Video games help you enter Macau University of Science and Technology

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Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) has added eSport players into its application category of elite sports students in its latest school admission brochure for undergraduates. The university is taking into consideration players from two video games, League of Legends (LOL) and Wangzhe Rongyao (usually known as "Honor of Kings").

MUST has the following standards for players: Only those who rank at or above Diamond II in LOL are qualified, which comprises 0.24 percent of all players of the game. Honor of Kings players who want to apply for MUST as sports elite have to reach at least "Master," which is the second highest ranking tier of the game.

2018 Honor of Kings Champion Cup Winter Season Final in Shanghai on January 12, 2019. /VCG Photo

Players that have attended any LOL or Honor of Kings competition will be given priority in admission, according to MUST. Meanwhile, student excellence in video games is not the only thing the university looks at. The grades of their college entrance examination and admission test will also decide whether and how much scholarship students will receive.

eSports has been developing rapidly in Macao in recent years. The 2018 China Mobile eSports League (CMEL) took place in the country's Qingdao, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Macao. The location for the event in Macao was MUST. Moreover, He Youjun, president of the Macao's eSports Federation, also owns Victory Five, a team of the League of Legends Pro League (LPL).

MUST is a private university managed by the MUST Foundation and the first university established after Macao was returned to China in 1999. There are currently about 11,000 students studying at the university, including approximately 3,200 master's and doctoral students and 7,700 undergraduate students.