Videogame Network Twitch Gives Scholarships To Competitive Gamers

By Wyatt September 6, 2012 12:30 pm Posted in culture, Lifestyle, Travel & Money, Video Games Wyatt g+ page

Whether or not you agree with competitive gaming’s legitimacy as a sport, one would be hard-pressed to deny that it’s is a growing industry. It’s gotten to the point where you can even watch these competitions from your own computer. As the leading video game broadcasting network, Twitch decided that it would try to help a lot of those students who work hard in both the classroom and in the virtual world by awarding five students scholarships of $10,000. They partnered with Alienware (famous for their ridiculously overpowered computers) and SteelSeries (high-end computer peripherals) to help make it happen. [lead image via Shutterstock]

So what exactly factored into who made the cut? Obviously gaming achievements was a prime deciding factor but academics were also included. So what exactly does this mean for the future of competitive gaming? Good things. I can’t exactly see schools starting to give out scholarships to join their clan, but it does mean that certain non-athletic types can still score various scholarships. To see the list of winners, check out the list below.

Kelli Dunlap: American School of Professional Psychology in Washington, D.C., PhD candidate

Halo expert and graduate student conducting doctoral dissertation research on the interplay between video games, personality and mental health.

Kevin Carlino: Arizona State University, Computer Science

Fifteen year Diablo veteran and host of Diablo Daily for Team Evil Geniuses

John Stockwell: Pennsylvania State University, Computer Science

Competitive Team Fortress 2 player and aspiring game developer

Antonio Revard: Michigan State University, Media Arts & Technology (Video Games Design & Development)

Former professional Counter-Strike player and popular Twitch broadcaster

Joey Yurgelon: University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Mechanical Engineering

Starcraft and League of Legends fanatic.