Esports: Team 7AM Collaborates with Inholland Creative Business Students

Esports and gaming have erupted into mainstream in recent years, transforming from an exciting niche to a key form of entertainment around the world. This year, our Creative Business programme has started a collaboration with an up and coming esports teams in Europe: Team 7AM. This collaboration has been orchestrated by Team 7AM director, John Smith-Howell and Inholland International Creative Business lecturer, Susannah Montgomery.

Team 7AM is a European based professional esports organization, home to both professional and non-professional teams from different game titles. Their aim is to provide gaming athletes a great environment to grow and perform to the best of their abilities.

Masterclass “The Future of Entertainment”
More than 80 students from across the Creative Business programme in Haarlem, Rotterdam and The Hague joined and streamed a digital masterclass called “Esports: The Future of Entertainment” with Smith-Howell. During this masterclass, Smith-Howell shared a behind the scenes looks at how an esports business really operates and shared his insight as to where he believes esports is heading.

Unique collaboration
According to Smith-Howell, it is unusual for an esports organization to partner with a university like Inholland.”Until quite recent, esports were not typically seen as viable career option or part of the mainstream media industry when in fact esports are the fastest growing sports industries in the world. Everyone here at Team 7AM is excited to work with the students of Inholland. Our goal is to provide an entrance into the esports industry for those who choose this path whilst also gaining an outside view which will enable us to be ahead of our competition.”

“This collaboration will provide our students with an interest in esports the tools and the learning opportunities to explore and pursue a possible career in the vibrant and growing esports industry”, shared Susannah Montgomery.

Both Montgomery and Smith-Howell hope that this collaboration will help video game enthusiasts and students with real ambitions to enter the esports sector to find an exciting and fulfilling way to grow themselves professionally. Any Inholland student interested in volunteer opportunities with Team 7AM can reach out directly to Smith-Howell at: john@team7am.com.

The experience of students “video games can be serious business ánd serious fun!”
This year, students will have the opportunity to work directly with Team 7AM in various parts of the ICB and IMEM curriculums and to volunteer on exciting upcoming tournaments.

Noah Mizrahi, a fourth-year IMEM student, is planning to conduct his graduation research for Team 7AM after having an eye-opening placement experience working for a gaming event and broadcasting company in Belgium. “Working for Team 7AM would be a great way for me to show my enthusiasm for esports and prove my professionality. As somebody that has been excited about esports and been part of the scene for quite some time, it would be a fantastic opportunity for me to get my foot in the industry as a first career step at an exciting young organization.”