電子競(jìng)技風(fēng)靡美國(guó)校園

Loc Tran is a big man on campus at San Jose StateUniversity in Northern California.

洛克·陳(Loc Tran)是北加州圣何塞州立大學(xué)(San JoseState University in Northern California)校園里的名人。

“A lot of people stop me when I’m walking,” said Mr.Tran, a 19-year-old sophomore, who speaks in quickand confident bursts. “They congratulate me.”

“走在路上，好多人會(huì)攔住我，”洛克·陳說(shuō)。他今年19歲，上大二，說(shuō)話很快，話語(yǔ)間洋溢著自信。“他們會(huì)來(lái)祝賀我。”

 

 

But Mr. Tran is not a star on the football team, or a leader in student government. He is a topplayer on the school’s competitive video game team, helping San Jose State claw its way tovictory in June over California State University, Fullerton, in a tournament watched online bynearly 90,000 people. When the new school year started this fall, classmates’ heads swiveledtoward him when professors said his name during roll call.

不過(guò)，洛克·陳并非橄欖球隊(duì)的明星，或是學(xué)生會(huì)的領(lǐng)袖。他是學(xué)校電子競(jìng)技隊(duì)的頂級(jí)玩家，今年6月幫助圣何塞州立一路過(guò)關(guān)斬將，最終擊敗加州州立大學(xué)富勒頓分校(California State University, Fullerton)，贏得了一項(xiàng)賽事的冠軍。這次比賽有近9萬(wàn)人在網(wǎng)上觀戰(zhàn)。今年秋天新學(xué)年開(kāi)學(xué)的時(shí)候，教授在課上點(diǎn)名，洛克·陳總能引起一幫同學(xué)側(cè)目。

“I thought that was pretty cool,” Mr. Tran said.

“我那時(shí)想，好酷啊，”洛克·陳說(shuō)。

Video game competitions, also known as e-sports, have taken off on campuses across thecountry, including Harvard and Florida State University. More than 10,000 students now play inthe biggest college league, 4,400 more than last year and 4,600 more than the number of menwho play on Division I college basketball teams.

電子競(jìng)技正在全美大學(xué)校園里遍地開(kāi)花，哈佛和佛羅里達(dá)州立大學(xué)(Florida State University)也不例外。在規(guī)模最大的大學(xué)聯(lián)盟電競(jìng)賽事中，如今有上萬(wàn)學(xué)生在打，比去年多了4400人，而且比在大學(xué)一級(jí)聯(lián)盟打籃球的隊(duì)員還多了4600人。

The stakes keep climbing, too: Winning a big tournament can sometimes earn players severalyears’ worth of tuition money. And in a possible sign of the future, the athletic department ofRobert Morris University Illinois in Chicago created an official video game team this fall, offeringthe same sort of scholarships given to athletes playing soccer, football and ice hockey.

獎(jiǎng)金金額也在不斷攀登：贏得一場(chǎng)重大比賽有時(shí)可以為玩家賺取數(shù)年學(xué)費(fèi)。一個(gè)可能預(yù)示未來(lái)走向的跡象是，今年秋天，位于芝加哥的伊利諾伊州羅伯特莫里斯大學(xué)(Robert Morris University Illinois)的體育部組建了一個(gè)官方電子游戲團(tuán)隊(duì)，為其成員提供的獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金種類和足球、橄欖球和冰球運(yùn)動(dòng)員相同。

While the college e-sports craze started as a grass-roots effort, game makers have quicklyswooped in, propelling the sharp rise in interest. The companies now underwrite scholarshipprizes, offer team banners and provide organizational support, sensing a possible breedingground for a new generation of superfans — people who not only play games but also considerthem a spectator sport.

雖然高校電子競(jìng)技熱潮最初發(fā)源于草根，但游戲廠商已經(jīng)迅速跟進(jìn)，推動(dòng)著它大幅高漲。這些公司現(xiàn)在為玩家提供獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)、團(tuán)隊(duì)旗幟，以及組織方面的支持，因?yàn)樗麄冇X(jué)得，這可能會(huì)培養(yǎng)出新一代的超級(jí)粉絲——這些粉絲不僅玩游戲，而且認(rèn)為這是一種觀賞性運(yùn)動(dòng)。

“Game developers are really waking up to the publicity power of these communities,” said T. L.Taylor, an associate professor of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, who has studied e-sports.

