{"id":49147,"date":"2017-01-24T16:25:17","date_gmt":"2017-01-24T22:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=49147"},"modified":"2017-01-24T16:25:17","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T22:25:17","slug":"big-ten-network-enriches-students-with-launch-of-e-sports-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/big-ten-network-enriches-students-with-launch-of-e-sports-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Ten Network enriches students with launch of e-sports tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Yifan Wu<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">The next Northwestern Wildcat starring on Big Ten Network might not be Justin Jackson or Scottie Lindsey, but someone playing \u201cLeague of Legends,\u201d the most popular computer game in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Big Ten Network and Riot Games, the creator and developer of \u201cLeague of Legends,\u201d announced last week that 12 of 14 member schools will be competing in a season-long tournament. The partnership gave e-sports clubs in the conference many reasons to celebrate, including scholarships of $5,000 for each of the 72 players participating.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know there is a lot of interest in e-sports on campus on Big Ten schools,\u201d said Mark Silverman, president of Big Ten Network. \u201cAnd as the e-sports world evolves and grows, I think there is going to be more and more crossover with Big Ten sports.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The tournament gives e-sports clubs the legitimacy for which they have fought, said James Yoon, the president of Northwestern e-sports club. The Wildcats\u2019 student organization couldn\u2019t include Northwestern in its name \u2013 it was Evanston collegiate e-sports club &#8212; until last December.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI see a future for our organization, and our future partnership with the athletics department,\u201d Yoon said. \u201cWe will do more for the community together &#8230;The players on the team are excited that they get the opportunity to compete and to represent the school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Matches will be available on BTN2Go, the network\u2019s streaming and on-demand service, leading up to a televised championship game in March.<\/p>\n<p>Last April, the \u201cLeague of Legends\u201d teams from Ohio State and Michigan State had the first taste of fighting for school pride when BTN broadcast their exhibition match at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX East) in Boston.<\/p>\n<p>For players, competing on television means getting more exposure as e-sports athletes and recognition from their schools&#8217; athletic departments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was really happy,\u201d said Richard Flagg, a player for Ohio State. \u201cLast year, it was just a single show match, and it was right before finals week. I am glad it\u2019s progressing. I told my parents about the scholarship yesterday, and it will help them pay my tuition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael Sherman, the head of Riot\u2019s competitive collegiate program, said it all started when the Penn State e-sports club tried to organize a Big Ten tournament. However, Penn State&#8217;s school administration, \u00a0as well as Nebraska&#8217;s, told Riot it needed more time for evaluation and would not participate in this season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is my hope that Penn State will take this time to assess the strong e-sports culture here and come back strong next season,\u201d said Dylan Beal, president of Penn State e-sports club. \u201cPenn State was Big Ten champs in football, and we have the same drive to do the same in e-sports.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sherman and his colleagues worked closely with \u201cLeague of Legends\u201d clubs in the Big Ten, using the Ohio State-Michigan State exhibition as a test run.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter that we began to talk about partnership and to have the games on a bigger platform like BTN,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cBig Ten schools have the largest \u2018League of Legends\u2019 clubs in the U.S., and the teams are well-represented in the top 25 rankings. It makes sense from a competitive and viewership standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">\n<p>Photo at top: A Big Ten Network studio.(Yifan Wu\/Medill)<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Yifan Wu The next Northwestern Wildcat starring on Big Ten Network might not be Justin Jackson or Scottie Lindsey, but someone playing \u201cLeague of Legends,\u201d the most popular computer game in the world. Big Ten Network and Riot Games, the creator and developer of \u201cLeague of Legends,\u201d announced last week that 12 of 14 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":356,"featured_media":49174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,1,3516],"tags":[3603,3575,1286,137,805,724,3604],"class_list":["post-49147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-uncategorized","category-winter-2017","tag-big-ten-network","tag-e-sports","tag-league-of-legends","tag-northwestern","tag-ohio-state","tag-penn-state","tag-riot-games"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Big Ten Network enriches students with launch of e-sports tournament - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/big-ten-network-enriches-students-with-launch-of-e-sports-tournament\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big Ten Network enriches students with launch of e-sports tournament - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Yifan Wu The next Northwestern Wildcat starring on Big Ten Network might not be Justin Jackson or Scottie Lindsey, but someone playing \u201cLeague of Legends,\u201d the most popular computer game in the world. Big Ten Network and Riot Games, the creator and developer of \u201cLeague of Legends,\u201d announced last week that 12 of 14 [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/big-ten-network-enriches-students-with-launch-of-e-sports-tournament\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-24T22:25:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/01\/2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"863\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"yifanwu2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"yifanwu2017\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/big-ten-network-enriches-students-with-launch-of-e-sports-tournament\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/big-ten-network-enriches-students-with-launch-of-e-sports-tournament\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"yifanwu2017\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/51b58c67f510e499a04256c2d0f2ee1c\"},\"headline\":\"Big Ten Network enriches students with launch of e-sports tournament\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-24T22:25:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/big-ten-network-enriches-students-with-launch-of-e-sports-tournament\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":549,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/big-ten-network-enriches-students-with-launch-of-e-sports-tournament\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/s3.amazonaws.com\\\/medill.wordpress.offload\\\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Big Ten Network\",\"e-sports\",\"League of Legends\",\"northwestern\",\"ohio state\",\"Penn State\",\"Riot Games\"],\"articleSection\":{\"0\":\"Sports\",\"2\":\"Winter 2017\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/big-ten-network-enriches-students-with-launch-of-e-sports-tournament\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/big-ten-network-enriches-students-with-launch-of-e-sports-tournament\\\/\",\"name\":\"Big Ten Network enriches students with launch of e-sports tournament - 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