Big ten Network to Broadcast LoL collegiate tournament

Planetary

The Big Ten Network announced on Thursday that it's adding a less conventional sport to its conference title coverage. Now, in addition to everything from baseball and basketball to football and field hockey, subscribers will be able to see their favorite schools compete against one another in League of Legends. Yeah, the video game.

The new conference championship will work much like last year's Big Ten Network Invitational, an LoL exhibition game between Michigan State and Ohio State. This year, five-player teams from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Rutgers, and Wisconsin will each compete for $5,000 scholarships. That's $5,000 per member, not per team.

The structure of the event a bit convoluted. The first round will be a best-of-three round robin between division rivals. That is, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers will all play one another in the East while Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin will go against one another in the West.

The top four schools from each division at the end of the first round will then compete in a single elimination playoff bracket, a la March Madness, with the best from the West and the beast from the East will face off in the League of Legends College Championship. The tournament kicks off on January 30 with a match between Rutgers and Maryland, then every monday at 6pm ET. If so inclined, you can watch it online at watch.lolesports.com or BTN2Go.

This move only further illustrates how mainstream e-sports have become. ESPN2 has broadcast LoL and Heroes of the Storm (aka Heroes of the "Dorm") events before, TBS has shown its fair share of Overwatch. And, last September, UC Irvine debuted the first e-sports arena in a public university. There are now even scholarships for students, if your fingers are nimble enough

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Replies • 14

Suléimano

Casual

Sooner or later more people will be aware and will start to be less ignorant when it comes to esports and how much money it makes and how popular has become. Its obvious that older generations won't be as knowledgeable of esports considering they grew up in a time when it was the norm that only kids would've played video games, not to mention the visual difference between now and back then is astronomical. I don't think anyone would've thought back then how visually appealing games would become these days.

I really see them having a lot more potential for entertainment given the broad variety it has to offer from a whole spectrum of video game genres. I don't play CS GO nor will i ever attempt to, but its really fun watching pro players competing in professional tournaments.

So yes news anchor lady with your jaw dropped in awe and confusion, people do make money by playing video games. However its not as pleasant as you think when you have to play the same video game day by day just so you won't get rusty when you eventually participate in tournaments for a chance to win hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes even millions.

Isobar

Planetary

I have had this discussion with many a people who make fun of me for watching eSports. Always ask them why watching football is any different than me watching CS:GO or Overwatch. In fact, it makes more sense because I actively play these games, and by watching these pro matches, I'm not only being entertained, but learn a lot of new things to try. The most common response I get is "Yeah, but it's just a game... why not just go play it instead of watching it?" and then they usually get angry when I use the same argument for them with football or other sports.. *note I watch way more sports than the average person... so I'm not basing that lol,*

Same thing happened when I started playing Disc Golf with some of the local pros around my course, started to see them doing things I'd have never tried, and then I'd go practice in my spare time and learn how to do these things myself.