“游戲開(kāi)發(fā)商確實(shí)意識(shí)到了這些社區(qū)在宣傳上的威力，”麻省理工學(xué)院從事比較媒體研究的副教授T·L·泰勒(T. L.Taylor)說(shuō)。他對(duì)電子競(jìng)技進(jìn)行過(guò)研究。

Colleges, meanwhile, are often standing at arm’s length. While e-sports groups are oftensanctioned clubs, receiving practice spaces from their schools, the leagues and competitionshave few of the student regulations governing traditional college sports, like grade-pointminimums or time limits on practicing.

高校往往對(duì)此敬而遠(yuǎn)之。雖然電子競(jìng)技團(tuán)隊(duì)往往是學(xué)校認(rèn)可的俱樂(lè)部，學(xué)校也為它們提供了活動(dòng)空間，但與傳統(tǒng)高校體育項(xiàng)目不同的是，電子競(jìng)技聯(lián)賽和比賽幾乎沒(méi)有學(xué)生管理方面的規(guī)定，比如最低成績(jī)要求、練習(xí)時(shí)間限制等。

The rise in e-sports has been so abrupt, many schools have not determined what to make ofit. Carter Henderson, a spokesman for the University of Washington’s athletics program, saidno one from the department was familiar enough with e-sports to discuss the topic. TheNational Collegiate Athletic Association, which oversees college athletics, said it had nocomment about e-sports on campus.

電子競(jìng)技的興起如此突然，很多學(xué)校尚未決定如何對(duì)待它。華盛頓大學(xué)(University of Washington)競(jìng)技項(xiàng)目發(fā)言人卡特·漢德森(Carter Henderson)說(shuō)，該部門沒(méi)有人熟悉電子競(jìng)技，因此無(wú)法討論這個(gè)話題。負(fù)責(zé)監(jiān)督高校體育活動(dòng)的全美大學(xué)生體育協(xié)會(huì)(National Collegiate Athletic Association)表示，他們對(duì)校園電子競(jìng)技活動(dòng)無(wú)可置評(píng)。

Game companies say it is too early to predict how university administrations will becomeinvolved in e-sports.

游戲公司說(shuō)，現(xiàn)在預(yù)測(cè)大學(xué)管理部門將如何對(duì)待電子競(jìng)技還為時(shí)過(guò)早。

“This is just how basketball was in the 1940s,” said Christopher Wyatt, senior manager forNorth American publishing at Riot Games. “A lot of the structure and organization you see inmore formal athletics, that groundwork is still being laid down here.”

“20世紀(jì)40年代時(shí)，籃球也處在這樣的狀況，” Riot Games公司負(fù)責(zé)北美發(fā)行的高級(jí)經(jīng)理克里斯托弗·華特(Christopher Wyatt)說(shuō)。“更加正式的體育項(xiàng)目擁有的很多結(jié)構(gòu)和組織，電子競(jìng)技也有，它的基礎(chǔ)仍在奠定之中。”

But it is unclear whether becoming a more formal part of a school would help or harm thegrowth of college e-sports. The time commitment required for serious competitive gamingcould lead to concerns about whether e-sports leave enough time for academic study. Inaddition, formal recognition could diminish the autonomy that companies and teams haveon campuses, bringing about rules like Title IX, the gender equity law.

但目前還不清楚，在學(xué)校中變得更加正式，對(duì)于高校電子競(jìng)技的發(fā)展來(lái)說(shuō)究竟是利是弊。認(rèn)真參與競(jìng)技游戲需要耗費(fèi)不少時(shí)間，可能會(huì)令一些人擔(dān)憂，學(xué)生是否還有足夠的時(shí)間用于學(xué)業(yè)。此外，把它正式化可能會(huì)削弱公司和團(tuán)隊(duì)在校園中的自主權(quán)，令其受到一些規(guī)定的約束，比如性別平等法律《教育法修正案第九條》(Title IX)等。

About the possibility of more official recognition, Dr. Taylor said, “I don’t think collegiate e-sports players are unified in any way that this is a good thing.”

關(guān)于官方是否可能給予電子競(jìng)技更多認(rèn)可，泰勒博士說(shuō)，“對(duì)于這究竟是不是一件好事，我認(rèn)為高校電子競(jìng)技選手的看法并不統(tǒng)一。”

For game developers, however, the lure of being on campus is simple.

