“I have some scholarship offers out there, but yeah, the costs can add up,” said Erik, a senior at Avon Lake High School.
In addition to being president of the state’s most successful Key Club, Erik engages in a number of extracurricular activities and holds six jobs.
In his college search, Erik turned to a few financial aid websites for help, stumbling upon the creme de la creme of scholarships.
“You know, one of the ones on there was this Scholar Gamers site, so I clicked on it to check it out,” he said. “You play 20 minutes of these simple arcade games. One of them, you only press the space bar. Another you only press the arrow keys. Very simple games. They’re very easy to pick up.”
That’s right, no application and no essays. It’s a scholarship competition by playing video games.
Erik was among 7,500 competitors online, but then he was named a finalist.
“Obviously, we thought it was a hoax. It sounded too good to be true,” said Mark Leiden, Erik’s dad.
So he and his dad were sent on an all-expenses paid trip to Florida, along with 14 other hopefuls.
“You know, I’m not an intense gamer,” Erik said. “You expect everyone else to be if they’re qualifying for this.”
Yet the odds were not in Erik’s favor – he was ranked dead last.
“I couldn’t tell if he was winning or losing, other than a couple of facial expressions once in a while,” dad said.
Then after a couple hours of gaming, Erik shocked everyone.
“I was definitely the underdog people were really caught off guard,” Erik said. “Kind of wanted me to be in their group, to boost up their chances, but yeah i caught some people by surprise there.
Erik, the underdog, nabbed second place.
“I laughed, was really the first reaction cause the thought just ran through my head: I just won $7,500 for playing video games,” he said. “It takes me 1,000 hours to earn $7,500 at work, you know.”
An experience that he just stumbled upon is now one he’ll never forget.