[CQ-Contest] [ Chicago Tribune ] "College recruiting gamers as athletes "

[Steve Sacco NN4X]

If they can do it for this, why not radiosporting, which is, as everyone 
should-but-does-not know, was the worlds First Massive Multiplayer 
Online Game.

73,
Steve
NN4X


By John Keilman, Tribune reporter

11:01 p.m. CDT, June 23, 2014

The idea came to Kurt Melcher, not surprisingly, when he was online 
searching for video games.

Melcher is associate athletic director at Robert Morris University, a 
Chicago-based university that gives out 1,400 athletic and activity 
scholarships across its 10 Illinois campuses as a way of recruiting and 
retaining students. But it occurred to him that one sport, rapidly 
growing in popularity, was missing from the scholarship roster.

After a little research and the blessing of the university's 
administration, that's about to change. Robert Morris this fall 
evidently will be the first school in the country to offer athletic 
scholarships to students who play the video game "League of Legends." 
It's a move that seems to stretch the definition of sports and athletes.

"It's a team sport," Melcher said. "There's strategy involved. You have 
to know your role in the game. Obviously it's not cardiovascular in any 
way, but it's mental. There are elements that go into it that are just 
like any other sport."

[ SNIP ]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-video-game-scholarship-20140623,0,4334654.story