MOSCOW, April 3 - RIA Novosti. Already at the end of April, the total amount of prize money in the history of eSports will reach $1 billion. The annual turnover of funds in eSports is about the same, and according to analysts, this amount will double in the next four years. What used to be just entertainment, in just a few years has become a huge industry, in which big brands are investing, and the TV audience exceeds one hundred million people around the world.
Esports includes several dozen disciplines, and every year new games appear that seek to occupy their niche. But now we can name the six most popular destinations.
FIFA
The most understandable game for the uninitiated is a football simulator. FIFA has always been popular and was one of the disciplines at what was once the only major international esports tournament - the World Cyber Games.
Russian players in FIFA have always been in sight, and the main success was achieved by a person with a symbolic name for Russian football - Viktor Gusev, better known under the nickname "Alexx": in 2005 and 2006, Viktor finished in second and third place at the WCG. In general, e-football, like real football, was dominated by the Germans.
In recent years, the situation has changed a lot: firstly, the FIFA organization itself organizes eSports football tournaments. Secondly, individual professional clubs sign contracts with e-sportsmen, for example, PSG, Roma and several dozen other leading teams in Europe did this. Thirdly, within the national championships, the country's FIFA championships have begun to be held - such tournaments are held in Holland and France.
The Russian Football Premier League does not lag behind, and, perhaps, surpasses competitors. At the end of 2016, the Spartak and Ufa football clubs signed professional players in FIFA, followed by similar transfers by Lokomotiv and CSKA. Already in February 2017, the RFPL Cyberfootball Cup was held with the participation of 16 teams, the winner of which was Andrey "Timon" Guryev, who represented the army club, and on March 31, the RFPL Cyberfootball Championship started in Kazan.
Speaking about the popularity of individual players, it is worth highlighting, perhaps, the strongest player in Russia - Sergey "kefir" Nikiforov, representing Spartak Moscow: on his Youtube channel almost 720,000 people have signed today.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
A descendant of what has been played for many of the past two decades, "contra" has been redesigned several times, improved in appearance and now exists under the name Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It's simple: two teams of five people, some attack, others defend, the game lasts until victory in 16 rounds, first-person view, sight in the center of the screen - at first glance, nothing complicated. However, it is worth digging deeper - and the real show begins. And the matter concerns not only various strategies for attacking one of the two points that must be defended.
Largely due to the fact that Counter-Strike has been around for a long time, the average age of both players and fans in general is higher than in many other disciplines. For example, in the Russian organization Virtus.pro, the average age of players is 26 years old, the oldest of them is already 30, and contracts with the team are calculated until December 2020. Tournaments are also held with the expectation of an older audience - the main venues are large stadiums and arenas in cities like Atlanta, Cologne, Frankfurt or Moscow.
Most of the major tournaments are also broadcast to older generations, with the ELEAGUE Major in January being screened by the Turner Producer, which produces content for America's leading sports channel, ESPN. For showing the qualifiers for this tournament, TBS was nominated for the prestigious Emmy Award.
CS:GO is a game with an incredibly high level of competition, which makes any representative tournament attractive to the viewer: despite the presence of 3-4 truly top teams, at least 5-6 teams can also claim victory in such a competition. The Russians, thanks to the general popularity of the game in the country, have always achieved success in the international arena: the first resounding success was the victory of the St. the two earned over $500,000. However, the Poles, who play for the Russian team Virtus.pro, have achieved the greatest success - over the years of playing CS:GO they have earned over $2.6 million.
Dota 2
Like League of Legends, Dota 2 originated from the game DotA (Defense of the Ancients), which was popular in 2005-2010. Two teams of five people, an almost symmetrical map divided in half, more than a hundred characters and items - it was very popular all over the world, small tournaments were held on it with a prize fund that is ridiculous by modern standards.
Everything changed in 2011, when Valve released the game Dota 2, organized The International tournament, where they invited the strongest teams from all over the world, and laid out an incredible $1.6 million in prize money as a prize, of which a whole million was due to the winner. Every year the amount in the main tournament increased, and already in 2016, 16 teams competed for 20.8 million dollars.
In Russia, Dota 2 is rightfully considered No. 1 - this is due to the incredibly addictive gameplay, and the success of players and organizations from the CIS. The Virtus.pro team is one of the strongest in the world, Team Empire managed to take 5th-6th place at the Dota 2 Asian Championship (DAC) taking place in China.