但是，對(duì)于游戲開(kāi)發(fā)商來(lái)說(shuō)，校園的誘惑相當(dāng)直截了當(dāng)。

“We think that’s where a lot of our players are,” said Michael Morhaime, the chief executive andco-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, which develops and publishes entertainment software.

“我們的很多玩家都是高校學(xué)生，”邁克爾·莫懷米(Michael Morhaime)說(shuō)。他是娛樂(lè)軟件開(kāi)發(fā)和發(fā)行公司暴雪娛樂(lè)(Blizzard Entertainment)的首席執(zhí)行官和聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人。

In September, Blizzard flew eight finalists from the College of Staten Island, University ofMassachusetts-Amherst and other colleges to Seattle to compete for $5,000 in scholarshipmoney in a tournament of Hearthstone, a virtual card game from the company. Last year,Azubu, a games media company, sponsored a competition that awarded $40,000 in prizemoney to six students on a StarCraft II team from University of California, Berkeley.

今年9月，暴雪安排八名入圍者飛到西雅圖，參加虛擬卡牌對(duì)戰(zhàn)游戲《爐石傳說(shuō)》(Hearthstone)的決賽，爭(zhēng)奪5000美元的獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金。這些入圍者來(lái)自史坦頓島大學(xué)(College of Staten)、馬薩諸塞大學(xué)安默斯特分校(University of Massachusetts, Amherst)等高校。去年，游戲媒體公司Azubu贊助了一個(gè)比賽，加州大學(xué)伯克利分校(University of California, Berkeley)六名學(xué)生組成的一個(gè)打《星際爭(zhēng)霸II》(StarCraft II)的團(tuán)隊(duì)贏得了4萬(wàn)美元獎(jiǎng)金。

Last February, Riot Games hosted its first North American Collegiate Championship, somethinglike the Final Four for League of Legends, Riot’s popular online battle game. A team of fivestudents from the University of Washington won in front of a roaring audience at an e-sportsstudio that Riot operates in Manhattan Beach, Calif., with 169,000 more people watching onlineat the tournament’s peak.

今年2月，Riot Games舉辦了其第一屆北美大學(xué)生錦標(biāo)賽(North American Collegiate Championship)，它類似于該公司人氣對(duì)戰(zhàn)游戲《英雄聯(lián)盟》(League of Legends)的四強(qiáng)決賽。比賽場(chǎng)地設(shè)在Riot Games在加州曼哈頓比奇經(jīng)營(yíng)的一個(gè)電子競(jìng)技室，觀眾席上人聲鼎沸。華盛頓大學(xué)五名學(xué)生組成的一個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)最終贏得了比賽。在高峰期，有16.9萬(wàn)多人在線觀看了這場(chǎng)比賽。

The prize was $7,500 in scholarship money for each team member.

作為獎(jiǎng)金，團(tuán)隊(duì)每個(gè)成員獲得了7500美元的獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金。

Riot recently announced that first-place winnings at the next championship, to be held in thespring, would rise to $30,000, enough to pay for about three years of in-state tuition at theUniversity of Washington.

Riot Games近日宣布，在明年春季舉辦的下一屆錦標(biāo)賽中，冠軍獎(jiǎng)金將升至3萬(wàn)美元，本州學(xué)生足以用它支付華盛頓大學(xué)大約三年的學(xué)費(fèi)。

“A lot more people than I expected came forward and said, ‘I’d like to try out for the team,’ ”said Jackson Brown, the manager of the University of Washington’s team, the Purple CasterMinions.

“很多人找上門說(shuō)‘我想來(lái)試一試，參加你們的團(tuán)隊(duì)’，人數(shù)比我預(yù)想的多得多，”華盛頓大學(xué)電子競(jìng)技團(tuán)隊(duì)PurpleCaster Minions的隊(duì)長(zhǎng)杰克遜·布朗(Jackson Brown)說(shuō)。

The growth of competitive gaming at colleges mirrors the broader rise of e-sports asentertainment. A thriving international professional e-sports circuit routinely draws tens ofthousands of spectators to stadiums for competitions, with millions more viewers online. Topprizes for some events are now in the millions of dollars. Twitch, a video streaming service thatmade its name broadcasting e-sport matches, was acquired this year for close to $1 billion byAmazon.

