Six Titles, Ten Scouts…
The world is a lot different than it was at the turn of the century. Long gone are the days of parents claiming that their children were wasting their lives away playing video games. When prompted to imagine an elite gamer, no longer does the world collectively picture a man living off the generosity of his parents’ hearts and basement. In recent years, people know gamers as the driven, the ambitious, the competitive, and the successful. Now, for highschoolers all across Oklahoma, they can now also be known as the educated. The weekend of March 12th, Rewind Esports, Click Gaming, and OG Evo helped host a six title event for Oklahoman for college recruiters to scout out potential talent, the first event of its kind in the region! Over 188 schools battled it out to impress the 10 collegiate Esports scouts in attendance, making for some pretty intense gameplay. The prospective recruits grinded multiple game titles, including Rocket League, Valorant, Smash Bros Ultimate, Overwatch, Call of Duty, and League of Legends.
The reputation and culture around gaming has been flipped on its head just in the space of a generation, and these opportunities are such that these young gamers’ predecessors would have killed for (in-game, of course). However, as we continue to give today’s gaming youth the tools and opportunities to further their gaming careers by hosting competitive tournaments, giving scholarships, and upping the competitive quality, we contribute to a more stable and self-sustaining Esports ecosystem, and a better world for these gamers to live in.