It was Dota 2 that was the first to break into Russian television: the next weekend, DAC matches will be broadcast on the Match! Game channel, and in 2016, the matches of the Epicenter and The Boston Major tournament held in Moscow fell under the scope of the cameras.
League of Legends
The most popular esports discipline in the world. Today, about 100 million people around the world play League of Legends. The popularity is explained quite simply: the level of individual skill plays a smaller role here, compared to the same Dota 2 or CS:GO. Team interactions come to the fore in LoL.
Other reasons for the popularity of the game include extremely modest technical requirements - LoL runs "on any iron" - and an amazing organization. Riot Games, the developer of LoL, is doing a great job and is in full control of the competitive process. The calendar has been published several months in advance, the participants of the tournament in each division (of which there are already 13 worldwide) are known, the format is defined, each game is broadcast at a level that federal TV channels can envy - all this makes League of Legends a super popular destination.
What is the popularity of LoL in Russia will help to understand the photo from the final of the Continental League - the tournament, the winner of which gets the right to represent the CIS region at the World Championship. The decisive matches were held under the vaults of the VTB Ice Palace arena - and there were no empty seats in the stands, more than 13 thousand people filled the hall.
However, there is one important "but" - for a person who has never played LoL, it is incredibly difficult to figure out what is happening on the screen. However, this discipline still does not suffer from a lack of viewers - the game wins millions of fans every year.
There are two main leagues in Russia - the Continental League, which includes eight of the strongest teams in the CIS, and the Candidates League. The first significant achievements came last year when the Albus Nox Luna team, now playing under the M19 flag, made it to the quarterfinals of the World Championship, which became a real sensation in eSports.
© Photo: Riot Games press service
Overwatch
The youngest and "glamorous" game with huge prospects. Perhaps older people remember Quake or Unreal Tournament, which were popular 15-20 years ago. Overwatch is somewhat similar: several modes (1v1, 3v3, 6v6, various platforms), various characters, the same cursor in the center of the screen, the action takes place in the future, everything is beautiful, bright and fast - two decades The rapid development of computer technology is reflected in the game.
Today, 25 million people play Overwatch, but in the coming years this number can grow several times over. In the second half of 2017, the Overwatch League starts - the cost of participation in the tournament for one team is not advertised, but according to various information, it ranges from 2 to 15 million dollars. Morgan Stanley estimates the league will generate between $100 million and $720 million in revenue, which should overtake football and wrestling.
In this discipline, the achievements of the Russians are not so great, and this is explained not only by the novelty of the game. Compared to other esports disciplines, Overwatch is much more demanding on resources, and not everyone has high-performance computers. Nevertheless, at the 2016 World Cup, the Russian team took second place, while the campaign for the “silver” turned out to be really outstanding. First, the team left the qualifying tournament, scoring 11 victories in 11 rounds along the way, then at the World Cup itself, in a bitter struggle with the USA, it finished first in the group, losing only in the final to the powerful South Korean team.
MOSCOW, April 3 - RIA Novosti. Already at the end of April, the total amount of prize money in the history of eSports will reach $1 billion. The annual turnover of funds in eSports is about the same, and according to analysts, this amount will double in the next four years. What used to be just entertainment, in just a few years has become a huge industry, in which big brands are investing, and the TV audience exceeds one hundred million people around the world.
Esports includes several dozen disciplines, and every year new games appear that seek to occupy their niche. But now we can name the six most popular destinations.
FIFA
The most understandable game for the uninitiated is a football simulator. FIFA has always been popular and was one of the disciplines at what was once the only major international esports tournament - the World Cyber Games.
Russian players in FIFA have always been in sight, and the main success was achieved by a person with a symbolic name for Russian football - Viktor Gusev, better known under the nickname "Alexx": in 2005 and 2006, Viktor finished in second and third place at the WCG. In general, e-football, like real football, was dominated by the Germans.
In recent years, the situation has changed a lot: firstly, the FIFA organization itself organizes eSports football tournaments. Secondly, individual professional clubs sign contracts with e-sportsmen, for example, PSG, Roma and several dozen other leading teams in Europe did this. Thirdly, within the national championships, the country's FIFA championships have begun to be held - such tournaments are held in Holland and France.
