Last year, it was
Robert Morris University in Chicago making headlines for launching a collegiate
eSports program bolstered by scholarships. This year, a small school in
mid-Missouri, Columbia College, is following suit with a scholarship eSports
program of its own.
The program will launch
in the fall of 2016 and will consist of twelve total players -- two teams of
five with two alternates each, according to local news outlet KOMU, which broke
the story over the weekend.
Most notably, the
school's players will be offered scholarships.
Tom's Hardware spoke to
Bryan Curtis, Intramural Coordinator and Facility Manager of Athletics at
Columbia College and one of the individuals tasked with launching the school's
program, to learn more.
Scholarships, And
Building From Scratch
Curtis told us that one
of the school's squads will be a sort of "varsity," and the other
will be a sort of "JV," although they won't call them that. They will
also make room for developing players that could eventually join the team.
Curtis would not
specify how much the scholarships would be -- the school is still working on
details -- but he did note that the amount of scholarship money per player will
depend on their skill level, and he also indicated that these would not be
full-ride scholarships. At best, they will likely start at 50 percent offers
and dip lower from there. These budget-related decisions will likely be settled
sometime in January of next year.
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