League of Legends developer Riot Games has launched the inaugural year of its Student Ambassador Programme to Malaysia. This will see university students engaged to build and expand the gaming community in Malaysia; while teaching the ambassadors real life organisational skills.
Riot’s student ambassadors are expected to become the voice of their local League of Legends community. The idea is that they will not only expand the game’s playerbase, but also provide feedback to the developers on the concerns of the players. Which sounds like an idea lifted from tabletop games and their own player supported communities.
Student ambassadors will “organise and execute campaigns and other intiatives on campus.” The website points out that these should take the shape of intra-campus tournaments, workshops, and hackathons. The events and campaigns do not need to be solely focused on League of Legends, and Riot has provided the students with guidelines on what will be appropriate.
These students will also receive a budget of between RM2,000 and RM6,000 to hold the events.
In return, they will develop their leadership, events management, and commuication skills. Gurpardeep Singh, Vice President, Operations of APIIT Education Group points out that these are the skills that employers are saying that graduates lack. Gurpardeep also represents the Asia Pacific University, which has also launched its own professional gaming programme.
Of course, Riot is also throwing in some other motivating factors like a RM100 per quarter stipend to spend on games, as well as other benefits like League of Legends RP, “personalised swag”, and a partial scholarship. The top ambassadors will also receive an all expense paid trip to the League of Legends Championship.
Malaysia is the first country in the world to see the student ambassador programme attempted. Director of Creative Content and Technologies Division, MDEC, Hasnul Hadi Samsuddin, expressed his excitement for what Riot is doing; saying that “this is a validation of our work in malaysia and what we’ve [MDEC] been trying to do.”
Riot has already selected 28 ambassadors from 28 universities across Malaysia. These cover every state, and include Asia Pacific University, Sunway University, Monash University, and HELP University. Public institutions like UPM and UKM were also included in the programme.
These students had to submit a motivational video to be considered, but Riot also looked at the GPA to determine if they would be model students. The first batch of student ambassadors have an average GPA of 3.5, showing just how important education is to the company.
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