League of Legends has been a big presence in gaming since it released nearly seven years ago. Since then it has been one of the most popular games on the market, while helping to increase the visibility of things like live streaming and eSports. whether you like the game or not, its effect on the industry is undeniable. Now, in a partnership with The Collegiate StarLeague (CSL), they hope to extend their grasp.
Earlier this year developer Riot Games rebranded the North American Collegiate Championship (NACC) to the uLoL Campus Series. NACC had always done fairly well, and the Campus Series performed as expected. The idea of going to school under a videogame scholarship is certainly alluring. The partnership signed today, Sept. 28 2016, hopes to expand the league to more potential colleges.
“We worked closely with Riot Games for the past few seasons and it’s been by far CSL’s most popular title,” said CEO of CSL Duran Parsi in a press release. “By creating this partnership, CSL and Riot are bringing together our expertise and relationships to push collegiate eSports to the forefront of peoples minds. Our programming and content will engage hardcore and casual fans alike.”
CSL was founded in 2009 as a student run gaming league. In the time since, it has marked itself as one of the largest in the world today. A part from League of Legends, CSL also showcases Madden, Starcraft 2, Hearthstone, Overwatch, and many more games in its university leagues.
There has been a lot of recent developments around eSports, and it doesn’t look like the train is going to stop anytime soon. We have tournaments in VR, new eSports arenas, and even the acquisition of a few teams by big names. ESports is getting to be pretty big and the idea of videogame scholarships looks to be a much more common occurrance in the future.
