At one point in time, video gaming was more of a leisurely activity where teenagers and young adults indulged in online competitions without any monetary returns. Most offline and online competitions were multi-player and played for fun. However, times have changed and in today’s times eSports is a booming industry in itself.
The global eSports market is such a huge thing in today’s times that it has a value of $906 million and is predicted to reach $1.34 billion by the year 2020. It is no longer a casual activity as professional players make huge amounts of money by participating in tournaments with million dollar prize pools. Many multinational companies and brands like Red Bull, Microsoft, Nvidia Corp, and Electronic Arts (EA) invest in eSports. At the same time, software and game developers like Epic Games and Valve host international tournaments.
League of Legends World Championship
Organized by Riot Games, League of Legends World Championship is one of the biggest tournaments in the world of eSports. The high demand allows professional players to stream their performance online on Twitch. The tournament is taking place from the 2nd of October until the 11th November in Berlin, Madrid and Paris.
Fortnite World Cup
This has been the most awaited event of this year. It has total prize money of $100 million to be won by individuals or teams. Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, organized this extravagant affair. The participants of the event were selected based on merit and performance.
The 2019 Fortnite World Cup Finals were held in July in New York at the Arthur Ashley Stadium.
Call of Duty World League
This is a yearly 5-month long tournament that takes place to decide the world champion of Call of Duty. The game’s developer, Activision Publishing, is responsible for the organization of the tournament. A total of 16 teams qualify and try against each other for total prize money of $6 million.
The 2019 league followed a format of five versus five and restrictions regarding regions had been uplifted to encourage players from all over the world. The playoffs were held in Los Angeles during August.
The International
The International is the big highlight for Dota 2 players and is unarguably the grandest event of this year. The reason behind this is the popularity of Dota in the gaming world and the fact that the tournament’s prize pool is efficiently crowd-funded.
The prize pool last year was $25 million, which made it the most prominent event last year as well. Organized by Valve Corporation and held in August in the Mercedes-Benz Arena of Shanghai, this year’s rendition of The International offered a prize pool of a stunning $34 million.
The Biggest Online Gaming Competitions in History
Listed above are the four most awaited eSport events of this year. The tournaments are announced from time to time via schedules and calendars that are launched on their official websites. Fans can keep an eye out for the dates and start loading up snacks while gamblers can keep track to invest in bets. With a lot of skill involved, betting on eSports is one of the most lucrative forms of gambling.
