TNL Industry Guest Post 005: James Kozachuk has been building the collegiate eSports ecosystem since 2011, with key roles at the Collegiate Starleague and the High School Starleague. He is currently a researcher at the University of Central Florida, where he studies the effects of eSports programs on students. In addition, he works with Blizzard Entertainment's collegiate eSports division, Tespa, and has provided his collegiate analytics and data services to multiple Fortune 500 companies.

TNL Take: When people talk about eSports, they often talk about its exponential growth. Usually there's a bit of an exaggeration with these numbers but collegiate eSports is no exaggeration. We've been seeing exponential growth in the scene since inception and it doesn't seem to be slowing.

We estimate 655 students from 40 universities will receive a collective $4.1M+ in scholarship tuition packages for representing their institution as a varsity player in competitive League of Legends, Overwatch, CounterStrike: Global Offensive, and other video game tournaments next year.

Send that quote over to your parents, spouse, or literally anyone you know and they will think you're crazy.