高校競(jìng)技游戲的發(fā)展反映了電子競(jìng)技作為娛樂(lè)活動(dòng)日益崛起的大環(huán)境。一項(xiàng)成功的國(guó)際專業(yè)電子競(jìng)技賽事，往往能把數(shù)以萬(wàn)計(jì)的觀眾吸引到體育館里現(xiàn)場(chǎng)觀戰(zhàn)，外加數(shù)百萬(wàn)名的網(wǎng)上觀眾。目前，有些賽事的最高獎(jiǎng)金可達(dá)數(shù)百萬(wàn)美元。今年，亞馬遜(Amazon)以將近10億美元的價(jià)格收購(gòu)了成名于播放電子競(jìng)技比賽的視頻流服務(wù)Twitch。

The college scene is largely organized around the Collegiate StarLeague, which started atPrinceton in 2009 and is the biggest college league. The organization is now active at 450schools, up from 260 last year, according to Duran Parsi, the head of the league. Many of thoseplayers also participate in matches organized by another collegiate league, IvyLoL. Large WestCoast schools like the University of Washington and University of British Columbia tend todominate the competitions.

高校電競(jìng)?cè)Φ幕顒?dòng)基本圍繞“大學(xué)星際聯(lián)盟”(Collegiate StarLeague)進(jìn)行組織。它于2009年創(chuàng)建于普林斯頓，是目前最大的高校電競(jìng)聯(lián)盟。負(fù)責(zé)人杜蘭·帕爾西(Duran Parsi)表示，聯(lián)盟目前在450所學(xué)校開(kāi)展活動(dòng)，去年則為260所。這些玩家中有許多也會(huì)參加另一個(gè)大學(xué)聯(lián)盟“常春藤英雄聯(lián)盟”(IvyLoL)所組織的比賽。華盛頓大學(xué)和不列顛哥倫比亞大學(xué)(University of British Columbia)等西海岸的大型高校往往會(huì)在競(jìng)賽中稱霸。

The money that game companies are pouring into the college scene has persuaded manystudents to become much more serious about e-sports. College scholarships fromcorporations, including Coca-Cola, Ford and Google, have been around for decades, usually toencourage students to enter a particular field, like engineering. The money that gamecompanies are giving to students, in contrast, is meant to deepen the companies’ relationshipwith a whole generation of players, one that is inseparable from their products.

游戲公司投入到高校電競(jìng)?cè)χ械馁Y金已經(jīng)說(shuō)服許多學(xué)生要更嚴(yán)肅地對(duì)待電子競(jìng)技。由可口可樂(lè)(Coca-Cola)、福特(Ford)和谷歌(Google)等企業(yè)贊助的大學(xué)獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金已經(jīng)存在了數(shù)十年之久，而這類獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金通常用來(lái)鼓勵(lì)學(xué)生進(jìn)入特定領(lǐng)域，比如工程學(xué)。不過(guò)，游戲公司為學(xué)生提供的資金則是為了加深公司與一整代玩家之間的聯(lián)系，而這種關(guān)系與他們的產(chǎn)品可謂密不可分。

Today, most professional players skip or delay college, because the college-age years areconsidered the prime period for players in the big leagues. Playing at the professional levelrequires far too much time for practice and travel to tournaments to allow them to also attendschool.

如今，大多數(shù)專業(yè)玩家都會(huì)主動(dòng)放棄或推遲進(jìn)入大學(xué)，因?yàn)槟畲髮W(xué)的那幾年被視作玩家參加大型賽事的黃金期。要達(dá)到專業(yè)水平，需要耗費(fèi)大量時(shí)間來(lái)進(jìn)行練習(xí)，并且要去各地參賽，實(shí)在沒(méi)法同時(shí)上學(xué)。

Conan Liu, a student at Berkeley, took a year off from school to play StarCraft II professionallyafter his school team won the Azubu championship. Mr. Liu returned to school this fall tofocus on pre-med studies because he did not perform as well as he had hoped in the pros.While even bench warmers in the National Basketball Association make more than $500,000 ayear, the same is not true of professional gamers.

