A Kenmore Hills student taking up Engineering at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is one of the first to receive a $10,000 eSports scholarship.
Henri Magisson, also known as “Feint”, has been awarded the privilege as an elite eSports athlete from the QUT Vice-Chancellor’s scholarship program, along with four other students.
Apart from the scholarship, Mr Magisson, 20, will also become a member of the Tigers to train with Coach Simon Earl. He will compete and represent QUT at the “League of Legends” Oceanic Challenger Series (OCS).
Joining Mr Magisson to make up the five-member QUT Tigers are:
- Jason Nguyen from Yeerongpilly, also known as “hi and goodbye”, 18 years old, studying Gaming and Design
- Zihong Li from Inala, also known as “Unspecialized”, 22 years old, studying Games and Interactive Entertainment
- Michael Cornish from Sandgate, also known as “Frogadog”, 22 years old, studying Business, major in Accounting
- Justin Tu from Carindale, also known as “Spoil”, 23 years old, studying Engineering, major in Medical Engineering
As an elite eSports athlete, Mr Magisson and his teammates will have to play “League of Legends” 20 hours every week as part of their training. Coach Earl will also see to it that the scholars are physically and mentally in shape through proper diet and psychological stimulation.
QUT is also prepared to send the eSports athletes to a five-day boot camp to prepare them for their first “League of Legends” competition in April.
Mr Magisson was chosen among hundreds of hopeful scholarship recipients. He had to go through a rigid vetting process, where the coordinator assessed his performance and experience.
The athlete was well on his way to finish his final year at QUT when he learned of the scholarship. Mr. Magisson, who was with the Tigers since 2018, plans to play eSports professionally after he leaves the university before pursuing a career in engineering
Meanwhile, as a billion-dollar industry, eSports is estimated to reach over 427 million people viewers from around the world in 2019.