Dominique Cheese’s love of video games will help him level up to college next year.
The Queensbury High School senior has been fielding offers from colleges that want him to bring his gift for gaming to their campus esports teams next fall.
The president of the QHS Esports Club, Dom wasn’t even planning to attend college, but he reconsidered once the scholarship offers started arriving.
“I’ve talked to at least 20 colleges at this point,” Dom said. “Most of them are offering pretty high scholarships.”
Many schools are willing to pay for most of his tuition costs to play Rocket League. Arguably one of the world’s most popular esports titles, Rocket League combines soccer with rocket-propelled cars.
“The objective is just like soccer,” he explained. “There’s a ball in the middle, and you’re trying to score on the opponent, but you’re using cars. The car is basically like a person in real life soccer.
“But what makes it different is there are boost pads on the field,” he continued, “and when you collect the boost pads, a rocket propels your car, and you can make your car go really fast.”
Dom is one of the top 25 high school Rocket League players in the state and top 1% of Rocket League players in the world. The teen spends about 35 hours a week playing video games.
“Obviously, I enjoy the game itself,” he said, “but I think the main thing that draws me to continue playing it is just being able to compete, because I’ve always been a really, really competitive person.”
Dom thinks he will probably study cybersecurity at his top choice Fisher College in Boston.
“Fisher might not be a household name like Harvard or Yale,” said esports advisor Austin Cowper, “but … their esports teams are Division I.”
Some professional gamers are pulling in $100K a year by either competing or by streaming their games online like Dom’s favorite streamer Jack “ApparentlyJack” Benton. “AppJack” is a 21-year-old British gamer who generated about $140,000 playing Rocket League in 2023.
“It’s the same thing as being a big soccer athlete,” Dom explained. “You get brand deals and you can get sponsorships and stuff like that.”
Dom and his fellow Esports Club members are currently playing in three leagues. The team is ranked No. 1 in Section 2, No. 3 in the state, and No. 15 on the eastern seaboard. Right now, most of their games are played from home.
In December, club members traveled to UAlbany’s new state-of-the-art esports arena to compete in the largest tournament in New York State history. The Queensbury Rocket League team finished third, losing to the No. 1 and the No. 2 teams in the state.
Like most professional esports athletes, Dom plans to hang up his video game controller around age 25. He hopes to retire from his cybersecurity career around age 40 — because he expects to be a millionaire by that age. Then he wants to go back into the esports scene.
“I like the idea of teaching and being the advisor of an esports club,” he said, “because I’ll still love esports.”