Online gaming broadcast network TwitchTV is announcing a scholarship for college students who study and play hard.

One-year-old video streaming network TwitchTV has partnered with Dell's gaming brand Alienware and peripheral manufacturer Steelseries to give away $50,000 to support five young gamers. Gamers will need at least a 3.0 GPA — plus demonstrated skill in any game — to win a $10,000 scholarship.

TwitchTV is the largest gaming broadcast network in the world. This initiative is a way for the company to pay back the huge, young gaming community behind its success. It's up to 17 million unique visitors a month since its June 2011 launch.

The scholarship will give students a chance to "take passion and make it a profession," said Matthew DiPietro, TwitchTV's vice president of marketing. "We are giving a people an opportunity to make a living off of their video game streaming activity."

DiPietro says TwitchTV wants to support the evolving community of gamers. More than ever, video gamers are sharing content on the web. It's no longer about one person sitting in front of the television. Rather, the video game community is open, and Twitch's goal is to grow the competitive gaming space.

"Video games are becoming content in their own right," DiPietro says. "Once upon a time, video games were something you played by yourself or with a friend. The trend here is that gameplay is becoming a spectator phenomenon more and more."

TwitchTV lets gamers watch other gamers and chat about strategy. While gamers of all levels turn to TwitchTV for game play, advertisers and partners are turning to the network to reach a specific demographic, DiPietro said. The prominent audience of young, male gamers tends to be "unplugged from broadcast television" and mobile driven — and hard to reach.

The San Francisco-based company will announce the scholarship program at the Electronic Entertainment Expo video game conference (E3). Applicants may apply on Twitch.TV. Top-tier players, whether it's with Mario Kart, World of Warcraft or Tomb Raider, have until July 15 to submit transcripts and leader board stats, in-game ranks, tournament rankings or video streams numbers. DiPietro stressed any game is open for submission.

"You just have to prove your leadership and skill level in your game of choice," he says. "We expect lots and lots of applicants in first-person shooter genre like Call of Duty or Halo, and strategy genre like StarCraft and World of Warcraft."

The scholarship winners will be announced at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle at the end of the summer.

"We expect parents to be very surprised that their sons and daughters are applying for scholarship money because of their gaming abilities," DiPietro says.

Do you think students should receive scholarships for something like skill in video games? Let us know in the comments.

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