As a Brit, I find American university sports and athletics scholarships utterly baffling, but Robert Morris University Illinois is launching a scholarship program I can almost get behind: Joystiq reports that the university is offering scholarships for esports players. League of Legends players can get scholarships worth up to 50 percent of tuition and 50 percent of room and board.
The university is looking for candidates to participate in the League of Legends High School Starleague, in order to build one Competition team to play in the Collegiate Star League (a separate league for League of Legends developer Riot’s own peer program). The 2014 season will begin in September and will feature teams from 103 different institutions.
Of course, if you really want a career in e-sports, it’s worth ignoring League of Legends and focused on the big time: Dota 2. In addition to being the greatest game of all time, next month’s Valve-sponsored tournament, The International, offers the largest prize pool in all of esports, currently worth $9.7 million. The winning team of five is expected to take home nearly $5 million.