Twitch and Newegg Announce Support of High School Starleague with Unprecedented Scholarship Pool

by Chase

We’re proud to announce our support of High School Starleague (HSL), North America’s premier esports organization for high schools. With the financial support from Twitch, Newegg, and other companies, HSL has announced today that the top talent in this season’s HSL League system will be competing for over $20,000 in college scholarships! Twitch and NewEgg are each contributing $10,000 toward the scholarship. (I guess you could say the ‘e’ in ‘esports’ means ‘education’.)

Student competitors will participate in popular games like League of Legends, StarCraft II, and Dota 2, fostering friendships and building rivalries with opposing school teams from across North America. HSL’s successful tournament format draws inspiration from professional tournaments such as Riot’s League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) and Blizzard’s StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS).

“With these scholarships, the HSL will usher in a new era of esports where excelling in cyber-athletics will be as respected as excelling in traditional sports,” said Tomber Su, CEO of High School Starleague.

“Through tournaments and scholarships, we plan to prepare our aspiring and talented gamers for the professional gaming scene, while simultaneously ensuring success in their education and character development outside of the game,” added Jesse Wang, COO.

HSL will hold its finals for the 2013–2014 season this June in Southern California and will be live broadcast on Twitch at www.twitch.tv/hsstarleague.

High School Starleague Key Facts:

• Diverse Player base: With over 750 schools representing 46 States and 8 Provinces in HSL this year, HSL constitutes as one of the largest tournaments in the world.
• Rapid Growth: In the past year alone, HSL has seen an enormous amount of community support, allowing it to grow from around 500 players to nearly 4000 players, with many more expected to participate in future events.
• Academic Merit: Players in the HSL are not only are accomplished gamers, they are strong students. Over 50 teams represent schools on US News and World Report’s ranking of top 200 high schools, and the average weighted GPA of players is 4.1
• Proven Talent: Many former HSL players and staff are now making a career in eSports, including:
• Nicholas “Gleebglarbu” Haddad plays Support for Cloud9 Tempest
• Max “Astrea” Angel plays Protoss for ROOT Gaming
• Libo “Xenocider” Chang plays Terran for Evil Genius
• Aidan “Zirene” Moon casts professionally for Riot Games