伯克利學(xué)生柯南·劉(Conan Liu)在校隊(duì)贏得了Azubu組織的錦標(biāo)賽冠軍后，為了能專門進(jìn)行《星際爭(zhēng)霸II》競(jìng)技而休了一年學(xué)?？履?middot;劉今年秋季重返校園，將精力投入到醫(yī)學(xué)預(yù)科的學(xué)習(xí)，因?yàn)樗趯I(yè)比賽中的表現(xiàn)沒(méi)有預(yù)期的好。雖然美國(guó)職業(yè)籃球協(xié)會(huì)(National Basketball Association)的板凳球員每年能掙到逾50萬(wàn)美元，但職業(yè)游戲玩家卻拿不到這么多。

“You have to really be at the top, top to make a nice living,” Mr. Liu said.

“你得成為真正的頂級(jí)高手才能過(guò)上好日子，”柯南·劉說(shuō)。

Game companies and collegiate league organizers predict that college e-sports could become apipeline for the growing professional circuit. Game companies say they are awardingscholarship money at college tournaments, rather than unrestricted cash prizes, to givestudents an incentive to continue their studies.

游戲公司及大學(xué)聯(lián)賽組織者預(yù)測(cè)，大學(xué)電子競(jìng)技可能會(huì)成為向不斷壯大的職業(yè)巡回賽輸送人才的一個(gè)渠道。游戲公司稱，他們更青睞為高校電子競(jìng)技提供獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金，而不是不設(shè)上限的現(xiàn)金獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)，以便鼓勵(lì)學(xué)生們完成學(xué)業(yè)。

“We really want e-sports to become as ingrained in the academic environment as anythingelse — speech competitions, football competitions,” said Tyler Rosen, president of the e-SportsAssociation, which helps organize college events with the financial support of BlizzardEntertainment.

電子競(jìng)技協(xié)會(huì)(e-Sports Association)主席泰勒·羅森(Tyler Rosen)說(shuō)，“我們真心希望電子競(jìng)技能像演講比賽、橄欖球比賽等活動(dòng)一樣，成為校園里不可或缺的組成部分。”該協(xié)會(huì)幫助組織賽事，資金由暴雪娛樂(lè)贊助。

A test of what happens when schools embrace e-sports started recently at Robert MorrisUniversity Illinois. The first 35 students to receive athletic scholarships under the school’s newe-sports program began training this fall in a room decked out with jet-black walls, moodlighting and leather gamer chairs with red piping.

伊利諾伊州羅伯特莫里斯大學(xué)最近啟動(dòng)了一項(xiàng)試驗(yàn)，看看學(xué)校接受電子競(jìng)技活動(dòng)后會(huì)出現(xiàn)什么情況。首批35名學(xué)生接受了學(xué)校新設(shè)立的電子競(jìng)技項(xiàng)目的體育獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金。他們今年秋季開(kāi)始在一所專門的房間里進(jìn)行訓(xùn)練，那里設(shè)有黑色的墻面、烘托游戲環(huán)境的照明，以及帶有紅色縫線的玩家專用皮革座椅。

The students, all League of Legends players, are getting up to 50 percent of the price of tuitionand room and board, which runs about $39,000 a year, according to Kurt Melcher, theuniversity’s associate athletic director. Mr. Melcher said he had received more than half adozen calls from athletic directors at other universities who are interested in incorporating e-sports into their programs.

據(jù)該校體育部副主任庫(kù)爾特·梅爾徹(Kurt Melcher)透露，這些學(xué)生都是《英雄聯(lián)盟》的玩家，他們已經(jīng)獲得了最多相當(dāng)于一半學(xué)費(fèi)和食宿費(fèi)——大約一年3.9萬(wàn)美元——的獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金。梅爾徹表示，他已經(jīng)收到了六七通來(lái)自其他大學(xué)體育部主任的電話，有意將電子競(jìng)技納入他們的項(xiàng)目。

The idea came to Mr. Melcher, a gamer, this year after he started reading about the CollegiateStarLeague. A conversation with his wife dispelled any doubts he had about awarding athleticscholarships to gamers.

梅爾徹是游戲玩家，他在今年看了有關(guān)“大學(xué)星際聯(lián)盟”的報(bào)道后產(chǎn)生了這個(gè)想法。與妻子的一席話，讓他打消了為游戲玩家提供體育獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金的疑慮。

Mr. Melcher said his wife asked, “Why should it only be given to some kid who can put a ball intoa hole?”

梅爾徹稱，他的妻子問(wèn)他，“為什么只為那些能把球弄到一個(gè)洞里的孩子提供獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金呢?”