Colleges Embrace E-Sports, With Teams andScholarships
Loc Tran is a big man on campus at
San Jose State University in Northern
California.
"A lot of people stop me when I'm
walking," said Mr. Tran, a 19-year-old
sophomore, who speaks in quick and
confident bursts. "They congratulate
me."
But Mr. Tran is not a star on the
football team, or a leader in student
government. He is a top player on the
school's competitive video game team,
helping San Jose State claw its way to
victory in June over California State
University, Fullerton, in a tournament
watched online by nearly 90,000 people.
When the new school year started this
fall, classmates' heads swiveled toward
him when professors said his name
during roll call.
"I thought that was pretty cool," Mr.
Tran said.
Video game competitions, also known as
e-sports, have taken off on campuses
across the country, including Harvard
and Florida State University. More than
10,000 students now play in the biggest
college league, 4,400 more than last
year and 4,600 more than the number
of men who play on Division I college
basketball teams.
The stakes keep climbing, too: Winning a
big tournament can sometimes earn
players several years' worth of tuition
money. And in a possible sign of the
future, the athletic department of
Robert Morris University Illinois in
Chicago created an official video game
team this fall, offering the same sort
of scholarships given to athletes
playing soccer, football and ice hockey.
While the college e-sports craze
started as a grass-roots effort, game
makers have quickly swooped in,
propelling the sharp rise in interest. The
companies now underwrite scholarship
prizes, offer team banners and provide
organizational support, sensing a
possible breeding ground for a new
generation of superfans — people who
not only play games but also consider
them a spectator sport.
"Game developers are really waking up
to the publicity power of these
communities," said T. L. Taylor, an
associate professor of comparative
media studies at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, who has
studied e-sports.
Colleges, meanwhile, are often standing
at arm's length. While e-sports groups
are often sanctioned clubs, receiving
practice spaces from their schools, the
leagues and competitions have few of
the student regulations governing
traditional college sports, like grade-
point minimums or time limits on
practicing.
The rise in e-sports has been so
abrupt, many schools have not
determined what to make of it. Carter
Henderson, a spokesman for the
University of Washington's athletics
program, said no one from the
department was familiar enough with e-
sports to discuss the topic. The
National Collegiate Athletic Association,
which oversees college athletics, said it
had no comment about e-sports on
campus.
Game companies say it is too early to
predict how university administrations
will become involved in e-sports.
"This is just how basketball was in the
1940s," said Christopher Wyatt, senior
manager for North American publishing
at Riot Games. "A lot of the structure
and organization you see in more
formal athletics, that groundwork is still
being laid down here."
But it is unclear whether becoming a
more formal part of a school would
help or harm the growth of college e-
sports. The time commitment required
for serious competitive gaming could
lead to concerns about whether e-
sports leave enough time for academic
study. In addition, formal recognition
could diminish the autonomy that
companies and teams have on
campuses, bringing about rules like Title
IX, the gender equity law.
About the possibility of more official
recognition, Dr. Taylor said, "I don't
think collegiate e-sports players are
unified in any way that this is a good
thing."
For game developers, however, the lure
of being on campus is simple.
"We think that's where a lot of our
players are," said Michael Morhaime, the
chief executive and co-founder of
Blizzard Entertainment, which develops
and publishes entertainment software.
In September, Blizzard flew eight
finalists from the College of Staten
Island, University of Massachusetts-
Amherst and other schools to Seattle
to compete for $5,000 in scholarship
money in a tournament of Hearthstone,
a virtual card game from the company.
Last year, Azubu, a games media
company, sponsored a competition that
awarded $40,000 in prize money to six
students on a StarCraft II team from
University of California, Berkeley.
Last February, Riot Games hosted its
first North American Collegiate
Championship, something like the Final
Four for League of Legends, Riot's
popular online battle game. A team of
five students from the University of
Washington won in front of a roaring
audience at an e-sports studio that Riot
operates in Manhattan Beach, Calif., with
another 169,000 people watching online
at the tournament's peak.
The prize: $7,500 in scholarship money
for each team member.
Riot recently announced that first-place
winnings at the next championship, to
be held in the spring, will rise to
$30,000, enough to pay for about three
years of in-state tuition at the
University of Washington.
"A lot more people than I expected
came forward and said, 'I'd like to try
out for the team,' " said Jackson Brown,
the manager of the University of
Washington's team, the Purple Caster
Minions.
The growth of competitive gaming at
colleges mirrors the broader rise of e-
sports as entertainment. A thriving
international professional e-sports
circuit routinely draws tens of
thousands of spectators to stadiums
for competitions, with millions more
viewers online. Top prizes for some
events are now in the millions of
dollars. Twitch, a video streaming
service that made its name
broadcasting e-sport matches, was
acquired this year for close to $1 billion
by Amazon.
The college scene is largely organized
around the Collegiate StarLeague, which
started at Princeton in 2009 and is the
biggest college league. The organization
is now active at 450 schools, up from
260 last year, according to Duran Parsi,
the head of the league. Many of those
players also participate in matches
organized by another collegiate league,
IvyLoL. Large West Coast schools like
the University of Washington and
University of British Columbia tend to
dominate the competitions.
The money that game companies are
pouring into the college scene has
persuaded many students to become
much more serious about e-sports.
College scholarships from corporations,
including Coca-Cola, Ford and Google,
have been around for decades, usually
to encourage students to enter a
particular field, like engineering. The
money that game companies are giving
to students, in contrast, is meant to
deepen the companies' relationship with
a whole generation of players, one that
is inseparable from their products.
Today, most professional players skip
or delay college, because the college-
age years are considered the prime
period for players in the big leagues.
Playing at the professional level
requires far too much time for practice
and travel to tournaments to allow
them to also attend school.
Conan Liu, a student at Berkeley, took a
year off from school to play StarCraft
II professionally after his school team
won the Azubu championship. Mr. Liu
returned to school this fall to focus on
pre-med studies because he did not
perform as well as he had hoped in the
pros. While even bench warmers in the
National Basketball Association make
more than $500,000 a year, the same
is not true of professional gamers.
"You have to really be at the top, top
to make a nice living," Mr. Liu said.
Game companies and collegiate league
organizers predict that college e-sports
could become a pipeline for the growing
professional circuit. Game companies
say they are awarding scholarship
money at college tournaments, rather
than unrestricted cash prizes, to give
students an incentive to continue their
studies.
"We really want e-sports to become as
ingrained in the academic environment
as anything else — speech
competitions, football competitions,"
said Tyler Rosen, president of The e-
Sports Association, which helps
organize college events with the
financial support of Blizzard
Entertainment.
A test of what happens when schools
embrace e-sports started recently at
Robert Morris University Illinois. The
first 35 students to receive athletic
scholarships under the school's new e-
sports program began training this fall
in a room decked out with jet black
walls, mood lighting and leather gamer
chairs with red piping.
The students, all League of Legends
players, are getting up to 50 percent of
the price of tuition and room and
board, which runs about $39,000 a
year, according to Kurt Melcher, the
university's associate athletic director.
Mr. Melcher said he had received more
than half a dozen calls from athletic
directors at other universities who are
interested in incorporating e-sports
into their programs.
The idea came to Mr. Melcher, a gamer,
this year after he started reading
about the Collegiate StarLeague. A
conversation with his wife dispelled any
doubts he had about awarding athletic
scholarships to gamers.
Mr. Melcher said his wife asked, "Why
should it only be given to some kid who
can put a ball into a hole?"
On 12/8/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
> Prince William and Kate started their
> whirlwind tour of New York City on
> Monday, attracting crowds of well-wishers
> and heavy security.
> The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
> arrived Sunday for a three-day trip, their
> first to the Big Apple, which could include
> mingling with the American version of
> royals.
> Excited royal watchers gathered outside
> their hotel hours before their arrival,
> braving the nighttime winter chill. The
> Empire State Building also got in on the
> action, changing its world-famous lights to
> red, white and blue -- the colors of the
> Union Jack flag.
> Reporting from New York, CNN's royal
> correspondent Max Foster said the
> couple's visit was causing commotion in
> the city.
> Screams greeted the Duchess of
> Cambridge when she arrived at a children's
> craft group in Harlem, greeted by the first
> lady of New York City, Chirlane McCray,
> amid tight security.
> "They were very excited even to see the
> motorcade, and there is a real buzz
> around the city today," Foster said.
> "I think that association with Diana (Prince
> William's late mother), who used to come
> to New York a lot -- the biggest star in
> the world -- and Kate seems to be the
> closest replacement they have to Diana in
> this day and age."
> The Cambridges' flurry of activities
> includes a conservation reception with
> Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, and Prince
> William split for a while Monday for a trip
> to Washington, where he met with
> President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.
> William's visit underscored "the special
> relationship" between the United States and
> the United Kingdom, the White House said.
> After meeting with Obama, Prince William
> spoke at a session of the World Bank
> about the need for an international effort
> to stop illegal wildlife trading.
> "Cooperation is our greatest weapon
> against the poachers and traffickers who
> rely on evading individual national
> initiatives," he said. "Our collective goal
> must be to reduce the wildlife trade by
> making it harder: denying traffickers
> access to transportation, putting up
> barriers to their illegal activities and
> holding people accountable for their
> actions."
> William will later return to New York City,
> where the couple will attend an NBA game
> between the Brooklyn Nets and the
> Cleveland Cavaliers.
> During the evening game, the couple will
> get a chance to watch an American
> basketball royal in action, LeBron James,
> who is also called King James.
> At the game in Brooklyn, the couple are
> likely to rub shoulders with Beyonce --
> Queen Bey to her fans -- and her husband,
> Jay-Z. The celebrity couple used to be part
> owners of the Brooklyn basketball team.
> The couple's plans Tuesday include a
> moment of reflection at the 9/11
> memorial and a glittering charity dinner
> for their alma mater, St. Andrews
> University, at the Metropolitan Museum of
> Modern Art.
> Kate, who is pregnant with the couple's
> second child, has battled acute morning
> sickness in recent months, and has had to
> cancel some events.
> Their chubby-cheeked toddler, Prince
> George, did not accompany them on the
> trip.
> .
>
> On 12/7/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>> It has been a roller coastal these 65
>> days and finally it has come to an end
>> this final day December 7th and the
>> winner finally chose, Idris. we did make
>> our predictions known earlier and we
>> had indeed predicted that the lad, as
>> against our very own, Tayo, would
>> take home the prize and so he did.
>> Here is how the night panned out up
>> until this very glorious moment.
>> Butterphly and Ma'm Bea, first to
>> be evicted
>> The final show was definitely not
>> lacking in the pomp, glitz and glamour
>> the Big Brother show has come to be
>> known for. The show kicked off with
>> interesting performances from music
>> artists including "Eja Nla" D'banj who
>> had the audience asking for more of
>> his performance.
>> IK then went straight to the eviction of
>> as the representative of the auditing
>> firm brought the envelope containing
>> the names of the six housemates that
>> would first be evicted. IK asked all the
>> Hotshots to stand just as he called the
>> names of Butterfly and Ma'm Bea to
>> leave the house as they were the first
>> to be evicted.