The Russian Football Premier League does not lag behind, and, perhaps, surpasses competitors. At the end of 2016, the Spartak and Ufa football clubs signed professional players in FIFA, followed by similar transfers by Lokomotiv and CSKA. Already in February 2017, the RFPL Cyberfootball Cup was held with the participation of 16 teams, the winner of which was Andrey "Timon" Guryev, who represented the army club, and on March 31, the RFPL Cyberfootball Championship started in Kazan.
Speaking about the popularity of individual players, it is worth highlighting, perhaps, the strongest player in Russia - Sergey "kefir" Nikiforov, representing Spartak Moscow: on his Youtube channel almost 720,000 people have signed today.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
A descendant of what has been played for many of the past two decades, "contra" has been redesigned several times, improved in appearance and now exists under the name Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It's simple: two teams of five people, some attack, others defend, the game lasts until victory in 16 rounds, first-person view, sight in the center of the screen - at first glance, nothing complicated. However, it is worth digging deeper - and the real show begins. And the matter concerns not only various strategies for attacking one of the two points that must be defended.
Largely due to the fact that Counter-Strike has been around for a long time, the average age of both players and fans in general is higher than in many other disciplines. For example, in the Russian organization Virtus.pro, the average age of players is 26 years old, the oldest of them is already 30, and contracts with the team are calculated until December 2020. Tournaments are also held with the expectation of an older audience - the main venues are large stadiums and arenas in cities like Atlanta, Cologne, Frankfurt or Moscow.
Most of the major tournaments are also broadcast to older generations, with the ELEAGUE Major in January being screened by the Turner Producer, which produces content for America's leading sports channel, ESPN. For showing the qualifiers for this tournament, TBS was nominated for the prestigious Emmy Award.
CS:GO is a game with an incredibly high level of competition, which makes any representative tournament attractive to the viewer: despite the presence of 3-4 truly top teams, at least 5-6 teams can also claim victory in such a competition. The Russians, thanks to the general popularity of the game in the country, have always achieved success in the international arena: the first resounding success was the victory of the St. the two earned over $500,000. However, the Poles, who play for the Russian team Virtus.pro, have achieved the greatest success - over the years of playing CS:GO they have earned over $2.6 million.
Dota 2
Like League of Legends, Dota 2 originated from the game DotA (Defense of the Ancients), which was popular in 2005-2010. Two teams of five people, an almost symmetrical map divided in half, more than a hundred characters and items - it was very popular all over the world, small tournaments were held on it with a prize fund that is ridiculous by modern standards.
Everything changed in 2011, when Valve released the game Dota 2, organized The International tournament, where they invited the strongest teams from all over the world, and laid out an incredible $1.6 million in prize money as a prize, of which a whole million was due to the winner. Every year the amount in the main tournament increased, and already in 2016, 16 teams competed for 20.8 million dollars.
In Russia, Dota 2 is rightfully considered No. 1 - this is due to the incredibly addictive gameplay, and the success of players and organizations from the CIS. The Virtus.pro team is one of the strongest in the world, Team Empire managed to take 5th-6th place at the Dota 2 Asian Championship (DAC) taking place in China.
It was Dota 2 that was the first to break into Russian television: the next weekend, DAC matches will be broadcast on the Match! Game channel, and in 2016, the matches of the Epicenter and The Boston Major tournament held in Moscow fell under the scope of the cameras.
League of Legends
The most popular esports discipline in the world. Today, about 100 million people around the world play League of Legends. The popularity is explained quite simply: the level of individual skill plays a smaller role here, compared to the same Dota 2 or CS:GO. Team interactions come to the fore in LoL.
Other reasons for the popularity of the game include extremely modest technical requirements - LoL runs "on any iron" - and an amazing organization. Riot Games, the developer of LoL, is doing a great job and is in full control of the competitive process. The calendar has been published several months in advance, the participants of the tournament in each division (of which there are already 13 worldwide) are known, the format is defined, each game is broadcast at a level that federal TV channels can envy - all this makes League of Legends a super popular destination.
What is the popularity of LoL in Russia will help to understand the photo from the final of the Continental League - the tournament, the winner of which gets the right to represent the CIS region at the World Championship. The decisive matches were held under the vaults of the VTB Ice Palace arena - and there were no empty seats in the stands, more than 13 thousand people filled the hall.
