ESL Partners With the University Of York
By Zac Cameron ·
Esports Content Production Courses are now on offer for upcoming students.
As Esports continues to spread into every facet of our lives, ESL has partnered with the University of York to “pioneer UK-based teaching and research facilities tailored to the rapidly evolving esports industry.”
The partnership is designed to target three key aims, as outlined by the University of York’s announcement post:
Teaching - ESL will hold regular masterclasses with University of York students, including workshops and taster days. The University is committed to aligning teaching offerings to the needs of the industry, while also offering BSc & MSc dissertations on esports. ESL and York are co-designing an elective module on esports content production as a third year, credit-bearing module, aiming to launch Autumn 2018.
Research - Alongside an investment of over $1m in continual research into future innovations in the esports industry, the collaboration will see paid PhD internships take place through the Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence (IGGI) PhD programme and Digital Creativity Labs. Pioneering esports research already explored by DC Labs investigates areas including AI, human behaviour, interactive storytelling, data visualisation, game analytics and more.
Careers - ESL internships will provide hands-on experience for outstanding undergraduate students, while industry placements will be available for select PhD students.
With the growth of Esports only set to increase, Director of the Digital Creativity Labs at York and Professor in Computer Science Peter Cowling had this to say, “Esports has massive potential to outgrow conventional sports, and our collaboration with ESL provides us with an exceptional opportunity to pioneer highly relevant, impact-driven research in this area.”
ESL has long been on the forefront of providing quality Esports productions to the world, as emphasised by COO of ESL UK, Rob Black, “We’re incredibly excited to be entering into a partnership with the University of York to help develop fresh new esports talent. We’ve always been committed to creating opportunities for more people to enter the industry and now, with the help of the University of York, we’re looking forward to being able to help make sure the future is even brighter and better than it is now.”
The University of York is not the only higher education provider getting involved with Esports, with the creation of the Ivy Esports Conference showing that even at the grassroots level, Esports is only going to continue to spread.
(Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article had misquoted Rob Black and credited it to ESL Managing Director James Dean. We have since edited this to reflect the correct quote.)