Gen.G's pushing to build the next generation of gaming pros

Imagine being a basketball player and believing that the only path to a career in basketball is to be a professional player. It’s an absurd notion in traditional sports — but it’s the perception problem facing esports today.

Gen.G aims to help solve this problem. The organization, which fields competitive esports teams in Korea and North America, is looking to bridge the gap between the two regions by offering students from high school through college the opportunity to build gaming careers that go beyond players, coaches, and coding.

“If you think about it, the majority of gamers say they’re interested in a career in games. The number is something like 70 percent,” Gen.G CEO Arnold Hur said. “But by the time they graduate college, less than one percent actually take a very specific course around specifically games.”

In February, Gen.G partnered with Arizona State University’s GAME School to host a series of gaming-related courses during their Gen.G Gaming Career Summer Camp at ASU Los Angeles.

The in-person courses run from June to August, ranging from one- to four-week-long cohorts. Prices range from $599 to $1,899, and registration is open until May 29.

The courses cover topics such as business and monetization, marketing, social media and content creation, esports operations, events and media production, and AI, technology, and future careers in gaming.

“If you look at where the jobs actually are, coding and game development is maybe 10, 15 percent of all the jobs in gaming,” Hur said. “Just the same way that if you want to work in fashion, being a fashion designer is a small fraction of all the jobs in fashion.”

The summer camp is the latest offering that Gen.G presented to students in the United States.

In October 2025, Gen.G partnered with universities, including the University of Hawaiʻi, to give students a chance to study esports in Korea, which features one of the healthiest esports and gaming ecosystems in the world.

“In North America, you still have that gap in understanding,” said Dr. Nyle Sky Kauweloa, a professor at the University of Hawaiʻi. “There is sort of a one-shot, moonshot idea of going professional, and it’s kind of an all-stakes buy-in. With Gen.G, there is a realistic understanding that we have the one percents, but what do we do with the 99 percent that don’t make it? They are able to funnel those students into a different direction.”

University of California, Irvine student Kylan Dao participated in the Gen.G study abroad program. He became one of the program’s student ambassadors after returning, opting to take advantage of an opportunity rarely available to students at the collegiate level.

“There are so many people who want to get into the industry,” Dao said. “They just don’t know how, or they don’t know where to go. I was in that same position.”

One of the things he noticed during his time in Korea was the numerous pathways students had to find careers in gaming.

“One of the biggest differences is how culturally significant esports is,” Dao said. “They have so many different educational programs, going into middle school, high school. We don’t here in the United States realistically expose our students to these various roles.”

While Gen.G isn’t the first and — more than likely — won’t be the last to attempt to implement esports education programs for students, it’s attempting to create a healthy career pathway for gamers to pursue their passions without the need to be a player or developer.

“There are more good games than there are successful games,” Hur said. “Even if you have a great game, it’s almost impossible to be successful. That’s not enough. And there aren’t enough people teaching from the industry how to make a great game successful.”

Paul Delos Santos covers esports for The Sporting Tribune. He is also the founder of Inside Esports, a newsletter covering the Fighting Game Community and Riot Games esports ecosystem. Subscribe at insideesports.media.