Video Game Scholarships

“A new athletic program at Robert Morris University in Chicago is offering scholarships for videogamers—to play on the school’s League of Legends team” (The Wall Street Journal, September 1, 2014). The University is giving creative scholarships in order to counter its declining enrollment. Describing the game, one team member stated “When I’m playing, I’m thinking about who to kill, and how to kill them and whether any of my teammates needs my help” (ibid.). This young man spends about four hours a day playing the video game (ibid.). It is conceivable that the University will require him and others to play for several hours a day in “practice” and pay him to do so as an athlete to represent the school. 

Times and society are changing, but is it for the better? Who would have believed ten years ago that universities would be giving athletic scholarships for students to play destructive video games? The book of Proverbs states, “There is a way that seems right” but that it leads to death (Proverbs 16:25). Bible prophecy refers to Ephraim as a “silly dove, without sense” (Hosea 7:11).  Ephraim was one of the tribes of Israel and became the British people, but as the leading tribe it can also refer to the descendants of all twelve tribes of Israel—the modern Israelite nations of today. Scholarships to videogamers killing simulated enemies add credence to ancient prophecies about the increasingly foolish and godless activities that are prophesied signs of the approaching end of the age.

For more on this topic, read the Tomorrow’s World article, “Decline of the West—Why?”