With the growing proliferation of esports, there’s been a considerable push to introduce courses relating to the subject in universities around the world.
Now it appears that Malaysia’s Asia Pacific University will offer students the chance to play Dota 2 as a curricular activity. The course in question has quite the title—“APU Esports Malaysia Academy Skills Certificate in Defense of the Ancients 2,” aims to teach students the fundamentals of gameplay in Valve’s MOBA, as well as educate students on the topic of esports. Why APU uses the name “Defense of the Ancients” is unclear, seeing as Dota 2 isn’t an acronym.
The course itself is 12-weeks long, and also aims to lecture on aspects such as how to establish healthy team dynamics, communication, and problem solving. These are all areas that are intrinsic to achieving success in multiplayer games such as Dota 2, and it looks as if APU thinks these skills can become valuable assets for students in the future.
Malaysia, which has seen an increase in regards to large-scale Dota 2 events, such as ESL One Genting, in the past two years, has a long standing history with the title. Players such as Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung and Ng “YamateH” Wei Poong have historically been some of the most successful players from the Southeast Asian region, and in recent years names such as Zheng “MidOne” Yeik Nai have proven that the country has no shortage of talent.
One important caveat to note, however, is that students who wish to apply for the program have to live up to certain criteria—like having a public matchmaking rating of 3,000 MMR just for the introductory course. Those of us unfortunate enough to inhabit the 2,000 MMR bracket still have to figure out how to make the climb from “terrible,” to “slightly less terrible,” all on our own.
