"The e-sports students' knowledge and skills are of great interest to our industry," says Lars Lislegard-Bækken, Chief Operating Officer at Gard. "Hybrid and digital skills, communication, collaboration and innovative problem solving - all of these will only become more important in the future, especially for a leading international competence and technology company like Gard," he adds.
About esports:
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a term used for competitive computer gaming at an organised or professionalized level. Esports often takes the form of multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, either individually or as teams.
Esports first became popular in East Asia, particularly in China and South Korea, but has also grown in popularity also in Europe and the Americas. Professional tournaments are streamed or broadcasted on national TV and are followed by several million people worldwide.
Forward-thinking
The sponsorship is part of a wider partnership agreement between Gard and the university, allowing both parties to benefit from each other’s competencies and expertise within a wide range of areas, including technology and digitalisation.
Rune Andersen, Associate Professor and Head of the Academic e-sports program at UiA, commented: “We are very pleased that Gard is so forward-thinking and that they want to be a partner in this field. E-sports is one of the world's fastest growing activities, regardless of gender and age, and more and more companies are now seeing the benefits of skills developed through e-sports."
Younger segment
Cathrine Hopstock, Vice President and Head of Technology at Gard, also sees great opportunities in the new collaboration.
“With this, we are venturing into a new area, engaging with a wider and younger audience than we normally do. I would argue that we already have the industry’s best in-house technology team, but we are going to need more talented people going forward. So this is "game on", and we are very much looking forward to this, said Hopstock.
More info (in Norwegian): Gard sponser UiAs e-sportlag - Universitetet i Agder