However, there is one important "but" - for a person who has never played LoL, it is incredibly difficult to figure out what is happening on the screen. However, this discipline still does not suffer from a lack of viewers - the game wins millions of fans every year.
There are two main leagues in Russia - the Continental League, which includes eight of the strongest teams in the CIS, and the Candidates League. The first significant achievements came last year when the Albus Nox Luna team, now playing under the M19 flag, made it to the quarterfinals of the World Championship, which became a real sensation in eSports.
© Photo: Riot Games press service
Overwatch
The youngest and "glamorous" game with huge prospects. Perhaps older people remember Quake or Unreal Tournament, which were popular 15-20 years ago. Overwatch is somewhat similar: several modes (1v1, 3v3, 6v6, various platforms), various characters, the same cursor in the center of the screen, the action takes place in the future, everything is beautiful, bright and fast - two decades The rapid development of computer technology is reflected in the game.
Today, 25 million people play Overwatch, but in the coming years this number can grow several times over. In the second half of 2017, the Overwatch League starts - the cost of participation in the tournament for one team is not advertised, but according to various information, it ranges from 2 to 15 million dollars. Morgan Stanley estimates the league will generate between $100 million and $720 million in revenue, which should overtake football and wrestling.
In this discipline, the achievements of the Russians are not so great, and this is explained not only by the novelty of the game. Compared to other esports disciplines, Overwatch is much more demanding on resources, and not everyone has high-performance computers. Nevertheless, at the 2016 World Cup, the Russian team took second place, while the campaign for the “silver” turned out to be really outstanding. First, the team left the qualifying tournament, scoring 11 victories in 11 rounds along the way, then at the World Cup itself, in a bitter struggle with the USA, it finished first in the group, losing only in the final to the powerful South Korean team.
The shooter is considered the father of cybersport disciplines Quake- it was he who for a whole year was the only computer game that was professionally played by visitors to the Internet cafe. IN 1997 the first esports organization was founded CPL. 1998 The year Starcraft came out. The game has made a real breakthrough in the strategy genre. These two esports disciplines (shooters and strategies) formed the foundation for the further development of gaming competitions. The next breakthrough came in 2001 year - Samsung Electronics organized the first global tournament on the most popular computer games at that time - World Cyber Games(WCG). The sums of the tournament, by today's standards, were ridiculous: the winning team earned only 20 thousand dollars.
How are eSports disciplines divided?
Esports games are divided into 5 main categories:
- Shooters(shooters), the athlete is in 3D space and fights with other players (teams) - for example, Warface, Unreal Tournament.
- Strategies- simulation of the battle between the armies of the players with the simultaneous development of the parties, the purpose of which is the complete destruction of the enemy or his surrender - for example, Warcraft;
- Team role-playing games with tactical and strategic elements (MOBA), the Player controls his hero or character, developing it while interacting with the game world and other players - for example, and ;
- Technical simulators- automobile and aviation; For example, World of Tanks; War Thunder.
- Sports game simulators(football, hockey, basketball). For example, FIFA; NHL; PeS
Comparison of prize money growth over the past 2 years
Top esports games
We offer you a list of the most popular esports games where you can earn some money or at least have a good time just by watching matches and making .
DOTA2
Today, the top esports games were occupied by games of the genre Multiplayer online Battle Arena (MOBA). Dota The legendary progenitor of the MOBA genre. At first Defense of The Ancient(DOTA) was just a map for the Warcraft 3 game, but it was hugely popular among the players. Dota made its debut as an esports discipline at the World Cyber Games, which were once the largest event in the world of esports.
The esports community was a real sensation when Valve implemented Dota in a separate client, on a new engine from Source, calling their brainchild DOTA2. From here the countdown of "our era" began. IN 2011 year, at the very first championship DOTA2 - The International, an unheard-of sum of $ 1 million was raffled off (and this is only for the first place). After this championship, hundreds of millions of people around the world learned about eSports games, many world channels became interested in CNN, BBS, Eurosports.
