Women’s College Starts a Varsity Esports Program for Student Overwatch Team
The first all women college to have a Varsity esports program will be Stephens College located in Columbia, Missouri. The school announced the program Thursday, as well as the beautiful fact that it will be supported with scholarships. It is set to begin in the Fall of 2017 and the badass team of ladies will be competing in the Tespa Collegiate Series for the highly popular first-person shooter, Overwatch. The school’s website says that the reason they choose Overwatch was because of “its diverse and strong female characters”.
The Stephens College Varsity esports program will be looking to recruit 12 players that are made up of 6 starters and 6 alternates. The chosen students will receive not only partial scholarships, but also get the same exact benefits as the other college athletes. Although Stephens College is not the first to have a similar program, they ARE the first all female esports team made up of students. Not that there aren’t all girl teams in the esports community, just that this will be the first of this particular kind. The college’s President Dianne Lynch told ESPN:
“Our mission is to ensure that women can succeed and can make choices about anything they do in any environment and in any profession. That’s our mission. So why would we not do it in esports? … We have the capacity and the appetite for doing something new that allows us to say, ‘Let’s try this.’ Let’s see if we can provide an environment where women have an opportunity to, in some ways, break barriers.”
Tryouts for the team start this Summer and DFTG can’t wait to see wait these talented women can do! What do you think of this all women’s college starting a Varsity esports program? Post your opinion in the comment section below and then make your way over to the Don’t Feed the Gamers Twitter page and give us a follow! Speaking of Overwatch, did you hear that Genji’s Dragonblade is getting buffed? Read about it here!
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