Electronic Sports, colloquially called esports, is a loose term used to refer to organized gaming tournaments whereby players, not newbs like you, show off their professional skills in front of global audiences and compete vigorously for prizes that range in the Millions.
But let’s not get bogged down by definitions after all it’s 2023 and I am sure that most of you have already heard about esports. Many of you must also have viewed such tournaments online. And I am even willing to bet that some of you have even thought about breaking into the world of professional esports.
Well, you are not alone. The popularity of esports has skyrocketed during the last decade. Particularly after 2011 following the launch of Twitch which has now become a streaming platform virtually dedicated to esports. The platform now accounts for a whopping 89.7 percent of all video game-related streaming online.
According to figures easily available on the Twitch Tracking website, the platform boosted an astonishing 5.79 Billion hours viewed in the second quarter of 2021, when most of us were stuck inside our homes owing to the novel virus wreaking havoc outside.
The usage of the platform peaked right at the beginning of the pandemic and the site reported north of 9.9 Million unique creators in January 2021 alone. And even though viewership numbers have slightly fallen since then the general interest in watching and participating in esports is steadily on the rise.
Another factor that has contributed to the increasing popularity of Esports in recent years is easier access to high-speed broadband internet.
While urban dwellers had jumped on the esports bandwagon early on, these days the provision of highspeed satellite broadband to rural areas by satellite internet providers (ISPs) like Hughesnet Internet has also brought rural enthusiasts into the fold. With esports awareness reaching the 2-Billion-mark last year.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ESPORTS
Even though the popularizing of esports is a considerably new phenomenon, esports itself has been around for almost half a century now. Esports tournaments first became a thing in the early 1970s with the invention of the console.
The first esports tournament was hosted by Stanford, of all places, in 1972 and featured almost two dozen teams showcasing their Space Invaders skills for a subscription to the Rolling Stone magazine.
Six years after the Stanford tournament the gaming giant Atari organized the first-ever commercial Esports event attracting almost ten thousand people.
The launch of the famed Major League Gaming (MLG) in 2002 and the rapid increase in marketing revenues generated by consistently expanding audiences laid the foundation of modern esports, as we know them today. Today, the industry is worth a Billion Dollars and is projected to cross the Billion and the half mark by next year.
So, if you are still missing out on this burgeoning phenomenon, worry not, you’ve landed on the perfect page. Here is a list of the three of the most popular esports tournaments everyone living in the 21st century must know about.
1. THE INTERNATIONAL
Let’s start out by shedding light on perhaps the most famous ongoing esports tournament in history. The International is an annual tournament featuring twelve teams of professional gamers who meet in front of Millions of viewers to showcase their Dota 2 skills.
Dota 2 itself is the second rendition of the legendary video game Defense of the Ancient (DotA) created by Valve.
The twelve superstar teams are selected by an immaculate filtering process with half of them being selected through the Dota Pro Circuit, based on their points, and the other half being selected through six regional tournaments held in North & South America, East & West Europe, Southeast Asia (primarily Korea) and off course China.
The tournament is famous for its gigantic cash prizes which have reached a record amount of 50 Million Dollars.
Last year’s tournament offered somewhere between 32-40 Million Dollars with this entire amount being collected through crowdfunding efforts, quite a generous and loyal fan base, right?
2. THE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
The League of Legends world championship also referred to as the LOL World Championship (no pun intended) is the most popular Esports tournament by the number of viewers.
A total of twenty-four teams selected through a series of layered regional tournaments compete for the coveted Summoner’s Cup, a 70 Kg trophy created by Riot Games, the developers of League of Legends.
The first LOL championship was held in 2011 featuring a six-figure cash prize. Since then the tournament has boomed with viewership peaking at over 4 Million people.
The last tournament which was held in November 2022 was cleaned up by the Korean Regional Champions.
3. THE FORTNITE WORLD CUP
The Fortnite World Cup is the newest kid on the block. But being new and being small are not the same thing, a fact proven by the jaw-dropping success of Fortnite.
The first tournament which was held in 2019 offered a collective cash prize of over 30 Million Dollars. This world cup gave us Bugha the 16-year-old who made history after he won a 3 Million Dollar individual cash prize making him the highest-paid professional gamer in history.
PARTING REMARKS
From open-world fantasies like Dota and League of Legends to modern first-person shooters like Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, and Halo esports and the games associated with them have captured the imagination of Millions around the world. The introduction of better hardware and high-speed internet has led to a constant increase in the number of people trying out their luck in professional gaming.
So, if you spend most of your time curled up on your couch, playing video games on your phone I suggest that you test out your skills with the pros and get a chance to earn Millions of Dollars in the process.
REFERENCES
https://www.ispo.com/en/sports-business/esports-history-how-it-all-began
https://influencermarketinghub.com/esports-stats/
https://explodingtopics.com/blog/esports-statistics#esports-tournament-stats
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