Graph of the growth of prize money at the largest Dota 2 tournament. The prize fund of the Dota 2 World Championship held in 2017 is The International exceeded $25 million. Of course, it's no secret to anyone that the main part of this fund (74%) was filled by the players themselves, buying in-game items ("donations") and, thus, making their favorite esports discipline one of the most profitable.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Counter Strike is the most famous shooter in eSports. It has been an esports discipline in more than 10 different championships. A new era in this genre was the version - Global Offensive from Valve. The development of the project was carried out in close cooperation with experienced players, so it was initially positioned as a new eSports discipline. At the moment, CS:GO remains the main discipline in such esports leagues and tournaments as the Electronic Sports League (ESL) and Intel Extreme Masters (IEM).
In addition to tournaments from esports leagues and third-party organizers, Valve organizes the main championships - majors.
Esportsmen consider winning a major tournament to remain in the history of CS:GO.
They have very large prize pools (500 thousand dollars for the first place), and special in-game items and events appear in the game for their holding. In 2017, almost three hundred tournaments were held at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments, and about $4.5 million was raffled between the winners. Although this figure is far from the leading positions, many CS:GO fans joke that CS:GO takes the number of tournaments, not the quality.
starcraft II
Strategy games were the first esports games that brought together many professional players and entire leagues around them. The main disciplines for World Cyber Games always were Warcraft 3 TFT And starcraft. The first part of this iconic strategy has been a recognized leader for a very long time, but time is relentless even for such masterpieces. Blizzard decided to release a sequel - « Starcraft II ».
In 2012, the developers announced the StarCraft II World Championship Series. Series of championships with many stages and qualifying games, culminating in the World Championship Finals in Shanghai, China. The first world champion in StarCraft 2 became a professional player from Korea Lee-Sak "PartinG" Won, he won the Champion's Cup and $100,000 prize money.
StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void
League of Legends
The most popular esports discipline in the world Riot. The developer company includes the creators of the original version Dota(first pillbox). No one imagined that in alpha and beta testing League of Legends will become the most popular MOBA and will hold a leading position in the top esports games to this day. According to a Forbes article from 2012 of the year, League of Legends became the most played PC game in North America and Europe in terms of hours played. The discipline also distinguished itself by the first place in terms of the number of players who are online: the figure approached 30 million man, and this is almost 70% from the entire MOBA community.
League of Legends Unlike Dota 2 is anime. It was to the taste of many fans of the genre.
According to esportsmen, League of Legends has a more adequate community than Dota 2
New heroes are constantly being added to the game, events are being held and game corrections are being made to improve the balance. In the game, player ratings are organized by leagues, which are updated every season. League of Legends - the official esports discipline in the championship WCG 2010, 2011 and 2013. Also every year the World Championship is held, in which the best teams take part.
Conducting tournaments The prize fund, although less than Dota 2 , but still impressive - about $7 million. Tournaments League of Legends are distinguished by their scale and enchantment: world-class stars, original shows, the most beautiful surroundings and a huge number of spectators both at the championships themselves and at the monitor screens.
Great trailer for the next update
Unusual esports stadiums can be seen
For many years now, disputes regarding the correctness of recognizing eSports as a sport have not subsided. One of the main trump cards of the pro-gaming world is a large number of disciplines and tournaments that make participants rich people. Match TV presents the seven most popular esports disciplines.
The Newzoo portal ranks the most popular video games by the number of unique users. LOL is a role-playing video game with real-time strategy elements. It appeared in 2009 and instantly won a large audience - every month more than 100 million people use this product from Riot Games.
The LoL World Championship tournament is held annually - the largest in this discipline. In the last two years, his prize fund has reached five million dollars. The top three representatives of League of Legends in terms of prize money represent Korea. Lee Faker Sang-hyuk is ranked 40th in the overall ranking of the pro gaming rich ($1,172,048).
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (5th)
One of the easiest games to understand and manage continues to be in the lead among millions of esports audience. The online multiplayer first-person shooter game still attracts spectators in stadiums during tournaments. Since the beginning of the 21st century, several varieties of CS have been released, the most popular of which are 1.6 and Global Offensive. The largest tournaments of this discipline are held on the Global Offensive modification - the latest of all. Despite the best place in the popularity rating of games, CS is far behind Dota in terms of prize money. The brightest representative of the "contra" Gabriel Fallen Toledo earned $749,743 during his esports career, thanks to which he is on the 70th line of the overall rating.
Dota 2 (11th)
One of the most famous esports disciplines can not boast of entering the top ten most popular video games in the Newzoo rating. The online multiplayer game takes 11th place, but this is not so important. This discipline still has the largest prize money. Nearly $25 million was raffled off at The International 2017.
