The University of Toronto has founded Canada's first university-specific esports scholarship. It will be funded by alumnus and global equities investor Victor Xin.

The Victor Xin Scholarship in esports will be awarded to one full-time undergraduate student in Applied Science & Engineering with at least a 3.5 GPA, who has a "passion for esports or gaming" and participates in the UofT esports club. U of T does not specify how much the scholarship is worth, but does note that the first scholarship will not be awarded until fall 2018.

“There are trailblazers on campus who are rallying a different set of students to build campus organizations focused on an alternative way of learning to lead and succeed in life,” Xin said in a press release. “Society may not recognize them yet – but we shouldn’t let them fall through the cracks.”

According to a press release, Xin played StarCraft while he was in the Engineering program in 2008 and started the U of T esports Club. He now mostly plays Dota 2 when he has the time.

U of T joins a growing list of universities and colleges that have begun to offer esports scholarships. In 2016, the University of California at Irvine launched a scholarship program, while Robert Morris University and the University of Pikeville both kicked off esports scholarship programs in 2015.