>> JJ and Sipe are next evictees
>> A musical performance by Nzonzi
>> helped to douse the highly tensed
>> atmosphere. After the musical
>> interlude, IK welcomed Butterphly and
>> Ma'm Bea to the stage and asked them
>> how they feel. Butterphly said she felt
>> like crying for leaving at this stage
>> while Ma'm Bea said she learnt a lot
>> the last week. Butterphly said the
>> house brought out the real her even
>> as it took her long to adjust. Ma'm Bea
>> said she had a caring heart which she
>> picked up from her mother. IK
>> presented a medallion as gift from
>> Biggie to the duo, saying it will help
>> serve as a reminder they made it to
>> the finals.
>> IK moved on next to the housemates
>> for the next set of evictions. He
>> announced the names of JJ and Sipe as
>> the next evictees from the Big Brother
>> house.
>> The Moment The Winner Was
>> Picked-
>> The final moment was upon us. Tayo
>> and Idris were brought through via a
>> limosine and went on stage with IK,
>> waiting to hear which one of them
>> would be crowned this season's winner,
>> Africa's Big Brother Hotshot. They
>> made a great entrance to the live
>> stage. Idris was speechless, Tayo
>> watched his final video of his 63 days
>> in the house as he shuffled around
>> nervously.
>> Idris clearly enjoyed his video and
>> watched himself intently. IK talked to
>> Tayo and he said that things changed
>> for him in the house. They discussed
>> their fight but it was water under the
>> bridge. He talked about having fun in
>> the house in the last week, IK asked
>> Tayo if the pressure got to him, Tayo
>> said that he chilled for the past week
>> as he felt he had done everything he
>> had done already. Tayo then mentioned
>> that if he won, he would give a "grand
>> prize" to the woman who "walked into
>> his house". Idris said that he will "give
>> the money back to Africa".
>> IK stood on stage with the final
>> envelope that revealed the winner. "The
>> winner of Big Brother Hotshots is…" IK
>> left them hanging, the drone kept
>> droning on, IK extended their agony,
>> and then said. "That person is Idris."
>> Idris is the winner! Africa has chosen
>> as Idris charmed not only the women
>> of the house, he charmed the entire
>> continent of Africa. The Tanzanian is
>> now USD300,000 richer. Tayo played
>> an amazing game but Idris is the
>> ultimate winner and there is much
>> celebration.
>> Congratulations to Idris, the ultimate
>> Big Brother Hotshot.
>> How Africa Voted
>> According to the final votes of this
>> season, the housemate with the most
>> number of country votes is Idrs.
>> Idris received five country votes and
>> these were from Kenya, Namibia,
>> Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
>> The runner-up, Tayo received two
>> country votes and these were from
>> Nigeria and Mozambique. The rest of
>> the finalists received country votes as
>> follows:
>> Macky2 got two country votes from
>> Zambia and Rest of Africa, Nhlanhla
>> also got two country votes from
>> South Africa and Botswana, JJ got one
>> country vote from Zimbabwe, Sipe also
>> got one country vote from Malawi and
>> Butterphly received 0 country votes.
>> For the housemates who received the
>> same number of country votes, the tie
>> breaker rule came into effect for
>> those housemates.
>> According to the Big Brother Africa
>> rules: If the Popularity vote does not
>> yield clear evictees and there is a
>> deadlock between two or more
>> housemates, the percentage vote from
>> each of the 15 regions is added
>> together and divided by 14 in order to
>> generate an across the board
>> percentage, which is then used to
>> ascertain who stays and who goes.
>
>
>> On 12/7/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> The PlayStation gaming console wrapped
>>> up its second decade on Wednesday, and
>>> Sony celebrated by looking to the past.
>>> The Japanese tech giant announced that a
>>> limited edition 20th Anniversary
>>> PlayStation 4 will be released soon. The
>>> console will be gray, like the first
>>> PlayStation released December 3, 1994 in
>>> Japan. It will include other imagery like the
>>> iconic four-color PlayStation logo that
>>> harks back to the system's history.
>>> "The mid-'90s were an exciting time for
>>> game developers, driven by the explosion
>>> of powerful but affordable 3-D graphics
>>> rendering hardware and the birth of many
>>> young and adventurous development
>>> studios," Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony
>>> Computer Entertainment Worldwide
>>> Studios, wrote in the post on the
>>> PlayStation blog. "The original PlayStation
>>> was meant to embody that sense of
>>> adventure and discovery, that sense that
>>> anything was possible."
>>> The PlayStation sold a then unheard-of
>>> 100,000 units in its first weekend and hit 1
>>> million units in six months, according to
>>> Sony.
>>> Only 12,300 units of the 20th Anniversary
>>> PS4 will be released, according to a video
>>> on the blog post. Pre-orders will begin
>>> Saturday, and details about how to vie for
>>> one of the handful of slots will come
>>> during a keynote presentation from
>>> PlayStation Experience, a fan and
>>> developer expo being held in Las Vegas.
>>> The keynote will be Saturday at 1 pm ET.
>>> To celebrate the 20th anniversary, we
>>> assembled a gallery of images of the
>>> PlayStation, and the people who love it,
>>> from the past two decades.
>
>>> On 12/7/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Bond is back and we're pleased to have
>>>> all of the details of the new movie.
>>>> Director Sam Mendes revealed the
>>>> name and cast of the new movie,
>>>> Spectre, during a live event held at
>>>> London's Pinewood Studios.