DOTA - Defense of the Ancients is a top-down, third-person, MOBA-based multiplayer online battle arena game. The player chooses a character with certain abilities and controls it for one match. Two teams of 5 people fight on the same field (map), and their task is to break the enemy base. There are more than a hundred and ten heroes in DOTA - each with at least four abilities (all unique) plus six slots in the inventory that can be filled with any of more than 200 items. Knowing all the characters, all the items, and all the variations on each of the heroes is the bare minimum for playing at the lowest level.
The entire top three of the overall ranking of the richest (by prize money) esportsmen consists of representatives of this discipline. At the moment, the leader, according to esportsearnings.com, is the German Kuro KuroKy Takhasomi from Team Liquid. He has $3,626,277 in prize money. Most of which were received for winning The International 2017.
Heroes of the Storm (14th)
It is an online game by Blizzard Entertainment that includes characters from all four of the company's universes. The gameplay is standard: two teams of five players fight each other in order to destroy the enemy stronghold.
Just like in LOL, the best players in HS are Koreans. Lee Sake Jung Hyuk is ranked 218th in the overall prize money rankings, being the leader in his discipline ($322,790).
StarCraft 2 (20th)
This strategy is considered one of the most difficult esports disciplines. The gameplay is based on the extraction of resources and battles with enemy troops. Resources allow the player to build and upgrade buildings, which in turn can produce and upgrade units. The main goal of the player is to destroy enemy buildings.
StarCraft 2 top performer Cho Maru Sung-chu from Korea earned $591,249 in his 20s. Note that the richest esportswoman Sasha Hostin ($270,759) performs in this discipline.
FIFA (not in the top 20)
Another game that is understandable to a non-esports audience. The principle is simple: ordinary football is transferred to virtual reality. Many esports players agree that the unpopularity of FIFA among the esports community is due to the fact that it is more interesting to play a football simulator than to watch it. Because of this, the amount of prize money and the number of major tournaments are much lower than those of competitors. In the table of esportsearnings.com, consisting of 500 esports players, there are only two representatives of the football simulator, both of them are on the bottom lines. The best of them - Chevry RocKy Corentin - earned $ 174,750 during his career.
Halo 5 (not in the top 20)
The fifth installment of the Halo shooter series, released in 2015, is up against eSports mastodons like Dota and Counter. This product has its own audience, which, of course, is inferior in number to the games mentioned above. However, $250,000 in prize money for winning the Halo World Championship 2016, coupled with other successful performances, allowed the brightest representative of this discipline, Tony Lethul Campbell, to take 107th place in the ranking ($581,625).
Esports blooms and smells, and more and more popular projects of various genres and directions fall into the category of esports disciplines. In this article, we have collected the top esports games on PC. If you want to devote yourself and your time to the sport of the future, then read this material and choose the best game in your opinion.
21. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds
The eSports popularity of Dota 2 and League of Legends Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds is still far away, but the game took the first steps in this direction back in May 2017. Then the Bluehole studio and the game's creator Brendan Green held the first PUBG charity championship, which brought together 128 famous streamers. A larger game tournament with a prize pool of $350,000 was already held in August 2017 as part of the GamesCom exhibition. Well-known esports teams Team Spirit, Team SoloMid, Luminosity Gaming, М19, Cloud 9 and Team Liquid have their own Playerunknown's Battlegrounds rosters.
Among the obvious advantages of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds for eSports are a low entry threshold, no balance problems, a variety of tactics and possible situations, and equal conditions for victory for all gamers.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege esports competitions began in 2016 with the opening of the ESL tournament platform. Since then, three Pro League seasons have been held every year, bringing together teams from all over the world. The prize fund of the first of them was 50 thousand US dollars. Now the amount of prize payments has increased to 167 thousand. And in February of this year, the first world championship Six Invitational 2018 was held, where 500 thousand US dollars have already been raffled off.
PENTA Sports, Team Vitality, ENCE, Millenium, Flipsid3 Tactics and Team Orbit have strong Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege teams. Gamers from the CIS have not yet shown any significant achievements in this discipline. The strongest line-up is the Room Factory team.
