Topic of the day: Onlineesports.com brings the latest esports news. A huge surprise of this decade is the e-Sports scene. In the past gamers were ridiculed. Today they are earning more that sports people and gamers championships have better ratings than old sports. So here are some latest e-sports news.
This fall, St. Thomas University (STU) plans to launch South Florida’s first school sanctioned esports team. The school is already a member of the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE), and according to CBS Miami, the team, which will be housed in a room above the basketball court, even falls under the athletic department where Director Laura Courtley-Todd thinks, “it’s a perfect fit.”
Pepperdine University has announced the launch of an esports program that has already participated in the LA Valiant’s Road to Kit Kat Collegiate Overwatch Tournament. The tournament accepted eight schools, with Pepperdine edging out two other universities to claim spot number eight. For the month leading up to the tournament, voting took place to decide which schools would be invited to compete. The program seems to be gaining traction fast, with big names in the esports industry such as Twitch, ULT and Collegiate Starleague, reaching out to Pepperdine and expressing their interest in talking to students and helping with program development. In a Pepperdine University Graphic report, Director of Campus Recreation Robb Bolton said Pepperdine President Jim Gash is “fully supportive” of an esports program. See additional info on eSports Videos.
What are esports? Esports (or electronic sports) are professional, organized video games competitions. In other words, professional gamers play videogames against one another competitively, often for large sums of money and prestige. These tournaments can range from small local matches to filling out stadiums of thousands. According to Newszoo’s 2018 Global Esports Market Report, the esports industry is estimated to be worth nearly one billion dollars within the next year – that’s a year-on-year increase of a whopping 38%. In addition, Newszoo estimates that by 2019, 427 million people worldwide will be watching esports (via ESPN).
A further 16 games will take place on Week Two this week starting with Washington Justice facing London Spitfire in what is now a must-win game for the current Champions, who then also face a tough second game later in the week when they take on the as-yet undefeated Huangzhou Spark in the first of four games on Sunday. Other key matches include a double-header for New York Excelsior against Los Angeles Valiant and then the winless Houston Outlaws, while the Philadelphia Fusion will hope to continue their positive start against the Florida Mayhem and the Dallas Fuel. At the other end of the table, the luckless Shanghai Dragons will continue their search for their first win in the Overwatch League after going all of last season without a win, as they have just one game this week against the Boston Uprising. Source: https://www.onlineesports.com/.