>>>> The movie is set to be released on 6th
>>>> November 2015. Avid fans will know
>>>> Spectre stands for: Special Executive
>>>> for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism,
>>>> Revenge and Extortion,
>
>
>>>> On 12/7/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Gangnam Style hit music video by
>>>>> South Korean singer, PSY, has exceeded
>>>>> YouTube's view limit, prompting
>>>>> YouTube to upgrade its counter.
>>>>> The video which was released in 2012,
>>>>> was announced to be its most watched
>>>>> ever and has been viewed more than
>>>>> 2,147,483,647 times. YouTube has now
>>>>> changed the maximum view limit to
>>>>> 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, or more
>>>>> than nine quintillion.
>>>>> On December 1, YouTube posted a
>>>>> statement saying: "We never thought a
>>>>> video would be watched in numbers
>>>>> greater than a 32-bit integer… but
>>>>> that was before we met Psy."
>>>>> Meanwhile, how do you say
>>>>> 9,223,372,036,854,775,808? That's
>>>>> over a quadrillion, over a trillion, and
>>>>> over a billion.
>
>
>>>>> On 12/4/14, Joseph Ogunlowo <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> Kim K has been named the "Most Searched
>>>>>> Person of 2014″, beating last year's winner,
>>>>>> Beyonce. 2014 was definitely the year of the 34
>>>>>> year old reality star with buzz-worthy events like
>>>>>> her wedding to Kanye, her Vogue cover and
>>>>>> most recently her 'break the internet' naked pics
>>>>>> for Paper magazine.
>>>>>> Beyonce comes second, while Miley Cyrus and
>>>>>> Katy Perry come 3rd and 4th respectively. See
>>>>>> the top ten most searched personalities of 2014
>>>>>> after the cut...
>>>>>> 1. Kim Kardashian
>>>>>> 2. Beyonce Knowles
>>>>>> 3. Miley Cyrus
>>>>>> 4. Katy Perry
>>>>>> 5. Justin Bieber
>>>>>> 6. Joan Rivers
>>>>>> 7. Jennifer Lopez
>>>>>> 8. Kendall Jenner
>>>>>> 9. Kaley Cuoco
>>>>>> 10. Robin Williams
>
>
>>>>>> On 12/3/14, Joseph Ogunlowo <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> At the Pioneers Festival in Vienna, a
>>>>>>> Slovakian startup called AeroMobil unveiled
>>>>>>> the thing that we have all been dreaming
>>>>>>> about since we saw that first episode of the
>>>>>>> Jetsons while still wearing diapers: The first
>>>>>>> flying car. It's here. It's real. And it's
>>>>>>> spectacular.
>>>>>>> According to Venturebeat, the company
>>>>>>> took the wraps off AeroMobil 3.0, the latest
>>>>>>> iteration of its flying car that has been in
>>>>>>> development for almost 25 years.
>>>>>>> "We believe personal transportation is about
>>>>>>> to change forever," said AeroMobil chief
>>>>>>> executive Juraj Vaculik at a press
>>>>>>> conference. "We think it's time to make
>>>>>>> transportation more emotional and more
>>>>>>> personal."
>>>>>>> The car was designed by Stefan Klein,
>>>>>>> founder and head of the Department of
>>>>>>> Transport Design at the Academy of Fine
>>>>>>> Arts in Slovakia. Klein had been tinkering
>>>>>>> with the concept as far back as 1989.
>>>>>>> Image
>>>>>>> The car needs very little runway to take off,
>>>>>>> and it can be refueled at any standard gas
>>>>>>> station when the wings are retracted.
>>>>>>> AeroMobil believes it will be attractive for
>>>>>>> countries that don't have billions of dollars
>>>>>>> to spend building a modern transportation
>>>>>>> infrastructure.
>>>>>>> The body is built from advanced composite
>>>>>>> materials that keep it lightweight but also
>>>>>>> durable. Under the hood, it has autopilot
>>>>>>> and an advanced parachute deployment
>>>>>>> system. The cockpit can carry two people,
>>>>>>> and in the air the flying car can reach top
>>>>>>> speeds of 200 km/h. It has a 27-foot
>>>>>>> wingspan and is 19.7 feet long.
>>>>>>> No word on the price tag.
>
>>>>>>> On 12/3/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>> According to reports Angelina Jolie's black
>>>>>>>> SUV car slipped on a wet road, slid into the
>>>>>>>> curb with extreme force, popping two tires,
>>>>>>>> almost causing the driver to lose control of
>>>>>>>> the vehicle.
>>>>>>>> The actress was heading home in a
>>>>>>>> chauffeured black SUV from Writers' Guild
>>>>>>>> Theater, when the car hit the curb.
>>>>>>>> According to an eyewitness (who spoke ti
>>>>>>>> X17 Online): "The car slammed into the
>>>>>>>> curb at a significant speed. Angelina must
>>>>>>>> have wondered if they hit another car. It
>>>>>>>> was pretty bad -- the tire exploded and it's
>>>>>>>> amazing nothing worse happened to the
>>>>>>>> car. I wouldn't be surprised if she has
>>>>>>>> whiplash."
>>>>>>>> Angelina reportedly stayed in the car after
>>>>>>>> the incident and was later picked up, not
>>>>>>>> by Brad pitt, but by another driver from the
>>>>>>>> same car service.
>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
>>>>>>>> 12/03/2014 10:47:00 am
>
>
>
>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
>>>>> 12/07/2014 01:50:00 am
>
>
>>>> --
>>>> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
>>>> 12/07/2014 03:24:00 am
>
>
>>> --
>>> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
>>> 12/07/2014 06:03:00 am
>
>
>> --
>> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
>> 12/07/2014 01:52:00 pm
>
>
> --
> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
> 12/08/2014 01:35:00 pm
>
San Jose State University in Northern
California.