Project CARS is the leader in esports racing competitions. The project launched many local leagues, large-scale championships at gaming exhibitions (Gamescom, Paris Games Week and EGX) and monthly finals at ESL series tournaments. Do not forget about the epic battles at Intel Extreme Masters, Dreamhack and Red Bull 5G.
The young cartoony shooter Paladins from the Hi-Rez studio rushed into eSports immediately after its official release in 2016. International tournaments in this discipline were held at DreamHack festivals and captured all continents. At first, the prize fund of the tournaments was 100 thousand US dollars, but in 2017, with the launch of the Paladins Global Series, it was increased to 350 thousand US dollars.
Since last summer, Hi-Rez Studios has been partnering with the WESA eSports Association. Immediately after that, Paladins leagues opened all over the world, and Fnatic, G2 Esports, SK Gaming, Natus Vincere and Virtus assembled their rosters for this game. pro. In January 2018, as part of the Hi-Rez Expo, the first Paladins World Championship was held. The NaVi team became its winners. They took $80,000 out of a total prize pool of $200,000.
The shooter started its journey in esports back in 2015. It was then that the first Warface Open Cup tournament took place: Spring 2015. Its prize fund amounted to 1.5 million rubles. For comparison, the last February Warface Open Cup: Season XII 2018 raffled 3 million rubles between the participants. The team of champions AG took 1.2 million rubles for itself. The silver medalists, the ArenaStars team, received 600,000 rubles.
Starting from the spring Warface Open Cup, tournaments are held regularly and gather participants from all over the world. Members of the CIS countries AG, Sluper, ArenaStars and Youngstars are considered strong Warface teams. Asteria and Exception stand out from Europe, XIII team adequately represents the USA, and the Brazilian team Black Dragons is considered the strongest in South America.
15. Halo 5: Guardians
Halo tournaments have been around since the first installments of the series, but only Halo 5: Guardians and its related world championships can be considered a serious esports discipline. The 2016 Halo World Championship has a prize pool of $2.5 million. The 2017 World Championship raffled off $1 million between teams, and in addition to it, there are many more regional tournaments in the US and Europe. There teams are fighting for more modest money. The minimum of such tournaments is 15 thousand dollars. The maximum is 200 thousand. And yet, no matter how much the creators of the game play, this project will most likely not crawl out further than North America and part of Europe.
The current champions of Halo 5: Guardians are the American team OpTic Gaming. Well-known esports organizations from the USA have strong rosters. Among them are Splyce, Team EnVyUs, Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses and Luminosity Gaming. It is worth noting that the game (and, accordingly, the tournaments for it) is only available on the Xbox One console.
The popular fighting game Mortal Kombat X was originally designed for eSports, which was known even before its release. Immediately after the release of Mortal Kombat X, ESL announced its own tournament for the game. It entered the list of disciplines of the ESL Pro League and is called the ESL Mortal Kombat X Pro League. Among the participants are residents of North America, Europe and the CIS. The first lan-final raffled off $50,000, and the prize pool of the third season of the ESL Mortal Kombat X Pro League was already $500,000. One of the best Mortal Kombat X players is the American cR SonicFox.
13. SMITE
The reimagined multiplayer shooter Quake Champions from the legendary studio id Software began its journey into eSports at the beta stage. The first 125 FPS Sunday Cup was held in June 2017. At this time, Quake Champions has been in open beta for two months. Belarusian Aleksey Cypher Yanushevsky became the winner of the first championship.
And already in August of the same year, the first Quake World Championship 2017 took place at QuakeCon 2017. The prize fund of the competition was $1 million. Another gamer from Belarus, Nikita "clawz" Marchinsky, became the winner. He took home 100 thousand US dollars. There are also team fights. The majority of current Quake Champions players play for established esports teams. TeamLiquid, Natus Vincere and Virtus already have their rosters. pro.
Amateur and semi-professional championships for Team Fortress 2 have been held since 2008. And only in 2016, Valve added the long-awaited support for the competitive mode. During these seven years, project fans have gathered teams and leagues, as well as held online and offline tournaments. The most popular leagues were UGC and ETF2L, as well as ESEA. In addition to leagues, Team Fortress 2 has special services that allow gamers to form teams and play against gamers of their level.
