It’s been said a whole bunch of times by a whole bunch of people that are usually older than you that playing computer games is a waste of time that will never get you anywhere, but it turns out that this is completely false these days thanks to the dawn of eSports as playing video games could actually be your career path now if you’re good enough.

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Even if that doesn’t work, you might be able to kickstart your education by earning a university scholarship as well if you’re really sick at Fortnite. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Fortnite is a new multiplayer battle royale game that is taking the world by storm, and apparently Ashland University in Ohio has figured out how it can also be applied to academia, as it’s offering the best players a $4000 scholarship to study there.

Apparently the game requires logic and creativity skills which is why this scholarship is suddenly on the table. Tryouts are starting in the autumn, with successful candidates competing on a Fortnite team representing the university. Overwatch, Rocket League, Counter-Strike and League of Legends will also be coached as part of the program, so you’ll get a real education in a wide variety of video games it seems. Sounds completely wicked.

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Incoming head coach Josh Buchanan – whose background is in StarCraft II eSports – said the following about the scholarship:

I think ‘Fortnite’ has a lot of room for players to get creative,

There’s a lot of teamwork in [the game’s core building mechanic] that’s really untapped. A lot of players kind of do fancy stuff, and it looks cool, but it might not be the most efficient.

I think it’s a game that, due to how creative you can be, there’s a lot of potential to get really, really skilled in the game.

As part of the program, you’re going to have coaches and a staff dedicated to helping you succeed — not only in the game but also in your academics,

Helping to make sure that you have a good social life, and that your physical fitness is on point.

All of our athletes are going to have access to our fitness facilities and trainers.

And Ashland is known for putting a lot of focus on the individual and having a lot of one-on-one sessions with professors, or small group sessions, to really make sure that we’re personally invested in the students’ success.

I mean it sounds completely awesome doesn’t it? Of course, you do have to be somewhat academically proficient so you can’t just skip school to play video games all day in the hopes of getting this scholarship, but it sounds like you can skip 90% of it and just concentrate on gaming. If only I was 20 years younger eh? Hopefully some of you out there can still take advantage of this development though.

For more scholarships, check out this girl who managed to blag a scholarship despite being in the US illegally. Crazy.