Esports has gathered a very large following these past few years. Thousands of people tune in to see professional players compete tournaments for popular video games like “Overwatch,” “League of Legends” and “Dota 2.”

Esports is such successful enterprise that some players get paid millions of dollars, and some colleges even give scholarships for the competitors. The success of esports raises the question: should Iona also take the video-game competitions seriously and make an esports team?

It would be a smart move for more colleges, such as Iona, to build an esports team since the medium has become just as big as professional basketball or baseball, as some esports tournaments have had more viewers than some of the recent NBA Finals or MLB World Series. Colleges, such as the University of California and University of Maryland, have esports teams and give out scholarships for people that play on their team. The fact that these schools put so much faith in esports that they give out money for their players, as they would with basketball or football players, is huge.

Having an esports team at Iona would give students that are not athletic enough to play a sport a chance to not only play on a team, but to compete in something they know they are good at and love. There have been talks of students here starting an esports team for “League of Legends,” which could be the beginning of something great. I hope that this leads to us having a team for just more than “League of Legends,” and that we can compete with other colleges that have eSports teams as well.

I believe that the addition of an esports team at Iona will also diversify the school, as there is one club now that has anything to do with video-gaming. Gaming is so big, and there are many competitive gamers here that would love to form a team here, that it would not make sense to pass up on an opportunity to create an esports team at Iona.

To contact the Ionian’s Chris Torres, email him at [email protected].