"A lot of people stop me when I'm
walking," said Mr. Tran, a 19-year-old
sophomore, who speaks in quick and
confident bursts. "They congratulate
me."
But Mr. Tran is not a star on the
football team, or a leader in student
government. He is a top player on the
school's competitive video game team,
helping San Jose State claw its way to
victory in June over California State
University, Fullerton, in a tournament
watched online by nearly 90,000 people.
When the new school year started this
fall, classmates' heads swiveled toward
him when professors said his name
during roll call.
"I thought that was pretty cool," Mr.
Tran said.
Video game competitions, also known as
e-sports, have taken off on campuses
across the country, including Harvard
and Florida State University. More than
10,000 students now play in the biggest
college league, 4,400 more than last
year and 4,600 more than the number
of men who play on Division I college
basketball teams.
The stakes keep climbing, too: Winning a
big tournament can sometimes earn
players several years' worth of tuition
money. And in a possible sign of the
future, the athletic department of
Robert Morris University Illinois in
Chicago created an official video game
team this fall, offering the same sort
of scholarships given to athletes
playing soccer, football and ice hockey.
While the college e-sports craze
started as a grass-roots effort, game
makers have quickly swooped in,
propelling the sharp rise in interest. The
companies now underwrite scholarship
prizes, offer team banners and provide
organizational support, sensing a
possible breeding ground for a new
generation of superfans — people who
not only play games but also consider
them a spectator sport.
"Game developers are really waking up
to the publicity power of these
communities," said T. L. Taylor, an
associate professor of comparative
media studies at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, who has
studied e-sports.
Colleges, meanwhile, are often standing
at arm's length. While e-sports groups
are often sanctioned clubs, receiving
practice spaces from their schools, the
leagues and competitions have few of
the student regulations governing
traditional college sports, like grade-
point minimums or time limits on
practicing.
The rise in e-sports has been so
abrupt, many schools have not
determined what to make of it. Carter
Henderson, a spokesman for the
University of Washington's athletics
program, said no one from the
department was familiar enough with e-
sports to discuss the topic. The
National Collegiate Athletic Association,
which oversees college athletics, said it
had no comment about e-sports on
campus.
Game companies say it is too early to
predict how university administrations
will become involved in e-sports.
"This is just how basketball was in the
1940s," said Christopher Wyatt, senior
manager for North American publishing
at Riot Games. "A lot of the structure
and organization you see in more
formal athletics, that groundwork is still
being laid down here."
But it is unclear whether becoming a
more formal part of a school would
help or harm the growth of college e-
sports. The time commitment required
for serious competitive gaming could
lead to concerns about whether e-
sports leave enough time for academic
study. In addition, formal recognition
could diminish the autonomy that
companies and teams have on
campuses, bringing about rules like Title
IX, the gender equity law.
About the possibility of more official
recognition, Dr. Taylor said, "I don't
think collegiate e-sports players are
unified in any way that this is a good
thing."
For game developers, however, the lure
of being on campus is simple.
"We think that's where a lot of our
players are," said Michael Morhaime, the
chief executive and co-founder of
Blizzard Entertainment, which develops
and publishes entertainment software.
In September, Blizzard flew eight
finalists from the College of Staten
Island, University of Massachusetts-
Amherst and other schools to Seattle
to compete for $5,000 in scholarship
money in a tournament of Hearthstone,
a virtual card game from the company.
Last year, Azubu, a games media
company, sponsored a competition that
awarded $40,000 in prize money to six
students on a StarCraft II team from
University of California, Berkeley.
Last February, Riot Games hosted its
first North American Collegiate
Championship, something like the Final
Four for League of Legends, Riot's
popular online battle game. A team of
five students from the University of
Washington won in front of a roaring
audience at an e-sports studio that Riot
operates in Manhattan Beach, Calif., with
another 169,000 people watching online
at the tournament's peak.
The prize: $7,500 in scholarship money
for each team member.
Riot recently announced that first-place
winnings at the next championship, to
be held in the spring, will rise to
$30,000, enough to pay for about three
years of in-state tuition at the
University of Washington.
"A lot more people than I expected
came forward and said, 'I'd like to try
out for the team,' " said Jackson Brown,
the manager of the University of
Washington's team, the Purple Caster
Minions.
The growth of competitive gaming at
colleges mirrors the broader rise of e-
sports as entertainment. A thriving
international professional e-sports
circuit routinely draws tens of
thousands of spectators to stadiums
for competitions, with millions more
viewers online. Top prizes for some
events are now in the millions of
dollars. Twitch, a video streaming
service that made its name
broadcasting e-sport matches, was
acquired this year for close to $1 billion
by Amazon.
The college scene is largely organized
around the Collegiate StarLeague, which
started at Princeton in 2009 and is the
biggest college league. The organization
is now active at 450 schools, up from
260 last year, according to Duran Parsi,
the head of the league. Many of those
players also participate in matches
organized by another collegiate league,
IvyLoL. Large West Coast schools like
the University of Washington and
University of British Columbia tend to
dominate the competitions.
The money that game companies are
pouring into the college scene has
persuaded many students to become
much more serious about e-sports.
College scholarships from corporations,
including Coca-Cola, Ford and Google,
have been around for decades, usually
to encourage students to enter a
particular field, like engineering. The
money that game companies are giving
to students, in contrast, is meant to
deepen the companies' relationship with
a whole generation of players, one that
is inseparable from their products.
Today, most professional players skip
or delay college, because the college-
age years are considered the prime
period for players in the big leagues.
Playing at the professional level
requires far too much time for practice
and travel to tournaments to allow
them to also attend school.
