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Students at Chongqing Energy College during class time Students at Chongqing Energy College during class time

What the course looks like at Chongqing ( What the course looks like at Chongqing ( People.cn

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The elective course at the polytechnic university is called "The development of esports and analysis of teamwork in DoTa". Set up by the Chongqing Energy College, the course introduces students to dota heroes as well as some of the strategies used in competitive play.Students who select the course take it once a week for two hours. The teacher of the course Zeng Qingqing told journalists that during the first hour of class, students would watch some videos of a dota tournament and then he would make some analysis or comments on the stategies and teamwork. In the second hour students practice playing the game on their PC. The course has become quite popular since launching in September, with more than 100 students attending the class every week, all of them male. What is more the course has attracted the attention of nearby universities, with many students from other universities also making their way over to observe the class.One of the official students Wang, told Chinese journalists that the course was not so popular at the beginning and not so many students selected it, but after some time everybody was talking about how “the game” could help develop their ability to work as a team and to solve problems. The course is now one of the most popular elective courses at the Chongqing Energy College.“For game players, they can learn some new strategies in it and get some new understandings on games and e-sports,” Wang said, “many students are attracted by it now.” Why did they open the course? “The purpose is not to teach them how to play the game. We hope they can learn to be competitive to their work in the future by playing e-sports,” said lecturer and founder of the course Zeng Qingqing.Zeng said it was not easy to convince leaders of the merits of the course. He told gathering media that he told his superiors that esports, like Chess, is also a formal sport in China. He went on to say that this kind of elective course the decision-making ability as well as the willpower of students could be improved. What is more it could help develop their ability to "cooperate with each other and how to find their position in a team, which would benefit them after they graduate from college and when they start to work in a company."Zeng Qingqing has been a e-sport player himself for several years and the strategies for playing that he learned in e-sports also helped him to win in basketball games. “Sometimes we should take it the same thing as Basketball and Chess, which could give the players an opportunity to play their strength," said Zeng. "When you play e-sports, you are fighting by laying out the tactics and using strategies. It is just like a football or basketball game, except the players could finish it in half an hour or an hour’s time. It is different from some online games, which need the players to spend hours and hours on it.”However, some parents have not been so keen to the news that the university is running such an elective course, claiming it will lead them away from pursueing a "serious job" after graduating. However, Ms Zhou, a parent of one of the students who chose the elective course believes that learning about cooperation and competition in school, will help them to be better suited to life in society. Ms Zhou said her child chose the course after discussing it with her, and her son who used to be very shy has become much more talkative and open after taking the course.On the website of General Administration of Sports of China it states that e-sports is one of the official sports in China. “In Chongqing, e-sports is still developing," said Li Yaguang, Vice President of Sports Bureau of Chongqing. Li Yaguang said e-sports is one of the sports and at the same time science, so appropriate training of esports could benefits the students. However, he said, all sports or games need the students the control themselves from spending too much time and attention on it. Universities which opened up these courses in the future would also need to guide the students in case they become addicted to it.If this course was at your university, would you take it?Translation courtesy of Yue HuiThis article was written byLawrence Phillips, joinDOTA's Editor-in-Chief.Malystryx has been in eSports since 2004 working as eSports Editor for Razer and Editor-in-Chief of SK Gaming in the past. He misses the days of Warcraft3 but makes do with the world of DOTA 2.Location: Bristol, UKFollow him on @MalystryxGDS.