Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the latest game to be added to the esports scholarship program at the University of Calif🅰ornia at Irvine (UCI) following League of Legends (LoL) and awards.
The new $50,000 scholarship was announced on August 7 and will♛ fund the fo🍃rmation of a team at UCI. Players on the team members will each receiveꦗ $6,000 for the 2019 - 2020 academic year after being selected for the team by UCI Esports and th꧑e TAG Smash Ultimate Club at UCI. The award comes courtesy of the owners of Street Media, publisher of Irvine Weekly and LA Weekly.
In order to main꧟tain their scꦡholarships, players on the new Smash Ultimate team will need to maintain a 2.0 grade point average, p꧅ra💞ctice 10 to 12 hours per week and follow the UCI Esports code of conduct. Tryouts for the team are scheduled for October 2019.
UCI is no stranger to the esports scene. The school was the first public university to form an in 2016, build♋ing an esports arena with 72 PC gaming setups, and creating a League of Legends scholarship program. Last year the UCI LoL team won the for that game and represented North America at the LoL International College Cup. It was at the International Cup where they were just bareღly eliminated in the stage of the tournament wඣith a 2 - 3 record. This year followed the team as they defended the National Championship. An effort which unfortunately ended when UCI lost in the to the University of Western Ontario.
UCI Esports is also no stranger to Smash. Earlier this year, in February, two teams of players from UCI coꦜmpeted in the regional qualifiers for the Collegiate Starleague tournament in Super Smash Bros. and advanced to the divisional qualifiers. The Tournament is still ongo𝓰ing but UCI is ranked tenth in the standings going into the event.
Best of luck to those that make the new team.
In the intereꦑst of transp💯arency, the writer of this piece is a UCI alumnus and is bound by social pressure to issue the following statement: