Russian company ESforce Holding, the parent company of esports organisation Virtus.Pro, has announced a partnership with online educational resource Skillbox.
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Through the partnership, the two companies will create an online university course on esports professions. It is reported that the teaching staff will include ‘well-known practising industry experts’ including ESforce staff members. Exact details of the staff are yet to be disclosed.
ESforce is a major player in Russia and the CIS region. The company owns brands such as popular organisation Virtus.Pro, tournament organiser Epicenter, broadcasting and production studio RuHub, Russian esports website Cybersport.ru, and esports venue Yota Arena in Moscow.
Skillbox is an online university which offers courses in design, programming, game development, marketing and management. The company collaborates with its industry partners to develop a range of educational programmes.
According to the press release, Skillbox will also become a partner of the EPIC League season two — a Dota 2 competition in the region — which takes place until December 13th.
Sergey Barkhudaryan, Commercial Director of ESforce Holding stated: “Soon we will be able to show you this useful educational project, which will help dozens of people immerse themselves in esports just from scratch. Skillbox and ESforce collaboration helps to answer one of the most common questions about esports careers — ‘where can I study to make my way into the industry?’ Follow our announcements!”
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Denis Tatiankin, Team Lead of Games department at Skillbox added: “We are pleased to develop such a promising area as esports with the leader of the industry in Russia. This will let us create not just an ordinary course, but a whole esports ecosystem with a number of branches in our online university. Thanks to the top experts of the holding and to other invited specialists for their trust. Together we will develop esports even more!”
Esports Insider says: The CIS region loves esports — particularly Counter Strike and Dota 2. Just last week Esports Insider reported that TECHIIA Holding had merged the assets of WePlay Merchandise and FS Holding (provider of FragStore stores in the region). This news regarding ESforce and Skillbox is significant in terms of industry reach. Introducing online training courses with Skillbox is an interesting move that will open up another path to esports employment for many in the CIS region.