UC Irvine announces League of Legends scholarship as the first public university

It’s not something new for Universities to offer scholarships. By the start of 2016, six different private schools had developed scholarships based on the game, and hundreds more have student-run clubs dedicated to it. But today marks a huge milestone for League as an esport and for developer Riot Games.

The University of California, Irvine announced today that it will become the first public university to launch a League of Legends esports scholarship program beginning in fall of 2016. Riot Games will be supporting the move by funding a new PC cafe on campus for all students to use. This cafe will be built in the model of Korean PC cafes and will offer a “premium League of Legends experience,” though other games will be available as well.

“We think esports is growing quickly, We expect other schools to follow our lead. UCI is excited to be a leader. We don’t think we’re going to be the last school to do this. We think we’re going to be one of the schools that really encourages particularly public schools and shows them that this is really a viable thing. There’s lots of interest in this, and it can improve your school and improve interest in your school.”

The scholarship will be offered to 10 students for up to four years at UC Irvine. As students with the scholarship graduate or leave the college, the school will offer the scholarship to new students in their place with more in the future. UCI won’t be the last school to adapt such scholarship of course, as Riot also offered their help to any University wanting to follow the trend of Esports scholarships.