Kent State University has joined a rapidly growing movement around the country and started an to recruit video gamers and form a team to compete against other schools.
Kent State held its first eSports tournament on Saturday, complete with play-by-play announcers, fans in the stands and an online stream of the six-person teams playing the shoot-em-up game 鈥�.鈥�
is a professor of human development who is coordinating the school鈥檚 program. He says there has been some pushback from faculty who view the team as endorsing a sedentary activity for students.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e already doing it whether we had the program or not. But with the program in-place, we can monitor them better. We can try to help them be more well-rounded.鈥�
Toepfer says that includes requiring players to participate in at least one physical activity 鈥� such as yoga 鈥� during the semester.
鈥淭hese guys want so badly to put on a jersey 鈥� which they鈥檙e going to be able to do 鈥� and then go after Akron. They want to compete against these other schools and represent the university. And they had no other outlet to do that.鈥�
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