The first university e-sports department in China has announced that it will start acceptingapplications 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 ofLegends, Overwatch, World of Warcraft? Do you hope to play with JY PDD inWerewolves? Do you want to build the best e-sports team in China? For students who lovevideo games: Welcome! As China’s first e-sports major, we are recruiting new members forthe 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 inDecember 2016. Students majoring in e-sports analysis study e-sports game data, teamtactics and strategy. They also learn to organize e-sports games, according to the CUCwebsite.

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 HeroEntertainment, a Beijing-based e-sports company, which will cooperate with CUC to helptrain students and construct laboratories, IT news portal DoNews reported.

E-sports have been growing in popularity among China’s younger generation in recentyears. The e-sports major was officially listed in September 2016, after being recognized in2003 as the 99th sports category by the General Administration of Sport, Jiemian.comreported.