eSports

What is eSports?

eSports, also known as e-games and e-Sports, or electronic sports, is organized video gaming competitions.

It involves teams competing against each other in tournaments. The competition has a cash prize. It is almost the same as traditional sports. Top-level athletes are constantly striving to get the top spots in the sport, or game, they choose.

History of Esports

It all started in the 1990s, when gaming from a casual hobby, became an organized professional sport. Today's professional gaming activity is known as eSports. The industry of eSports grew during that time to up to $1 billion dollars. The championships are watched live by hundreds of millions of people.

The significant growth of the eSports industry can definitely be considered a modern-day gold rush. Famous media networks such as: ESPN, TBS, SyFy, and Telemundo, broadcast esports events. Traditional sports leagues like the NHL and the NBA have launched worldwide tournaments and leagues. More than that, the owners of NBA and NFL teams became the official owners of the eSports Teams.

In the U.S., over 700 colleges and universities introduced esports teams and/or scholarships for esports. PlayVS announced that esports will be brought to 19,500 high schools. All these numbers clearly show eSports has a solid background and conditions to develop and grow.

Why is eSports so Popular?

All gamers love to compete. Each of them wants to be the best. The first win in eSports took place in 1972 when the winner received a yearlong subscription to Rolling Stone magazine. Today the prize pools for eSports Competitions include up to tens of millions of dollars. It is all about winning while playing video games. Traditional sports competitions require to have all the people located in one and the same place. But with e-gaming, with a good internet connection, you can play from the comfort of your home, with people from all around the world.

Esports Viewership: Streaming

Esports Streaming is very attractive because during the stream you can watch other people, including professional gamers. You can broadcast the streams on Twitch. This is another reason why eSports is so popular. Back in 2017, Twitch (which was owned by Amazon) received 15 million daily visitors, and over 400 billion minutes watched. The eGaming culture today is as much about playing games and about watching other people play. According to our internal surveys, the average gaming addict plays an average of 25 hours per week.

Esports Careers: Going Pro

Esports attract because it sells the dream of going Pro. For young people, this is a simply amazing thing to take place. Imagine that 83% of teenage girls and 95% of teenage boys earn their leaving while playing video games regularly as a pro gamer. There is nothing more exciting than that. The eSports Competition is fierce. Hundreds of millions of gamers compete in hundreds of sports types. So every gamer's dream is to reach to live the life of a pro gamer?

Fortnite: World Cup

In the 2019 Fortnite: World Cup, the big winner was a teenager who walked away with $3 million in prize money. This sounds amazing, however, in the Competition there were over 40 million people. And only 100 of them walked away with a minimum of $50 thousand. This means that the chance of winning in Fortnite is extremely low.

What Are the Biggest Esports?

The World of eSports is based on team games. There are also some single-player Tournaments such as Starcraft and FIFA. Fortnite is also a single-player game, but you’re playing with 99 other people.

Here’s a list of the most popular eSports games based on prize money:

• DOTA 2: Championship prize money $35 million and rising
• Fortnite: $30 million prize money
• League of Legends: $7 million
• CS:GO: $1 million from the championship with lots of big tournaments, 
• Overwatch: $5 million
• PUBG: $2 million

The Best Esports Teams names                                                                                                       

Most eSports teams are part of a larger corporation that competes at the same time in a number of different other games. It is difficult to choose which is the best eSport team. As an example, Team Liquid takes part in 24 games. It ranges games from Auto Chess to DOTA, earning a total of $2,250 and $22 million in each sport separately. That is why we decided to rank the eSports Teams by the ranking of their recent results, including the name of the game, prize, and the number of Competitions they’ve participated in.  

• Team Liquid: DOTA, $33.8 million, 1622 tournaments
• OG: DOTA 2, $33.4 million, 70 tournaments
• Evil Geniuses: DOTA 2, $24 million, 798 tournaments
• Fnatic: CS:GO, $14.3 million, 856 tournaments
• Newbee: DOTA 2, $14 million, 180 tournaments 
• Virtus.pro: DOTA 2, $13.7 million, 470 tournaments
• Vici Gaming: DOTA 2, $12.2 million, 268 tournaments
• Team Secret: DOTA 2, $11 million, 199 tournaments 
• LGD Gaming: DOTA 2, $10.7 million, 131 tournaments 
• Invictus Gaming: DOTA 2, $10.7 million, 432 tournaments
• Natus Vincere: DOTA 2,$10 million, 432 tournaments 
• Wings Gaming: DOTA 2, $9.7 million, 27 tournaments
• SK Telecom T1: League of Legends, $9.2 million, 257 tournaments
• Cloud 9: CS:GO, $9.2 million, 674 tournaments
• PSG: DOTA 2, $9 million, 56 tournaments
• OpTic Gaming: Call of Duty, $7.8 million, 292 tournaments
• FaZe Clan: CS:GO, $7.7 million, 285 tournaments 
• Astralis: CS:GO, $7.3 million, 75 tournaments
• Team Envy: CS:GO/Call of Duty,  $6.5 million, 324 tournaments
• SK Gaming: CS:GO, $6.3 million, 649 tournaments

It is to be mentioned that the above classification says nothing about the values of these Teams. However, Forbes managed to do it in their second annual valuation of eSports teams. For sure, teams are much more than just competitors in e-gaming tournaments. Having 10’s of millions of followers across every platform, e-gamers have amassed a cult-like following and are able to reap the rewards.

How Much Do Esports Players Make?

Some eSports games became so popular that they’re even outclassing traditional sports. For example, in 2019 Tiger Woods won the Masters Trophy in Golf. They walked away with a $3 million winning prize. That’s in a sport that’s been around for hundreds of years.

Addicted to eSports?

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