Conan Liu, a student at Berkeley, took a
year off from school to play StarCraft
II professionally after his school team
won the Azubu championship. Mr. Liu
returned to school this fall to focus on
pre-med studies because he did not
perform as well as he had hoped in the
pros. While even bench warmers in the
National Basketball Association make
more than $500,000 a year, the same
is not true of professional gamers.
"You have to really be at the top, top
to make a nice living," Mr. Liu said.
Game companies and collegiate league
organizers predict that college e-sports
could become a pipeline for the growing
professional circuit. Game companies
say they are awarding scholarship
money at college tournaments, rather
than unrestricted cash prizes, to give
students an incentive to continue their
studies.
"We really want e-sports to become as
ingrained in the academic environment
as anything else — speech
competitions, football competitions,"
said Tyler Rosen, president of The e-
Sports Association, which helps
organize college events with the
financial support of Blizzard
Entertainment.
A test of what happens when schools
embrace e-sports started recently at
Robert Morris University Illinois. The
first 35 students to receive athletic
scholarships under the school's new e-
sports program began training this fall
in a room decked out with jet black
walls, mood lighting and leather gamer
chairs with red piping.
The students, all League of Legends
players, are getting up to 50 percent of
the price of tuition and room and
board, which runs about $39,000 a
year, according to Kurt Melcher, the
university's associate athletic director.
Mr. Melcher said he had received more
than half a dozen calls from athletic
directors at other universities who are
interested in incorporating e-sports
into their programs.
The idea came to Mr. Melcher, a gamer,
this year after he started reading
about the Collegiate StarLeague. A
conversation with his wife dispelled any
doubts he had about awarding athletic
scholarships to gamers.
Mr. Melcher said his wife asked, "Why
should it only be given to some kid who
can put a ball into a hole?"
On 12/8/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
> Prince William and Kate started their
> whirlwind tour of New York City on
> Monday, attracting crowds of well-wishers
> and heavy security.
> The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
> arrived Sunday for a three-day trip, their
> first to the Big Apple, which could include
> mingling with the American version of
> royals.
> Excited royal watchers gathered outside
> their hotel hours before their arrival,
> braving the nighttime winter chill. The
> Empire State Building also got in on the
> action, changing its world-famous lights to
> red, white and blue -- the colors of the
> Union Jack flag.
> Reporting from New York, CNN's royal
> correspondent Max Foster said the
> couple's visit was causing commotion in
> the city.
> Screams greeted the Duchess of
> Cambridge when she arrived at a children's
> craft group in Harlem, greeted by the first
> lady of New York City, Chirlane McCray,
> amid tight security.
> "They were very excited even to see the
> motorcade, and there is a real buzz
> around the city today," Foster said.
> "I think that association with Diana (Prince
> William's late mother), who used to come
> to New York a lot -- the biggest star in
> the world -- and Kate seems to be the
> closest replacement they have to Diana in
> this day and age."
> The Cambridges' flurry of activities
> includes a conservation reception with
> Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, and Prince
> William split for a while Monday for a trip
> to Washington, where he met with
> President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.
> William's visit underscored "the special
> relationship" between the United States and
> the United Kingdom, the White House said.
> After meeting with Obama, Prince William
> spoke at a session of the World Bank
> about the need for an international effort
> to stop illegal wildlife trading.
> "Cooperation is our greatest weapon
> against the poachers and traffickers who
> rely on evading individual national
> initiatives," he said. "Our collective goal
> must be to reduce the wildlife trade by
> making it harder: denying traffickers
> access to transportation, putting up
> barriers to their illegal activities and
> holding people accountable for their
> actions."
> William will later return to New York City,
> where the couple will attend an NBA game
> between the Brooklyn Nets and the
> Cleveland Cavaliers.
> During the evening game, the couple will
> get a chance to watch an American
> basketball royal in action, LeBron James,
> who is also called King James.
> At the game in Brooklyn, the couple are
> likely to rub shoulders with Beyonce --
> Queen Bey to her fans -- and her husband,
> Jay-Z. The celebrity couple used to be part
> owners of the Brooklyn basketball team.
> The couple's plans Tuesday include a
> moment of reflection at the 9/11
> memorial and a glittering charity dinner
> for their alma mater, St. Andrews
> University, at the Metropolitan Museum of
> Modern Art.
> Kate, who is pregnant with the couple's
> second child, has battled acute morning
> sickness in recent months, and has had to
> cancel some events.
> Their chubby-cheeked toddler, Prince
> George, did not accompany them on the
> trip.
> .
>
> On 12/7/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>> It has been a roller coastal these 65
>> days and finally it has come to an end
>> this final day December 7th and the
>> winner finally chose, Idris. we did make
>> our predictions known earlier and we
>> had indeed predicted that the lad, as
>> against our very own, Tayo, would
>> take home the prize and so he did.
>> Here is how the night panned out up
>> until this very glorious moment.
>> Butterphly and Ma'm Bea, first to
>> be evicted
>> The final show was definitely not
>> lacking in the pomp, glitz and glamour
>> the Big Brother show has come to be
>> known for. The show kicked off with
>> interesting performances from music
>> artists including "Eja Nla" D'banj who
>> had the audience asking for more of
>> his performance.
>> IK then went straight to the eviction of
>> as the representative of the auditing
>> firm brought the envelope containing
>> the names of the six housemates that
>> would first be evicted. IK asked all the
>> Hotshots to stand just as he called the
>> names of Butterfly and Ma'm Bea to
>> leave the house as they were the first
>> to be evicted.
