China's colleges launch eSports degrees

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Universities and colleges in China are creating courses to train students who want to cash in on the explosive growth in eSports.

Video gaming is not just a hobby that can consume enthusiasts for hours, but offers opportunities for careers as professional player, event organizer and business manager.

China's Ministry of Education listed eSports management as a college major for the first time in 2016 as it sought to position the country to take advantage of rapid rise in industry revenues in the country and globally.

Sichuan Film and Television University in southwest China is among institutions that have begun to offer degrees in electronic competitive sports and management to train young professionals for the eSports related business.

Colleges in a number of provinces have also started offering similar courses, according to Chinanews.com.

Sales revenue from video gaming in China reached nearly 50 billion yuan (7.3 billion US dollars) in 2016, reported China Daily, and may break through 70 billion yuan (10.5 billion US dollars) in 2017, according to a report released by Tencent, an industry giant.

Gong Bowen, a lecturer at Sichuan, notes that “TP (teleport)”, "cleanse” and “flash”, terminologies from the popular online game League of Legends, may be unfamiliar to many, but his students have to quickly get up to speed on the culture of video gaming.

Students at Sichuan Film and Television University in an eSports degree class./ Screenshot of video from cqcb.com

As well as playing games, students are taught subjects such as the culture and history of eSports, game script writing and eSports competition management.

Forty-eight students have registered at Sichuan, even though some say they have not found classes as easy and playful as they expected. Some chose the field of study holding the dream of becoming a professional player, while others gambled on a bright future for eSports.

“It is a burgeoning industry," one student surnamed Zhang told local media." I don’t position myself as a pro gamer, but I do want to work in eSports business.”

The grand finals of the World Cyber Arena took place in Yinchuan last December. /Photo from nx.people.cn