HBCU Students Compete for $15K Scholarships in ‘Black & Positively Golden Gamers’ Fortnite Tournament
Brag House founder Lavell Juan is a visionary and charismatic entrepreneur who wants HBCU students and minorities to take a financial stake in the current esports phenomenon.
Black and Positively Golden Gamers Fortnite Tournament for HBCU Students; Photo credits: Brag House, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola
In a partnership with Coca-Cola and McDonald’s USA, Brag House has teamed up with students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to compete in the Black & Positively Golden Gamers Tournament.
Competing with the hugely popular online video game “Fortnite,” HBCU players are competing for one of three $15,000 scholarships provided by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
HOW TO PLAY
“It is free for the HBCU students to play and participate in the Fortnite competition,” Juan told HBCU Legends. “One of the communities I really wanted to do something for was the HBCU community. McDonald’s has their entire team behind this as they are already doing something with the Black & Positively Golden® Gamers. They asked to lead this with Brag House. So we put together the tournament structure and made it free to enter. Everything will be online so you can compete from the comfort of your own home.”
As a Jurassic HBCU graduate, I was excited about Lavell’s project when I considered dusting off my old Atari system for the event. Old jokes aside, this is a game changer for many gaming enthusiasts. “One hundred different HBCU student players will play in each of the four qualifiers on a first come, first served basis. This means that in total if you know Fortnite we can have up to 400 students playing in a Fortnite solo game mode. that’s great,” remarked Lavell Juan.
HBCU student players will enter private battle royale lobbies created by Brag House, meaning only players with a private invitation can join the tournament matches. The same students of a given qualifier will compete in all five games of that qualifier. The top 25 student gamers on each Qualifying Day’s Aggregated Scoreboard advance to the Grand Finals.
Source: Brag House
Scroll to Next
WHY COMMITMENT IS CRUCIAL
Juan is excited as this weekend’s event approaches. “It’s very exciting! The first will be on Sunday, October 23 from 1pm-4pm ET, and another on the same day from 4pm-7pm ET.
Because Brag House is a “vertically integrated social network for non-professional college players in their communities,” Juan believes the tournament will uncover and connect with a hidden demographic that will leverage the resources and financial rewards of lucrative gaming Arena has not shared.
Lavell Juan scratches an itch. As? Within the HBCU community, gamers have been ignored by game system manufacturers, suppliers, online events, and serious fans.
“We realized that commitment is important. There may have been engagement, but no opportunity to engage. HBCU students are already playing online. But maybe your school doesn’t have an eSports program. So how do we capture that engagement? be happy about it and give it [HBCU student gamers] other ways to get involved? That’s why I like to call Brag House a social network for non-professional players. This engagement is done through games. And I think that’s an important thing.”
Brag House has a student ambassador program that allows its partners to give back to the community through engagement with students.
“Our main competitors were just the students who can do it on their own but don’t have the fun and glory of the prize pool and stuff like that. So we said why not give the students what they did, get the engagement as they spend time on different gaming platforms, and give them positive engagement opportunities.”
HBCU students interested in attending can register online at Brag House.
The HBCU Tournament featuring Fortnite will take place from October 23rd to December 17th and will be streamed via the Brag House app. The finals will be held as an in-person live event in Atlanta, Georgia. Coca-Cola will host the awards and grants ceremony, including a private tour of corporate headquarters.
