CRI听力:School Athletic Scholarships Expanded to Include E-Sports

School Athletic Scholarships Expanded to Include E-Sports 

In a specially designed training room, a Robert Morris university team is playing the game League of Legends.

Once regarded as anti-social slackers or nerds in a basement, gamers have become megastars in the e-sports world.

Hundreds of other colleges and universities have e-sports clubs, but Robert Morris, in downtown Chicago, is the first to make it a varsity sport under its athletics department.

For this group of gamers, what was once a hobby is now putting them through college.

The university is offering scholarships - up to a total of 19,000 US dollars - to cover up to half of a student's tuition and half of their room and board.

The grants are for a single game, League of Legends.

The university's Associate Athletic Director, Kurt Melcher says the game requires a lot of dedication and skill.

"We think it is a sport. And it's an athletic sport. And it's something that should be rewarded with a scholarship to come and compete and contribute to the school."

Training takes place in a revamped 100,000 US dollars classroom fitted with the latest computer technology.

The Robert Morris Eagles will play other teams in two collegiate leagues, which include the likes of Harvard, MIT and Ohio State.

They're all hoping to make it to the League of Legends North American Collegiate Championship, where the members of the first place team take home 30,000 US dollars each in prize money. After that it's onto the international championships, where the prize money is 1 million US dollars.　

Student, Derek Micheau, is one of the video game scholarship winners and says he can't believe his luck.

"To think that video games could actually help put me through school is a dream come true. It really is."

The game's developer, Riot Games says some 27 million people around the world play League of Legends each day.

In the past, many parents and teachers feared that such games could jeopardise a student's study, but Melcher says that's all changing.

"I think they feel that the game is validated now and that what their children are doing makes sense. The students, I think, and the players feel like it's their time. It's finally proven out that this game is a sport and it belongs in the athletic department and it can be played collegiately, competitively."

Twenty one year old business management student Sondra Burrows is one of only two women in the group. She says the game is mentally demanding and takes a lot of skill.

"It takes a lot of dedication, it takes time, you know, it takes a lot of learning, I mean-we have coaches! It's just like any other sport out there. And anyone who says it's not a sport.. it's a sport, it's just in a different field of expertise."

The League of Legends championship matches draw tens of thousands of spectators. The play by play coverage is like any other professional sport, with hordes of fans cheering in stadiums.

The Robert Morris team is busy training for next year, when they hope to take on their rivals at the 2015 North American Collegiate Championship.　

For CRI, I'm Zhou Jingnan.