Could ESports Become Part of College Curriculum?

Unless you’ve been living in a vacuum these past few years, chances are you have heard of Esports and Esports tournaments. Esports is a type of competition using video games. They are organized and are played as standard sports by using teams of players. Like any other sport, the teams grow as they win competitions and compete in E-tournaments. The fact that gaming computers are used to play sports or even in Esports betting makes them more in-depth and challenging for the the players on the team Esports is a international multi billion industry and it is growing rapidly.  Five years ago, you would have had a hard time finding more than a handful of schools of higher learning offering Esports. Today there are more than 200 universities with programs in place.

Into the class

Let’s face it, we go to university to learn the skills we need to make a living, and the social and life skills that we need to be productive, and balanced people. In a moment we will address some of the career paths that Esports will help you achieve. But first, let’s take a moment to look at what it teaches us on a personal level.

Esports players develop essential “soft skills” through the experience. Some reports 93% of these players go on to be highly-desired and critical members of upper management. Here are just a few of the soft skills they have developed and attribute to their experience in esports:

• They have a developed ability to work with others as a team.
• When faced with a problem, they quickly adapt to decision making.
• They do not lose control under unexpected pressure.
• They do not avoid a situation, but face it head on.
• They show compassion.
• They neither make or take excuses.
• They are creative and flexible.

Now let us consider what having them on your corporate team does for your company.

• They maintain and expect self-confidence. Everyone on their team will have a “can-do” attitude. 
• They are problem solvers and encourage co-workers to look for solutions to bring to the table.
• At a time when people have little time to socialize, they use their soft skills to have employees interact and be creative together, thus creating a social foundation for the company and each other. 
• As with every sport (including E-sports) a high caliber of ethics are expected. They cultivate that into the company “team” too.
• They teach subordinates who they are in competition with. Those vendors who want the same customers they do. Never each other. In Esports, we all win or we all lose.  

What kind of career could I get?

If you want to know where E-sports can help you in your career choice, you are going to be surprised. Think of all the different professionals it takes to create a esports game, built it, work the latest technology into it, make sure it is 

legal, bug-free and get to the E-tournament level. Here are some of the careers you can follow that could lead you directly to or through E-sports:

• Architect
• Designer
• Operations Manager
• Technology advisor
• Coder
• Developer
• Business Development
• Sales
• Social media webmaster
• Photographer
• Videographer
• Editor
• Architecture
• Coach
• Content creator
• Journalist
• Marketing
• Product Manager
• Sales/Partnerships Manager
• Admin/Referee
• Organization Owner/Manager
• Community/Social Media Manager
• Broadcast/Production Crew
• Event Manager
• Customer service specialist
• Technical support

This doesn’t even scratch the surface of where a skilled professional can take his or her career with values they picked up as E-gamers. The industry is booming, but it is still very young. Technology is growing at such a rate that it is impossible to wonder where it will end. As things like IOT (internet of things) matures, more machines will be doing things that we cannot even imagine. When we look back over basic technology, it is mind-blowing how far it came in such a short period of time. We already see robotics take more and more of our responsibilities. Our electronics often manage our health problems. They heat and cool our homes before we arrive, and include us in meetings taking place around the world. We do not know where Esports technology will take us, but we know it is going places. We know we have to keep up to compete. With that in mind, it makes perfect sense to allow our college students to study the science of the field. It makes sense to develop and mature our careers around technology that will be there before we will.  If we have some fun along the way? That is even better. After all, isn’t that what we want? We want machines to make our lives deeper and more meaningful. With that, we are well on our way.