Tucked away down an unassuming street in Sunderland, northeast England, in a room filled with super-powerful computers, students are being trained to play video games at the highest level. The kit is part of a new campus that aims to boost the country's virtual sports sector in response to the global booming popularity of eSports – professional level competitive gaming – that officially became recognised as a sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2017.