8 FIFA
The official esports league Wargaming rules. net League. It is supported and sponsored by Wargaming itself. The League has united the regional championships of World of Tanks into a single esports organization. The first World Cup among club teams of the World of Tanks game within Wargaming. net League took place in 2014. The prize fund of each championship is 300 thousand US dollars. Since then, the World Championships have been held regularly, and the Ukrainian team TORNADO ENERGY became the winner of the last Grand Final.
6. Heroes of the Storm
The young MOBA of Blizzard Heroes of the Storm in eSports almost immediately after its release, that is, since 2016. The scale here is smaller, and the rewards are much lower than in League of Legends and Dota 2. In 2016, the first Heroes of the Storm Global Championship 2016 was held with a prize pool of 500 thousand US dollars. Since 2017, Heroes of the Storm has introduced a league system, the best teams from them come to the World Cup, and in addition they receive 100 thousand US dollars.
Blizzard and GosuGamers have also launched Open Division tournaments. Here, in addition to money, rating points act as prizes. In addition, the best squads in the division take on the weakest teams in the official Heroes of the Storm Premier League and sometimes beat them back for the next season.
5. StarCraft II
Action shooter Overwatch went into eSports immediately after the release. The first leagues to emerge were in Asia (APEX, OPS and OPC). The prize fund of such regional tournaments immediately amounted to 300 thousand US dollars. Then the Overwatch championships reached America and Europe. This resulted in the Major League Gaming, DreamHack, and Intel Extreme Masters tournaments. True, here the prizes are already smaller and rarely exceed 100 thousand.
In 2016, the first Overwatch World Cup took place - Overwatch World Cup 2016. Judging by it, South Korea became the aggressors in Overwatch. In 2017, Blizzard launched the official Overwatch League with 14 teams. The league's total prize pool was $3.5 million. True, in order to take part in the official championship, an esports team must buy a permanent seat. Depending on the region, its cost reaches $20 million. This scared away some of the professional teams and yet almost all the places are occupied. Notable teams in the Overwatch League include Cloud9, Immortals, Team EnVyUs, Lunatic-Hai, NRG eSports, and Misfits.
3. League of Legends
MOBA League of Legends, the brainchild of Riot Games, is considered the most popular esports discipline in the world. The number of gamers, who are called "summoners" here, has long exceeded 100 million people. But in terms of money that can be earned from championships and leagues, the project is significantly inferior to Dota 2.
In addition to the official League of Legends World Championship - the League of Legends World Championship, which has been held annually since 2011, there is a Continental League where participants are selected for the World Cup. The prize fund of the first World Championship was 100 thousand US dollars. In 2017, it reached 4.6 million. Compared to The International for Dota 2, this is pennies, but if you take into account other esports games, then this is a lot of money.
2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular esports games. Thanks to its long history and past games in the series, CS: GO attracts not only schoolchildren and students, but also gamers under 30 and older.
There are many tournaments, leagues and championships in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The main one is the World Electronic Sports Games. In 2017, its prize pool was US$1.5 million. In addition to it, the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship stands out from the major championships, where half a million dollars is raffled off. Don't forget the European esports league Electronic Sports League, SL i-League StarSeries, ELEAGUE Major and dozens of smaller sponsored leagues.
In CS: GO, teams from the CIS countries often rule. The favorites are Ukrainian Natus Vincere and Russian Virtus.pro. The last World Cup was taken by the Swedes from the fnatic team. They received 800 thousand dollars. In 2017, the Russian team Russian Forces won WESG 2017 among women.
Dota 2 does not have the largest gaming community, but the largest prizes for the World Cup. The first world Dota 2 tournament was held in 2011. The legendary roster of the Ukrainian team NAVI became the champion of The International 2011. The prize fund of that championship was $1.6 million. Then and now, the Dota 2 World Championships are the biggest cash draws in all of esports, and the amount of prizes is growing at a frantic pace. Thus, the prize fund of The International 2017 amounted to 23 million US dollars. The winning team, in 2017 it was Team Liquid, took home an impressive $10.8 million. The silver medalist, the Newbee team, took $3.9 million. This amount is several times higher than the money that the winners of other eSports games earn in a year, or even a couple of years.
As with CS:GO, Dota 2 has a ton of tournaments, leagues, majors, regional and sponsored championships. The largest among them are ESL One Birmingham, MDL Changsha Major, Epicenter XL, WESG 2017, DAC and The Bucharest Major.
