Okay as someone who is really passionate about creating engaging learning opportunities AND someone who despises traditional educational systems, my reaction to the THING that was released is:

What the heck, esports?

People who work in esports barely have enough to pay their bills. And that's people who are ALREADY in the industry, not people who are aspiring to be a part of it.

No one has THAT kind of money to throw at some program with content that is already available at ZERO cost.

Esports is an industry. It's not a job. No amount of certification can prove that you are an "esports expert" - there is a reason why there are "esports director" titles and not "esports consultants".

Anyone. who claims to be an esports expert or consultant: run away from them.

The reality of esports that I hate is that a significant number of people are in it because they know people. This industry has negatively tainted the term "networking" so badly that it disgusts me.

It dehumanizes people.

In their eyes, you are just a number.

I'm really angry that there are people who will literally say to your face that they got into esports through hard work, when in reality they got into the industry because they benefit from nepotism.

Bottom line: there are people who have social currency and people who don't.

This is not to say there aren't people in this industry who work hard - there are.

Some of them aren't well known publicly. Some are underrepresented and deserve FAR more credit that they're currently given.

But just like other industries, there are handfuls of bad apples.

There are so many things I see wrong with this type of programming and I am open to a conversation privately about it if anyone wants to talk.

But knowing that there is an advisory board that is backing this, I really hope that they take the community's response to heart.

I understand that there are good intentions behind this and it most likely isn't (or shouldn't be) the final product.

But I really hope that moving forward, esports educational programming is made because it's want students want, not what people think students want.

Anyway I have lunch to eat and work calls to finish but I hope Twitter enjoyed my infamous thread of "What's Vivian thinking?" lol

And like I said, I am open to private conversations discussing this further if anyone wants to talk about it.