>> JJ and Sipe are next evictees
>> A musical performance by Nzonzi
>> helped to douse the highly tensed
>> atmosphere. After the musical
>> interlude, IK welcomed Butterphly and
>> Ma'm Bea to the stage and asked them
>> how they feel. Butterphly said she felt
>> like crying for leaving at this stage
>> while Ma'm Bea said she learnt a lot
>> the last week. Butterphly said the
>> house brought out the real her even
>> as it took her long to adjust. Ma'm Bea
>> said she had a caring heart which she
>> picked up from her mother. IK
>> presented a medallion as gift from
>> Biggie to the duo, saying it will help
>> serve as a reminder they made it to
>> the finals.
>> IK moved on next to the housemates
>> for the next set of evictions. He
>> announced the names of JJ and Sipe as
>> the next evictees from the Big Brother
>> house.
>> The Moment The Winner Was
>> Picked-
>> The final moment was upon us. Tayo
>> and Idris were brought through via a
>> limosine and went on stage with IK,
>> waiting to hear which one of them
>> would be crowned this season's winner,
>> Africa's Big Brother Hotshot. They
>> made a great entrance to the live
>> stage. Idris was speechless, Tayo
>> watched his final video of his 63 days
>> in the house as he shuffled around
>> nervously.
>> Idris clearly enjoyed his video and
>> watched himself intently. IK talked to
>> Tayo and he said that things changed
>> for him in the house. They discussed
>> their fight but it was water under the
>> bridge. He talked about having fun in
>> the house in the last week, IK asked
>> Tayo if the pressure got to him, Tayo
>> said that he chilled for the past week
>> as he felt he had done everything he
>> had done already. Tayo then mentioned
>> that if he won, he would give a "grand
>> prize" to the woman who "walked into
>> his house". Idris said that he will "give
>> the money back to Africa".
>> IK stood on stage with the final
>> envelope that revealed the winner. "The
>> winner of Big Brother Hotshots is…" IK
>> left them hanging, the drone kept
>> droning on, IK extended their agony,
>> and then said. "That person is Idris."
>> Idris is the winner! Africa has chosen
>> as Idris charmed not only the women
>> of the house, he charmed the entire
>> continent of Africa. The Tanzanian is
>> now USD300,000 richer. Tayo played
>> an amazing game but Idris is the
>> ultimate winner and there is much
>> celebration.
>> Congratulations to Idris, the ultimate
>> Big Brother Hotshot.
>> How Africa Voted
>> According to the final votes of this
>> season, the housemate with the most
>> number of country votes is Idrs.
>> Idris received five country votes and
>> these were from Kenya, Namibia,
>> Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
>> The runner-up, Tayo received two
>> country votes and these were from
>> Nigeria and Mozambique. The rest of
>> the finalists received country votes as
>> follows:
>> Macky2 got two country votes from
>> Zambia and Rest of Africa, Nhlanhla
>> also got two country votes from
>> South Africa and Botswana, JJ got one
>> country vote from Zimbabwe, Sipe also
>> got one country vote from Malawi and
>> Butterphly received 0 country votes.
>> For the housemates who received the
>> same number of country votes, the tie
>> breaker rule came into effect for
>> those housemates.
>> According to the Big Brother Africa
>> rules: If the Popularity vote does not
>> yield clear evictees and there is a
>> deadlock between two or more
>> housemates, the percentage vote from
>> each of the 15 regions is added
>> together and divided by 14 in order to
>> generate an across the board
>> percentage, which is then used to
>> ascertain who stays and who goes.
>
>
>> On 12/7/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> The PlayStation gaming console wrapped
>>> up its second decade on Wednesday, and
>>> Sony celebrated by looking to the past.
>>> The Japanese tech giant announced that a
>>> limited edition 20th Anniversary
>>> PlayStation 4 will be released soon. The
>>> console will be gray, like the first
>>> PlayStation released December 3, 1994 in
>>> Japan. It will include other imagery like the
>>> iconic four-color PlayStation logo that
>>> harks back to the system's history.
>>> "The mid-'90s were an exciting time for
>>> game developers, driven by the explosion
>>> of powerful but affordable 3-D graphics
>>> rendering hardware and the birth of many
>>> young and adventurous development
>>> studios," Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony
>>> Computer Entertainment Worldwide
>>> Studios, wrote in the post on the
>>> PlayStation blog. "The original PlayStation
>>> was meant to embody that sense of
>>> adventure and discovery, that sense that
>>> anything was possible."
>>> The PlayStation sold a then unheard-of
>>> 100,000 units in its first weekend and hit 1
>>> million units in six months, according to
>>> Sony.
>>> Only 12,300 units of the 20th Anniversary
>>> PS4 will be released, according to a video
>>> on the blog post. Pre-orders will begin
>>> Saturday, and details about how to vie for
>>> one of the handful of slots will come
>>> during a keynote presentation from
>>> PlayStation Experience, a fan and
>>> developer expo being held in Las Vegas.
>>> The keynote will be Saturday at 1 pm ET.
>>> To celebrate the 20th anniversary, we
>>> assembled a gallery of images of the
>>> PlayStation, and the people who love it,
>>> from the past two decades.
>
>>> On 12/7/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Bond is back and we're pleased to have
>>>> all of the details of the new movie.
>>>> Director Sam Mendes revealed the
>>>> name and cast of the new movie,
>>>> Spectre, during a live event held at
>>>> London's Pinewood Studios.
>>>> The movie is set to be released on 6th
>>>> November 2015. Avid fans will know
>>>> Spectre stands for: Special Executive
>>>> for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism,
>>>> Revenge and Extortion,
>
>
>>>> On 12/7/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Gangnam Style hit music video by
>>>>> South Korean singer, PSY, has exceeded
>>>>> YouTube's view limit, prompting
>>>>> YouTube to upgrade its counter.
