https://ohiotoday.org/game-on-esports /

Just saw this today and it looks like the basketball practice facility money was used for the new ESports program.

Please give me an example of what the sports are. Since I’m an old guy, I have no knowledge of it. I’m guessing it’s like playing a video game, but not sure of the content. Is it like playing Madden?

A little miffed we didn't get college credits for the faux WWF wrestling we used to partake in during our tenure on campus back in the early '80s. Feels like it had about the same societal impact as eSports. How much would it have cost to construct an authentic wrastlin' ring? Perhaps an add-on to Bird Arena?

And, had the eSports degree existed back then, would I have earned a PhD for my research into the (successful) use of a Zerostat vinyl-record dust zapper to get unlimited free plays on the Pac*Man machine in the Nelson Commons cafeteria?

Is there a transfer portal for those who are good at e-sports? How, about NIL money? Asking for a friend.

Some games that involve esports teams are Fortnite (first person shooter like Call of Duty), Rocket League (soccer with cars), and League of Legends. Esports is starting to become a huge and profitable industry with larger purses and sponsorship. The growth of Twitch, a streaming app that enables users to watch other people play video games has also been an enormous factor in the growth of esports. Madden I believe also is largely supported in esport competition as well. I'm not totally sure what games OU Esports will specialize in, but I assume it will be a variety. I knew someone personally who played Fortnite in serious professional competitions, and went home with some serious cheddar.

You can actually make a pretty good career in esports nowadays.

I have friends from back in the day who could have graduated early with a double major in EE and poker if frat house poker games counted for class credit.

This is factual information. I've seen several eSports "centers" at both P5 and mid-majors that are school affiliated and they are quite impressive and have huge support/following.

It may sound dumb/weird/new to most people in SE Ohio but we are well behind many schools, especially out West, in the eSports world.

May not be everybody's cup of tea, however, there is serious cash to be made and its only getting bigger.

esports players have always been free to capitalize on NIL.

@ohiouniversity put out a short walk through video of the facility, I was impressed. Also really cool that the competitive teams will compete in the MAC for competition play.

It is kind of hard to imagine even for me that esports is becoming as big as it is. I'm in my early 30s and the idea that it would become pseudo-normal for universities to sponsor esports and have a dedicated space for play is crazy to think about (in a good way).

I'm one that has been casually following esports in general since 2012, and to say it has exploded since then is an understatement. It went from fringe to mainstream in less than a decade, and still has lots of potential to grow. I would be interested to see if the NCAA ever decides to official sponsor esports in any capacity, or if a new organization dedicated to that corner of entertainment comes up instead.

Video games and games in general are fascinating from an educational aspect. I would argue you learn as much from playing games at recess like football basketball soccer baseball etc... as you do from regular classroom. Video games technology has become so good the amount you can learn from these games is fascinating. Take madden for example, or the ncaa video games you can test out different strategies and formations and see how different player skill sets work in different scenarios. In addition I think you can learn a lot of history from video games. Take the assassin creed video games or a game like civilization. You can learn about the people of the past of a really hands on way and I feel like if you combined it with a in class lecture you could get a tremendous educational benefit from it. The assassins creeds game for example you play those games and the graphics are so good and the game so in depth it feel like you are at the places the game takes place in. You can play in Greece Egypt England America the Caribbean and more in these games and if you found a way to teach history or philosophy or sailing or whatever while using these games as a supplementary tool I think it would be great for education as well as strategy in sports.