Collegiate Esports Championship Coming To ESPN In May

TheGamer

By Lou Flavius

Published Mar 13, 2019

ESPN Events has announced that they will host their very first Collegiate esports Championship later this year, with Overwatch, Street Fighter, more.

via studybreaks.com

ESPN Events has announced that they will host their very first Collegiate esports Championship later this year, with May dates set for the competition which will be held in Houston, Texas.

The multimedia company is looking to strengthen its connection to the esports world and, as such, hundreds of North American schools will be competing in qualifiers hosted by Tespa and the Collegiate Star League with the aim of making it to the live LAN semifinals and championship set for May 10-12 at ESPN Events' George R Brown Convention Center Comicpazoola weekend.

Collegiate gamers will be playing the likes of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, Overwatch, Hearthstone, StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm.

“As universities continue to grow their esports programs at the varsity, non-varsity and club levels, we’re proud to be providing a platform for national exposure and recognition of some of the most talented players in the collegiate space,” John Lasker, ESPN’s VP of digital media programming, has remarked.

“Through our collaboration with top publishers in the industry, players will be able to showcase their talent in high-level competition on some of the most prominent esports titles.”

“ESPN has been a terrific collaborator with Blizzard Esports over the years, having created monumental esports moments together, and we couldn’t be more excited to team up again to provide our collegiate players the opportunity to finish out the spring Tespa season on the big stage,” adds Blizzard’s SVP of live experiences Todd Pawlowski . “It’ll be a first for Blizzard to have four collegiate championship events under one roof, which should make for an awesome show for the fans.”

Street Fighter series Executive Producer Yoshinori Ono also expressed delight over the fact that the Capcom game will be one of the titles headlining the event.

“For more than 30 years, Street Fighter has been the king of fighting games," he said. "We’re delighted that our collaboration with CSL and ESPN will allow us to expand Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition to the collegiate market, with incredible live gaming events unlike anything else currently offered.”

Given that this event is one involving college students, there's no money up for grabs. However, finalists will be competing for scholarships, while parts of the qualifying rounds and the Lan championship will be streamed on various platforms around the world.