5/19/2023 0 Comments Zelda screen wrap![]() He said he sees the increased interest in esports as validation for an industry that, in its early days, few thought would amount to anything. Graham was one of the earliest shoutcasters in the esports industry and is also a Husker alum. “I pride myself in that and I want to get better at that in college.”.Īt UNL, another person Veil reached out to for help creating an esports curriculum was Marcus Graham, otherwise known in the gaming community as “DJWheat”. “After having that conversation, he was totally like, ‘Yeah, that wasn't something we thought about sometimes with esports,'" Hinkel said.Īs for Kirk, he said he wants to keep getting better at shoutcasting. He said the state official walked away convinced. Maybe they're learning how to set up the equipment.” “They're creating content, they're making graphics for their stuff. “It wouldn't be necessarily just a class where you're going in and playing video games,” said Hinkel, who described the class as being more production focused. In fact, in recent weeks he said he was approached by an official from the state Board of Education about creating a class on the subject in the form of an elective. ![]() Like Veil, Hinkel believes there is potential in preparing students for careers in esports and adjacent fields. Hinkel teaches some aspects of the business of esports - like graphic design and how to set up a stream - in his digital media class. Kirk was encouraged to take up shoutcasting by Matt Hinkel, Grand Island Northwest’s digital media teacher and board president of the Nebraska Schools Esports Association. “I love being able to say what's happening in a game,” Kirk said. ![]() However, when he’s not playing, Kirk enjoys shoutcasting for his favorite game, Rocket League. Kirk received a scholarship from Chadron State College to play on its esports team next year. Such a class would probably be of interest to Grand Island Northwest High School senior Evan Kirk. She said Green's class embraces the industries and careers that support esports, such as “shoutcasting” which is the art of providing play-by-play commentary. She said she studied esports for years and senses an opportunity for the university to be a source of talent for the billion-dollar industry. Shari Veil, hoped to tap into when she asked Green to teach the class. That is what the dean of UNL’s College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Dr. The marketing engine that runs the professional leagues and college-level sports are "the same blueprint" for esports, Green said. After spending more than a decade in the professional sports industry and, in the last few years, as a Twitch streamer, Green sees first-hand how the same opportunities once only available for traditional sports are now crossing over into esports. The class, which began March 20, bills itself as a way for students to develop skills related to the business of esports, or competitive video game playing, from content creation to analysis.Īs esports emerges from an amateur pastime to an organized sport, replete with scholarships and professional gaming, there is an entire industry growing along with it. Rather, he came back to teach Intro to Esports. But he didn’t come back to teach football. After retiring from football in 2011, Green eventually returned to the University of Nebraska, this time as faculty. Green, a self-proclaimed introvert, said by the time he was in his professional career at the NFL, games had become a “gateway” to relieve himself of the stresses of professional football. Even during his championship seasons in 19, video games were a primary hobby, he said. ![]() Green eventually went to UNL and was a running back on the Husker football team. “I got good at Madden real fast,” Green said. “So I played those, probably, for like an hour a piece.”įrom that point on, Green was all in - Colecovision, Sega Genesis, Game Cube, and multiple PlayStations, playing every game from Zaxxon to Zelda.Īs long as he finished his chores and homework, his parents allowed him to game to his heart’s content. “The two games were Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego,” said Green. On one occasion, Green’s dad told him to play on one of the computers to make sure it was in working order. His dad worked on aviation computers and would sometimes bring home PCs to work on. Growing up, Ahman Green recalls he always had access to video games.
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