The Dota 2 The International Tournament concluded last weekend which saw the winners Evil Geniuses walking away with $6 634 661 in prize money. That inordinate amount of money does make one ponder, how would you become a professional gamer?

Three schools in Sweden have decided to take the guess work out of being a competitive gamer and have added competitive gaming, or eSports as its more commonly known, to the curriculum. The subject will be presented in a similar format to physical education where players will be able to practice and hone their skills in games such as Dota 2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive.

Guest lectures will be presented by eSport professionals and personalities which shouldn’t be hard to source given Sweden’s plethora of eSports heroes such as Starcraft II player Johan “Naniwa” Lucchesi and Dota 2 The International 3 champions, Team Alliance.

According to Gosugamers Magnus Alehed, a principal at one of the schools that will be offering the subject, said “there have been some frowning noses and some wondering why they get to play computer games during school hours, but we aim to kill the myth that it has to be a bad thing”.

The burning question however, is what the long standing value of a subject such as this is. As an extramural activity there is no reason why schools can’t form teams to compete against other schools after hours. As a subject however, the educational value of learning how to quick scope is somewhat questionable.

There are already a number of schools in South Africa that have competitive gaming teams as an extramurial activity. The chances that these schools decide to follow in the footsteps of Sweden and make it an official subject however, are minimal at best.

[Image CC – dfactory / Jakob Wells]