There are a ton of headlines to touch on today, but first off, the League of Legends European Championships are underway and G2 is a massive favourite over Fanatic at online sports betting sites.
HighSchool eSports Teams?
A highschool esports season is popping up in the most unlikely of places, North Dakota. There are now 14 schools with eSports teams in North Dakota. The latest school to join in is Mandan High, where the school’s welding instructor – yes, you read that correctly– will be the team’s head coach. The team is treated like a class, where there are 14 computer stations and the eSports athletes will compete in League of Legends, and Rocket League.
This just proves how impactful eSports is becoming. The small-town high school spent over $20,000.00 on their new eSports lab.
“Building the relationship with the students and having the students build a bigger larger community that they can game with. That aspect of communication, friendships that’s what I am looking forward to this season is getting to know those students who game and how can they make more friends within the school.[1]” – Coach Kessler
In addition to the 14 high schools that have recently launched eSports teams, three North Dakota Universities are also gearing up for their own eSports programs, including Bismark State College.
ESports Research Lab
On the scholarly note, a new eSports research lab is opening at the University of Limerick in Ireland. The goal is to conduct research and perform studies on improving eSport athlete performance.
This is a long time coming, considering that the global eSports market is predicted to break one billion dollars this year. Scientists have been studying sports performance in traditional athletics for decades, so it makes sense to start actively researching training methods to achieve optimal eSports performance. Tournaments nowadays have millions of dollars in the prize pool, so there is tons of money on the line, and even more, tied into advertising and promotions, but there is almost ZERO sports science. Perhaps, Lero eSports Research Lab will be able to identify what makes a phenomenal gamer through the use of health sciences and computing.
“We will work on psychometric software incorporating eye tracking and brain imaging to measure the neural, cognitive, and physical attributes of the most effective players.” – Director of Lero
The prospect of identifying the criterium involved in becoming a fantastic gamer is fascinating. Let’s hope that Lero pin-points actionable information quickly, so that those of us who are middling, know where to focus our efforts.
The Future of LoL
John Needham, Riot’s head of Global eSports recently made his vision for the future of League of Legends eSports known. His ideas are congruent with the growing market. Needham wants Riot to be more involved with entertainment and promotions, creating a larger platform for events and regional leagues.
“In 2020, we’ll be more accessible to fans in every corner of the globe, support our growing regional leagues, and stage the biggest and most innovative live esports events the world has ever seen.” – John Needham
More content will get produced to entertain
long-time fans and access will be easier than ever. On top of this, Riot has
partnered with some massive brands, Nike, MasterCard, and Coca Cola to name a
few, which will help bring awareness to League of Legends and eSports in
general to a whole new level.
[1] “North Dakota high schools prepare for first-ever eSports season | KX ….” 28 Aug. 2019, https://www.kxnet.com/back-to-school/north-dakota-high-schools-prepare-for-first-ever-esports-season/. Accessed 29 Aug. 2019.
