University of Montana has been a large part of developing E-sports in Montana, starting as a student club in 2012. Since then, UM adopted E-sports as an official sport in 2019. Team members sport maroon jerseys, and UM has provided 50 scholarships to players, and the team is more than 100 players strong.
Recently, as part of the Big Sky State Games, UM E-sports reached a milestone in not only seeing other college teams such as Carroll College and Washington State competing, but UM invited high school teams to participate in the tournament as well.
In doing so, the Grizz team fell to a team from Heart Butte High School in the first game of this year’s Big Sky State Games tournament.
On a professional level, players compete for millions of dollars in cash prizes. On the collegiate level, UM joins 170 schools across the nation touting 5000 student athletes.
Around a dozen Montana high schools have created teams in the last two years. Those teams have paid their own way to compete in national leagues, as the Montana High School Association has not officially recognized E-sports.
