Courtesy of Robert Morris University
This fall, a new scholarship from the video game retailer KontrolFreek will award 10 students merit-based scholarships based on their academic accomplishments and collegiate participation in competitive online video games, commonly known as eSports.
KontrolFreek CEO Ashish Mistry says the scholarship has been open for only a week and already nearly 100 people have registered to apply.
Once the applications themselves come rolling in, the company will consider just the first 100, or however many come in by May 15. While the exact scholarship amounts haven't been determined, Mistry says no scholarship will be less than $2,000.
Over the last several years, eSports have gone from from a niche activity among small pockets of gamers to a full-fledged phenomenon. The industry is currently valued at nearly $750 million, and experts predict it'll rise to almost $2 billion by 2018.
KontrolFreek, along with a handful of other school-specific scholarships, hope to capitalize on the growing interest among younger players by staying relevant as the idea of a "student-athlete" continues to expand.
"If you look at places like South Korea, where eSports are the pioneer markets, you've got guys on the side of buildings just like [Michael] Jordan on the side of buildings in Chicago," Mistry says. "So we haven't cracked that here yet, but it takes time and resources, and we think our scholarship program will contribute to getting somebody on the side of a building hopefully."
KontrolFreek's scholarship is unique in that applicants don't necessarily need to be any good at eSports to win tuition money, nor do they need to play any specific game to qualify. They just need to play on behalf of their high school or college's eSports program.
Other scholarships come with more restrictions.
For example, there's Robert Morris University's scholarship for "League of Legends" players, which awards up to $19,000 in room and board for highly skilled gamers, similar to how rising stars are currently recruited for baseball or football.
Or there's the Heroes of the Dorm scholarship, which grants up to three years of free tuition for winning its "Heroes of the Storm" tournament. And at the University of California Irvine, up to 10 students could win scholarship money if they're selected to join the newly formed "League of Legends" team.
KontrolFreek both the casual player who maintains a 4.0 GPA and the hardcore gamer who may have to fight for good grades. Mistry admits, however, that the exact selection process is still in the works.
"One of the things we want to stress here is sportsmanship," he says. "You don't have to be a vandal to be good at playing video games."
KontrolFreek's interest in giving teenagers and early 20-somethings money for playing video games will only grow with time, Mistry suspects. Rick Fox, former NBA star and current "League of Legends" team owner, said recently that eSports will soon equal the NHL in size over the next two years.
For companies like KontrolFreek, that means the scholarship pools will only continue to grow as well.
The company wants "to be a pioneer in saying 'Hey, there are opportunities for people that have other interests that are merit-based, which are not division I basketball, baseball, and football,'" Mistry says. "You can still participate and be considered part of the athletic program to some degree."