Intel Supporting High School Esports

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 04/09/21

Intel will be supporting esports in high schools. The chipmaker has signed on as a sponsor with Generation Esports (GenE), a company that runs a competitive high school league, providing prizes, "loot crates" and promotion for the events. Tournament play will culminate in the $50,000 "Intel Winners Circle Tournament" this summer.

Prizes for that will be given as scholarships to students and as cash to all participating school esports teams to support their operations. Participating teams will be chosen from among the top schools in the preceding seasonal gaming tournaments and will face off, to play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Overwatch and Valorant.

intel esports

This isn't the first foray into school esports for Intel. The company was a co-sponsor of "Build an Esports Lab" campaign, in which 3,700 North American high schools applied to receive a state-of-the-art esports lab installation. That program was run by the GenE's High School Esports League (HSEL) and supported by the Army National Guard.

Twenty-five winning schools were announced in March. Each school is targeted to receive an esports lab with six high-specification gaming systems, , ASUS TUF Gaming laptops with 10th Gen Intel Core i9-10850K processors, 1TB Intel SSD 760p M.2 storage and ASUS Phoenix GeForce GTX 1650 graphics cards, as well accompanying mechanical keyboards, wireless headsets and gaming mice also provided by ASUS.

As part of its participation, Intel has committed to collaborating with HSEL on development of STEM learning curriculum that educates students on how to build and maintain their esports lab and provides career and college advice.

"Partnering with [Intel] will not only help us deliver a thrilling spectacle in the Intel Winners Circle Tournament but also ensure that we can continue giving high school students the academic opportunities and resources that come with our various esports initiatives," said Mason Mullenioux, CEO and co-founder of Generation Esports, in a press release.

"Esports in education continues to grow every year and is a key focus for us at Intel," added Marcus Kennedy, general manager of Intel's gaming and esports segment. "We are excited to be supporting students and schools as they build out their esports programs and look forward to the upcoming tournaments this year!"

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • cloud icon with a padlock overlay set against a digital background featuring binary code and network nodes

    Cloud Security Auditing Tool Uses AI to Validate Providers' Security Assessments

    The Cloud Security Alliance has unveiled a new artificial intelligence-powered system that automates the validation of cloud service providers' (CSPs) security assessments, aiming to improve transparency and trust across the cloud computing landscape.

  • stack of gold coins disintegrates into digital particles against a dark circuit-board background with glowing AI imagery

    Report: Most Organizations See No Business Return on Gen AI Investments

    Despite $30-40 billion in enterprise spending on generative AI, 95% of organizations are seeing no business return, according to a recent report out of the MIT Media Lab.

  • stylized illustration of a desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone all displaying an orange AI icon

    Survey: AI Shifting from Cloud to PCs

    A recent Intel-commissioned report identifies a significant shift in AI adoption, moving away from the cloud and closer to the user. Businesses are increasingly turning to the specialized hardware of AI PCs, the survey found, recognizing their potential not just for productivity gains, but for revolutionizing IT efficiency, fortifying data security, and delivering a compelling return on investment by bringing AI capabilities directly to the edge.

  • student holding a smartphone with thumbs-up and thumbs-down icons, surrounded by abstract digital media symbols and interface elements

    Teaching Media Literacy? Start by Teaching Decision-Making

    Decision-making is a skill that must be developed — not assumed. Students need opportunities to learn the tools and practices of effective decision-making so they can apply what they know in meaningful, real-world contexts.