[Education News] Video Games Are a Waste of Time? Not for Those With E-sports Scholarships.

Article From: Newyork Times

Video Games Are a Waste of Time? Not for Those With E-sports Scholarships

Members of the Bay Shore High School e-sports team look on as Matthew Ruiz competes at the Microsoft store at the Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island. Watching, from left, Dimetrius Bostick, Skylar Lampel, Connor DeGraff, Aidan Zicolella and Dominick Bostick.CreditBeth Perkins for The New York Times

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Members of the Bay Shore High School e-sports team look on as Matthew Ruiz competes at the Microsoft store at the Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island. Watching, from left, Dimetrius Bostick, Skylar Lampel, Connor DeGraff, Aidan Zicolella and Dominick Bostick.CreditCreditBeth Perkins for The New York Times

Behind a glass partition at the Microsoft store at the Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island, 10 teenage boys settled into seats in a rectangular formation. Each sat behind a laptop computer, ears warmed by a bulky headset.

Parents and grandparents circled the room, peering over shoulders at screens. One mother used her iPhone to live-stream to social media.

The room had the feel of a sporting event, and it was — a group of competitive video gamers on the Bay Shore High School e-sports team were competing in a scrimmage and playing their way toward college scholarships.

Dimetrius at the keyboard as his mother, Anne Bostick, captures the action and his coach, Chris Champlin, watches.

Credit

Beth Perkins for The New York Times

Dimetrius at the keyboard as his mother, Anne Bostick, captures the action and his coach, Chris Champlin, watches.

CreditBeth Perkins for The New York Times

Multiplayer video games played competitively, often with spectators, are known as e-sports, and they have became a gateway to college scholarship money. Over the past two years, the National Association of Collegiate Esports, which is engaged with 98 varsity programs across the United States and Canada, has helped to facilitate $16 million in scholarships, according to the executive director, Michael Brooks.