eSports News by Content Engine AI

For the first time in the 27-year history of its Broad Street Bullies League, Blizzard, the makers of World of Warcraft, has awarded the college tournament the $100,000 prize.

The inaugural Overwatch League Championship took place at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Sunday, with Atlanta Reign defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers’ own Florida Mayhem. In the process, the students from the Texas A&M College of Design (TAMDA) team, made up of students from the design school, received the prestigious Paul Smith’s College Award for their victory over the Mayhem.

The Paul Smith’s College Award is, in this instance, a specific grant. It provides the players the opportunity to play at home in a Paul Smith’s designed game room. Both the team and each individual team member will have access to the equipment provided, which includes professional-grade clothing, trophy cases, and several European-style game consoles with PlayStation and Nintendo systems.

The grant, awarded by Paul Smith’s College of Design, will also provide the team with the opportunity to travel to Blizzard’s offices in the UK to spend time at the offices, and to learn and immerse themselves in the company’s culture. The grant will also contribute toward the development of their game.

“We share the common goal of creating industry-changing game design and enabling a dedicated culture to enable the production of games that engage a global audience,” says Dr. Kevin Chang, the senior vice president of business development for Blizzard Entertainment, of the choice to award the grant to TAMDA. “The future success of Overwatch is built on the technical excellence and creativity of the team working at TAMDA. With this award, our company is proud to help them bring their community together to create the next iteration of Overwatch.”

Blizzard is committed to nurturing talent in various student groups, and was also present at TwitchCon earlier this year to demonstrate its commitment to cultivating gamers with a multitude of gaming platforms and platforms outside of those available in game consoles, and gaming engines. Head of esports Melissa Albert shows that rather than being funded by the publisher, these students have been funding the construction of their house.

In addition to the $100,000 grant from Paul Smith’s College of Design, Georgia Tech, Boston University, the University of Maryland, and USC are all part of the group of schools which have made proposals for Paul Smith’s College to reward their students with a postseason esports tournament. In terms of building the student esports program in schools, this award goes some way to accomplishing that goal.

Content Engine eSports Overwatch League News Overwatch News
Share:
author image

Content Engine

See all author posts

Comments