>>>>> The video which was released in 2012,
>>>>> was announced to be its most watched
>>>>> ever and has been viewed more than
>>>>> 2,147,483,647 times. YouTube has now
>>>>> changed the maximum view limit to
>>>>> 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, or more
>>>>> than nine quintillion.
>>>>> On December 1, YouTube posted a
>>>>> statement saying: "We never thought a
>>>>> video would be watched in numbers
>>>>> greater than a 32-bit integer… but
>>>>> that was before we met Psy."
>>>>> Meanwhile, how do you say
>>>>> 9,223,372,036,854,775,808? That's
>>>>> over a quadrillion, over a trillion, and
>>>>> over a billion.
>
>
>>>>> On 12/4/14, Joseph Ogunlowo <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> Kim K has been named the "Most Searched
>>>>>> Person of 2014″, beating last year's winner,
>>>>>> Beyonce. 2014 was definitely the year of the 34
>>>>>> year old reality star with buzz-worthy events like
>>>>>> her wedding to Kanye, her Vogue cover and
>>>>>> most recently her 'break the internet' naked pics
>>>>>> for Paper magazine.
>>>>>> Beyonce comes second, while Miley Cyrus and
>>>>>> Katy Perry come 3rd and 4th respectively. See
>>>>>> the top ten most searched personalities of 2014
>>>>>> after the cut...
>>>>>> 1. Kim Kardashian
>>>>>> 2. Beyonce Knowles
>>>>>> 3. Miley Cyrus
>>>>>> 4. Katy Perry
>>>>>> 5. Justin Bieber
>>>>>> 6. Joan Rivers
>>>>>> 7. Jennifer Lopez
>>>>>> 8. Kendall Jenner
>>>>>> 9. Kaley Cuoco
>>>>>> 10. Robin Williams
>
>
>>>>>> On 12/3/14, Joseph Ogunlowo <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> At the Pioneers Festival in Vienna, a
>>>>>>> Slovakian startup called AeroMobil unveiled
>>>>>>> the thing that we have all been dreaming
>>>>>>> about since we saw that first episode of the
>>>>>>> Jetsons while still wearing diapers: The first
>>>>>>> flying car. It's here. It's real. And it's
>>>>>>> spectacular.
>>>>>>> According to Venturebeat, the company
>>>>>>> took the wraps off AeroMobil 3.0, the latest
>>>>>>> iteration of its flying car that has been in
>>>>>>> development for almost 25 years.
>>>>>>> "We believe personal transportation is about
>>>>>>> to change forever," said AeroMobil chief
>>>>>>> executive Juraj Vaculik at a press
>>>>>>> conference. "We think it's time to make
>>>>>>> transportation more emotional and more
>>>>>>> personal."
>>>>>>> The car was designed by Stefan Klein,
>>>>>>> founder and head of the Department of
>>>>>>> Transport Design at the Academy of Fine
>>>>>>> Arts in Slovakia. Klein had been tinkering
>>>>>>> with the concept as far back as 1989.
>>>>>>> Image
>>>>>>> The car needs very little runway to take off,
>>>>>>> and it can be refueled at any standard gas
>>>>>>> station when the wings are retracted.
>>>>>>> AeroMobil believes it will be attractive for
>>>>>>> countries that don't have billions of dollars
>>>>>>> to spend building a modern transportation
>>>>>>> infrastructure.
>>>>>>> The body is built from advanced composite
>>>>>>> materials that keep it lightweight but also
>>>>>>> durable. Under the hood, it has autopilot
>>>>>>> and an advanced parachute deployment
>>>>>>> system. The cockpit can carry two people,
>>>>>>> and in the air the flying car can reach top
>>>>>>> speeds of 200 km/h. It has a 27-foot
>>>>>>> wingspan and is 19.7 feet long.
>>>>>>> No word on the price tag.
>
>>>>>>> On 12/3/14, ogunlowo joseph <ogunlowojoseph@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>> According to reports Angelina Jolie's black
>>>>>>>> SUV car slipped on a wet road, slid into the
>>>>>>>> curb with extreme force, popping two tires,
>>>>>>>> almost causing the driver to lose control of
>>>>>>>> the vehicle.
>>>>>>>> The actress was heading home in a
>>>>>>>> chauffeured black SUV from Writers' Guild
>>>>>>>> Theater, when the car hit the curb.
>>>>>>>> According to an eyewitness (who spoke ti
>>>>>>>> X17 Online): "The car slammed into the
>>>>>>>> curb at a significant speed. Angelina must
>>>>>>>> have wondered if they hit another car. It
>>>>>>>> was pretty bad -- the tire exploded and it's
>>>>>>>> amazing nothing worse happened to the
>>>>>>>> car. I wouldn't be surprised if she has
>>>>>>>> whiplash."
>>>>>>>> Angelina reportedly stayed in the car after
>>>>>>>> the incident and was later picked up, not
>>>>>>>> by Brad pitt, but by another driver from the
>>>>>>>> same car service.
>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
>>>>>>>> 12/03/2014 10:47:00 am
>
>
>
>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
>>>>> 12/07/2014 01:50:00 am
>
>
>>>> --
>>>> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
>>>> 12/07/2014 03:24:00 am
>
>
>>> --
>>> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
>>> 12/07/2014 06:03:00 am
>
>
>> --
>> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
>> 12/07/2014 01:52:00 pm
>
>
> --
> Posted By ogunlowo joseph to entertainment,investing,education on
> 12/08/2014 01:35:00 pm
>
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