Last January, the TNC Pro team, a league of professional DOTA players, had won the World Electronics Sports Games (WESG) 2016 held in China, bagging the grand prize of $800,000 and earning the Philippines recognition in the world of e-sports.
Because of their victory, e-sports has become a more and more popular topic in the media, and now, it’s spreading into the academe as well.
The University of The Visayas New School’s Senior High School, in the Philippines sector has just opened their doors to the world of e-sports and game development as a career track they can major in in their “Arts and Design” track for senior high.
Source: Facebook, Ng CH
“Another rises of Esports Academy held by UVNS from Philippines as they are going to introduce esports program but only through the path of Senior High Arts and Design. It will be covering gaming and development in the ways of designing, broadcasting, professional branding and etc. With the strong atmosphere of esports community from Philippines, we can expect something big is coming soon to SEA,” writes Malaysian gamer “Ng CH” in a facebook post.
“We’ll have game strategy for Dota 2 and we will have game design and development animation and 2D and 3D animation, and of course, game creation. After two years, the students can either choose to be game creators, designers, or e-sports players in the professional league,” says Genesis Raña, founder and school director of UVNS, in an interview.
The core subjects in the e-sports sector of their Arts and Design track involve theory, mechanics, strategy, and game awareness. Game design, branding, and entrepreneurship are also subjects they will cover.
The university will also provide the students with top-notch gaming gear, such as the Nacrono gaming keyboard, Sauris gaming mouse, and Poison P8 gaming headset. They’ll also have an Oculus Development Kit 2 for a taste of the ultimate virtual reality experience.
It’s indeed very nice to see a university go against the traditional “take a STEM course or suffer” model that the previous generation of Filipino students were unfortunately subjected to, despite having aspirations elsewhere outside of STEM. It’s definitely a huge step to help the country’s aspiring artists, gamers, and developers hone their skills in an effort to show that the Philippines can be internationally competitive in that field as well.
UVNS was recognized by Apple Inc. themselves as a “Distinguished Program for innovation, leadership, and educational excellence” last year, making them the 3rd university in the Philippines to be recognized by Apple.
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