Whereas some people believe that playing videogames is a waste of time, the esports phenomenon has gone far beyond a regular teenage hobby. Just by 2021, esports will cost more than music, movie, and theater niches put together – around $1,65 billion. Almost every esports game has already introduced its particular type of tournament, including real participants and prizes. Rumor has it, by 2024, esports might become one of the Olympic sports, which will for sure become a revolutionary step!

However, let’s evaluate the current position esports has on the market. Even though you may not be the biggest fan, you actually might have heard much about the biggest events in esports not recognizing them as such. This article will point out the fundamental tournaments, which made esports as legendary as they are today.

  1. The International (Dota 2)

The International is the name for Dota 2 world championship. Annually, it magnifies millions of fans cheering for their team on the competition with the impressive prize pool - $25M just in 2018. Dota’s original creator, Valve Corporation, did some amazing job organizing The Internationals on the state-of-the-art arenas from Europe (Cologne, Germany) to America (Seattle, US). In 2019, Dota will hold their legendary tournament in China (Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai). You may either watch online streaming or find a suitable application/service to provide you with the recorded analyzed game.

  1. LoL World Championship

First things first, League of Legends set up a record in 2017 by broadcasting their world championship to over 99 million Twitch viewers. Their prize pool is not that competitive compared to Dota and Fortnite; still, this won’t stop teams from all over the world taking part in the tournament. In 2019, LoL will hit the romantic European capital – Paris – for holding their competition set up by Riot Games. Despite new competitors emerging in the niche, LoL manages to keep its top position on the popularity list and doesn’t seem to give it up in the nearest future.

  1. The Intel Extreme Masters

There are not many “universal soldiers” who would accept the challenge of holding an event for multiple games at the same time. Still, the combination of StarCraft II, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Counter-Strike, Quake Live, Global Offensive, and League of Legends worked out well for the Intel Extreme Masters. Since ESL and Valve are the gaming market giants, they can afford to organize Intel events a few times per year. The experts say that such type of multi-game tournaments as Intel Extreme Masters allow the old games to stay popular at the same time promoting the market newcomers.

  1. Call of Duty World League

Activision Publishing does its best to keep the high rates of Call of Duty and thus annually organizes CWL (World League). What’s more, you may observe obvious improvements this year. For example, the participation in CWL is finally allowed for all the participants regardless of their origin. The new 5x5 framework was a blast at the beginning of 2019! Some of the esports betting sites already offer potential leaders for the next years, who are expected to receive more than $6M (2019 prize pool).

  1. Fortnite

Fortnite may be thought of a hipster battle royal as it’s regularly advertised by the celebrities and bloggers. However, the game wouldn’t get that popular within a couple of years just due to advertising.  2018, its prize pool was estimated to reach $20M, but in 2019, it will be multiplied… by 5! $100M is a tremendous sum, which is so far the absolute esports record. In order not to give you a rest in between the annual championships, Epic Games will also introduce Fortnite Secret Skirmish ($500K).

It’s impossible to deny that esports became an ultimate leader in entertainment. Such massive events like world championships and leagues make it clear that in a couple of years esports will have no boundaries for business and sports as well.


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Last Updated: May 22, 2019

About The Author

James, a lifelong gamer, is a freelance writer who occasionally contributes to Ten Ton Hammer.

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