Esports

INTRO

Esports are one of the fastest growing sports in the world. Since its establishment in the early 2000’s, professional and club esports has seen rapid growth in both participation and viewership. According to ESPN The Magazine’s June 22, 2015 esports issue, the 2014 League of Legends championship drew an online viewership of 27 million people, which is more than the NBA Finals (15.5 million), Major League Baseball’s World Series (13.8 million) and the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup Finals (5 million). DOTA 2 – another popular esport – drew 20 million that same year according to the article.

In 2016 there were only seven colleges and universities that had varsity esports programs. By 2018 there were 63 institutions and by 2020 there are already 117.

USA college is also part of this trend and currently there are number of schools participating in teams competition in the following games:

Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA): League of Legends (LoL), Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) 2, Heroes of the Storm, Smite
First person shooter: Overwatch, Fortnite, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), Paladins
Collectible card game: Hearthstone
Real-time strategy: StarCraft II
Sports games: Rocket League, FIFA, Madden
Fighting games: Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat

The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) currently has 117 member schools with varsity esports programs. Thre are over 5000 student athletes participating in collegiate esports across USA. There are 16 million in esports scholarships and aid offered. Some of them like Harrisburg University have significant funding and offer even full scholarships! The majority of scholarships however are partial and range from 500 – 8000 a year.