years old, if not younger, quite similar to e-sports, where professionals careers begin as young as 15. There are strong players who are not quite good enough to go pro at 15, but could compete at a college level to hone their skills.
This system could easily be implemented at LSU.
Picture the PMAC with gaming consoles and TVs set up on a stage underneath the large elevated screens center court. .
Okay, the odds of e-sports filling the PMAC to capacity is unlikely at best. There are plenty of smaller sports that don’t draw record crowds, yet give athletes an opportunity to continue their careers and earn their way through college.
This is all I’m asking for.
Marc is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @Marc_TDR.