League of Legends paying off for one gamer going to university on scholarship

18 Jul 2017

Jordan Zakrajsek is on his way to Lourdes University in Ohio under a varsity athletic scholarship, USA Today College reported.

His sport of choice? Multiplayer online battle game League of Legends“.

At Lourdes, Zakrajsek will team up with 27 other players in the school’s eSports team which will compete with other college teams nationwide.

https://twitter.com/LU_eSports/status/862686544137773057

Lourdes eSports director Cory Cahill said: “Overall, he’s going to be a positive addition because of his attitude and the type of guy he is.”

Zakrajsek is part of Lourdes’ plan to build its team to join other universities that have had such programmes a lot longer and won multiple game titles.

“In the end game, we’re recruiting quality kids to help build our community.” – Cahill

League of Legends is a multiplayer online game that engages more than 100 million people each month. Professional gamers compete in its world championships with audience numbers that are increasingly rivalling conventional sporting events.

Last year, 43 million people tuned in to watch the League of Legends World Championship finals, surpassing the number of those who watched the NBA finals and the Olympics by the millions.

Tough transition

For Jordan’s father, Rick, his son’s transition from playing team sports like football and basketball, to video games had initially been difficult.

“It started off with ‘Get out of your room’ and ‘Why aren’t you going outside?’” Rick told USA Today College.

Rick Zakrajsek says it was hard to see his son, Jordan, transition from playing sports to playing video games: https://t.co/mvvuiGAAiP

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) July 15, 2017

But Jordan’s parents later grew to support him in by buying new equipment, such as gaming chairs and computer screens, as well as helping him to apply for scholarships to put his gaming skills to use.

“As time goes by, we could start to see what drives him – it is his outlet. You could start to see the passion come about for playing.”

The proud dad told WKYC: “Absolutely paid off for him. Paid off for us as well, obviously with the scholarships.”