On January 2024, 1, Temple University Japan Campus (TUJ) signed a memorandum of understanding for strategic partnership with the Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF). The signing of a memorandum of understanding with AESF is the first attempt by a university based in Japan, and the two parties will build a cooperative relationship in the competitive and educational aspects of e-sports.
AESF is an international sports federation for the Asian region recognized by the Olympic Council of Asia. Through this partnership, TUJ's official esports team will be able to participate in future university-related competitions, including the AESF University Championship. Since e-sports will be adopted as an official sport for the first time at the 2026th Asian Games to be held in Nagoya in 20, there is a possibility that TUJ's e-sports team will contribute to preparations for this tournament. .
Furthermore, AESF has expressed support for TUJ's eSports academic program and is proposing an eSports exchange program between TUJ and AESF partner universities in Asia and other countries. In the future, students will be able to contribute to esports research activities at conferences hosted by AESF, and gain internship and volunteer experience at AESF-related competitions. It is also expected to jointly develop e-sports human resource development projects through joint invitation of instructors, introductions to industry experts, and training, education, and research, including short-term intensive training (boot camps).
TUJ's official e-sports team is participating in "TSUKUBA LIVE! OWL GAME #1" hosted by the University of Tsukuba and co-hosted by Ibaraki Prefecture and others on January 20th and 21st and February 2rd and 3th. In addition to the University of Tsukuba's official team ``Tsukuba University OWLS,'' student teams such as ``Waseda Teens'' (Waseda University) will participate in this tournament. The e-sports teams of TUJ and the University of Tsukuba are among the few official university teams in Japan, and they share the same nickname, "Owls," so students and faculty from both universities are well-versed in the field of collegiate e-sports competitions. In recent years, we have been actively promoting exchanges.
