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The first university e-sports department in China has announced that it will start accepting applications in 2017. The major is being offered at Communication University of China (CUC) in Beijing.
CUC wrote on its official Sina Weibo on Jan. 15: "Are you obsessed with League of Legends, Overwatch, World of Warcraft? Do you hope to play with JY PDD in Werewolves? Do you want to build the best e-sports team in China? For students who love video games: Welcome! As China's first e-sports major, we are recruiting new members for the first time. Do you dare to be the first?"
The university set up its e-sports analysis major under the category of art and science in December 2016. Students majoring in e-sports analysis study e-sports game data, team tactics and strategy. They also learn to organize e-sports games, according to the CUC website.
The first class will recruit 20 students to embark on the four-year undergraduate course. Graduates from the first three years are automatically promised jobs with Hero Entertainment, a Beijing-based e-sports company, which will cooperate with CUC to help train students and construct laboratories, IT news portal DoNews reported.
E-sports have been growing in popularity among China's younger generation in recent years. The e-sports major was officially listed in September 2016, after being recognized in 2003 as the 99th sports category by the General Administration of Sport, Jiemian.com reported.
