It's common for American colleges to offer scholarships to esports players, but a Norway high school will be among the first secondary schools to introduce it to their core curriculum. Based in Bergen, Garnes Vidaregaande Skule will introduce esports in August 2016, but they've not quite figured out how they'll approach it yet. For one, the school hasn't decided which game it'll use, though mainstays like League of Legends, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are on the shortlist.
The elective subject will involve five hours of study per week, but that time won't be entirely dedicated to playing games. According to the school's science department manager Petter Grahl Johnstad, in an interview with Dotablast, physical training will help to "focus on enhancing the student’s ability to stay focused over a long period of time whilst performing their sport."
Of course, the subject won't be solely focused on making young Norwegians professional players. "Our focus is not only on the mechanics of the game, but also on how a team works, theory regarding motivation as a professional gamer and, last but not least, teamwork," Johnstad said.
"Understanding the game is one thing, but if the communication does not work within the team, if the players can’t rely on each other, you practically have nothing in our opinion."
Here's the best part: students enrolled in the course will be provided rigs equipped with Nvidia GeForce GTX 980Ti video cards, though they'll need to acquire their own peripherals.
