别再说打游戏不务正业：美国两大学给游戏高手提供奖学金

    罗伯特莫里斯大学和派克维尔大学正在扩大学校体育的概念，其中就包括视频游戏。这两所学校不仅组建了电子竞技团队，还为游戏玩家提供奖学金，并配置电子竞技装备。

    位于芝加哥城外的罗伯特莫里斯大学是美国第一所提供电子竞技校队和校队预备队奖学金的学校。肯塔基的派克维尔大学是第二所将《英雄联盟》游戏玩家，与传统的足球、篮球和棒球运动员同等对待的学校。

    罗伯特莫里斯大学体育活动副总监库尔特•梅尔切在玩过Riot Games公司的《英雄联盟》在线多人游戏，并得知Riot Games公司组织了高校联赛之后，便提出了奖学金建议。该校校长不仅批准他招聘教练和招募学生玩家，还同意建造一套价值10万美元的电子竞技设施，供36名选手在校园内练习和参加比赛。

    梅尔切表示：“电子竞技与真实的体育比赛一样，孩子们在比赛中有不同的分工，他们要像团队一样相互配合。我们将电子竞技和传统体育视为第二课堂，学生可以在这里经历成功与失败。电子竞技可以在课堂之外吸引学生。”

    罗伯特莫里斯大学是一家规模很小的私立学校，拥有约3200名学生。该校已经为35名校队和预备队成员提供了奖学金——前者减免70%的学费，后者减免35%。这所大学目前有17名校队成员和16名预备队成员。其《英雄联盟》校队在最近结束的Riot Games北美高校锦标赛中荣获第二名。6名校队成员每人获得Riot Games公司授予的1.5万美元奖学金。

    罗伯特莫里斯大学目前正在扩展它的电子竞技项目。该校目前有一支队伍正在参加暴雪娱乐公司组织的“宿舍英雄”高校锦标赛，这项在ESPN2频道播出的比赛取得了极高的收视率。今年秋天，该校将为维尔福公司游戏《魔兽争霸2》的玩家增加15-20笔奖学金，为《炉石传说：魔兽英雄传》的玩家增加10-15笔奖学金，这两个游戏均为高校星联盟的比赛项目。

    梅尔切计划与当地高校，如德保罗大学、西北大学和伊利诺伊州立大学，联合组织一次季中电子竞技邀请赛，并由游戏直播公司Twitch对比赛进行流媒体直播。

    梅尔切表示，Riot Games公司曾在一篇文章中透露了罗伯特莫里斯大学设立《英雄联盟》奖学金的消息，他随后收到了2000封对该计划感兴趣的游戏玩家发来的电子邮件。此外，他还收到了来自另外35家学校的无数咨询，这些学校均对罗伯特莫里斯大学如何设计该奖学金项目感兴趣。派克维尔大学便是其中之一。

    派克维尔大学新媒体主任布鲁斯•帕森斯表示，有学生曾向他咨询创建一家《英雄联盟》俱乐部的问题。在了解到高中生对这一领域很感兴趣之后，他开始研究此事成功的可能性。有了罗伯特莫里斯大学的成功先例，派克维尔大学决定组建校队，为学生提供新的机会，并吸引全美各地有才华的、科技知识丰富的学生来到阿巴拉契亚中央地区。

    派克维尔大学的电子竞技项目将在今年秋天正式启动，第一年提供20笔奖学金。学校将在今年暑假期间修建电子竞技场馆，供学生们练习和举行比赛。

    帕森斯说道：“我们的电子竞技项目引起了世界各地年轻人的兴趣。许多学生希望参与高校级别的电子竞技和《英雄联盟》比赛。除了有潜力的电子竞技选手外，我们还听说，现在的学生和潜在的大学新生对解说员直播和流媒体直播电子竞技，非常感兴趣。我们将在校园内建设全方位的高校游戏文化，并将其扩展到阿巴拉契亚中央地区，让所有感兴趣的人都能感受到这种文化的魅力。”

    据超级数据研究公司统计，目前，全球电子竞技的观众人数达到1.34亿人，而且这个数字仍在持续增长。预计很快将会有其他高校加入罗伯特莫里斯大学和派克维尔大学的行列，提供电子竞技奖学金。（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    审校：任文科

    Robert Morris University and the University of Pikeville are two schools expanding the concept of college sports to include video games—not only creating eSports teams, but also offering scholarships to gamers and building eSports facilities.

    RMU, located outside of Chicago, was the first school in the U.S. to offer eSports varsity and varsity reserve scholarships. UPike, located in Kentucky, is the second, treating League of Legends video gamers like traditional football, basketball, and baseball athletes.

    Kurt Melcher, associate athletic director at RMU, came up with the scholarship proposal after playing Riot Games’League of Legends online multiplayer game and seeing Riot Games set up its own collegiate league. He received approval from the university president to not only hire a coach and bring in student players, but also to build a $100,000 eSports facility for up to 36 players to practice and compete in on campus.

    “ESports is just like real sports with kids playing different positions and working together as a team unit,” Melcher says. “We look at eSports and traditional sports as a second classroom where students learn about winning and losing. It’s engaging them outside of the classroom.”

    RMU, a small private school with approximately 3,200 students, offered 35 students partial varsity (70 percent off tuition) and varsity reserve scholarships (35 percent off tuition). The school currently has 17 varsity and 16 varsity reserve players. Its League of Legends varsity team just came in second place in Riot Games’ North American Collegiate Championship. Each of the six team members from RMU was awarded a $15,000 scholarship from Riot Games.

    RMU is already expanding its program. The school had a team compete in Blizzard Entertainment’s recent “Heroes of the Dorm” college tournament, which was broadcast on ESPN2 and received strong ratings. This fall it will add 15-20 scholarships for players of Valve’s Dota 2 and 10-15 scholarships for players of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, games which are both part of the Collegiate StarLeague (CSL).

    Melcher plans to create a Mid Season Invitational eSports competition with local universities like DePaul, Northwestern, and Illinois State competing, with game streaming company Twitch livestreaming the event.

    When Riot Games posted a story that RMU was acceptingLeague of Legends scholarships, Melcher said he was inundated with 2,000 emails from gamers interested in the program. He was also flooded with inquiries by 35 other schools, each interested in how RMU had set up its program. One of those schools was UPike.

    Bruce Parsons, director of new media at UPike, said he was approached by current students about starting a League of Legends club. After hearing interest from high school students in the area, he began researching the possibilities. With the example already set by RMU, the university decided to build a varsity program on campus to offer new opportunities for students and to bring in talented, technologically-savvy students from around the country to the Central Appalachian region.

    The UPike eSports program will officially launch this fall with 20 scholarships in its first year. Those students will have their own eSports arena to practice and compete in, which will be built during summer break.

    “We have had tremendous interest in our eSports program from around the world,” Parsons says. “Many students want to compete at the collegiate level in eSports and League of Legends. In addition to potential eSport athletes, we’re also hearing from current students and potential recruits interested in shoutcasting and streaming eSports. We’re going to build an entire collegiate gaming culture on our campus and spread it throughout our Central Appalachian region and to anyone else interested in participating.”

    With a global eSports audience of 134 million and growing, according to Superdata Research, RMU and UPike are likely to be joined soon by other schools offering eSports scholarships.