What Is ESports History Top Teams Revenues And Risks
What is Esports?
eSports, also known as e-Sports, egames, or electronic
sports is organized competitive video gaming.
It primarily involves teams competing against each other in
tournaments for a cash prize. Functionally, it’s the same as traditional
sports. Top-level athletes are constantly vying for the top spots in their
sport, or game, of choice.
History of Esports
eSports is a modern day gold rush. Beginning in the 1990s,
gaming went from a casual hobby, to an organized professional sport11.Medium:
The History and Evolution of Esports×. Today competitive professional gaming,
also known as eSports, is a soon-to-be $1 billion dollar industry22.Forbes:
Esports To Grow Substantially And Near Billion-Dollar Revenues In 2018×,
championships are watched live by tens of millions of people33.Verge: 'League
of Legends' eSports finals watched by 32 million people×, and their potential
Olympic debut is on the horizon44.Variety: Professional Competitive Gaming on
the Rise, Overwatch Shows Olympic Potential×.
With significant growth year-after-year, the eSports
industry is a modern day gold rush. Major media networks ESPN, TBS, SyFy, and
Telemundo all broadcast esports events55.Variety: Professional Competitive
Gaming on the Rise, Overwatch Shows Olympic Potential×, traditional sport
leagues like the NHL and the NBA have launched tournaments and leagues, and
owners of NBA and NFL teams have added ownership stakes in esports
teams66.Variety: Professional Competitive Gaming on the Rise, Overwatch Shows
Olympic Potential×.
In the U.S., over 600 colleges and universities have added
varsity esports teams and/or scholarships for esports77.ESPN: List of varsity
esports programs spans North America×, and this year PlayVS announced a
partnership to bring esports to 19,500 high schools88.Venture-Backed Startup Targets
High School Esports Infrastructure, Eyes NCAA×. The numbers clearly show,
eSports is here to stay.
Why is eSports so
Popular?
Gamers love competition. They want to be the best. From 1972
when the winner of the first eSports event received a yearlong subscription to
Rolling Stone magazine, to present day where prize pools include up to tens of
millions of dollars99.E-Sports Earnings×, winning is at the core of what
playing video games is all about.
eSports is also accessible. To play a traditional sport you
may have to organize people into the same physical location, whereas with
gaming you can play with people from all around the world instantly with an
internet connection from the comfort of your own home.
Esports Viewership: Streaming
Streaming—where you can watch other people (including
professional gamers) play on websites like Twitch—is another reason eSports is
popular. In 2017, Twitch (owned by Amazon) received 15 million daily visitors,
with 355 billion (yes billion) minutes watched1010.Twitch: 2017 Year in
Review×.
Gaming culture today is as much about playing games as it is
about watching other people play. Our own internal surveys reveal the average
gaming addict plays an average of 25 hours per week, while spending 25 hours per
week in other internet activities—watching streams.
Esports Careers:
Going Pro
eSports sells the dream of going pro. With 83% of teenage
girls and 95% of teenage boys playing video games regularly1111.Pew: Teens,
Social Media & Technology 2018×, what could be more exciting than earning
your living as a pro gamer, especially compared to traditional careers like
being an accountant, lawyer, or sales associate—no offense to people working in
those professions. The competition for eSports is fierce, with hundreds of
millions of gamers competing for hundreds of spots.
Fortnite: World Cup
In the 2019 Fortnite: World Cup, one teenager walked away
with $3 million in prize money. On the surface, this might sound amazing.
However, there were over 40 million competitors for that grand prize and only
100 of them walked away with at least $50,000, so overall your chance of
winning money in Fortnite is extremely low.
What Are the Biggest
Esports?
Like we mentioned at the start, the world of eSports is
primarily dominated by team-based games. While some single player tournaments
do exist, such as FIFA and Starcraft, they’re not on the same scale as some of
the other games out there. Also, Fortnite is technically a single player game,
but you’re playing with 99 other people so we’ll include it.
Here’s a list of the most popular eSports games based on
prize money, competitors, and viewers in no order:
* DOTA 2: 15 million peak viewers, 59 active teams,
championship prize money $35 million and rising
* Fortnite: $30 million prize money, 40 million competitors,
2 million viewers
* League of Legends: 24 teams, peak of 44 million viewers,
$7 million
* CS:GO: 40+ teams, $1 million from championship but they
have lots of big tournaments, 1.2 million viewers
* Overwatch: 20 teams, $5 million, 300k viewers
* PUBG: $2 million, 20 teams, 800k viewers
Who Are the Best
Esports Teams?
It’s difficult to determine the best eSports teams worldwide
because some will be part of a larger corporation that competes in a number of
different games. For example, Team Liquid takes part in 24 games from Auto
Chess to DOTA, earning a total of $2,250 and $22 million in each sport
respectively.
In our list, we’ll simply rank them by total earnings across
all games, as well as showing the number of competitions they’ve taken part in and
their highest-earning game.
* Team Liquid: $33.8 million, 1622 tournaments, DOTA
* OG: $33.4 million, 70 tournaments, DOTA 2
* Evil Geniuses: $24 million, 798 tournaments, DOTA 2
* Fnatic: $14.3 million, 856 tournaments, CS:GO
* Newbee: $14 million, 180 tournaments, DOTA 2
* Virtus.pro: $13.7 million, 470 tournaments, DOTA 2
* Vici Gaming: $12.2 million, 268 tournaments, DOTA 2
* Team Secret: $11 million, 199 tournaments, DOTA 2
* LGD Gaming: $10.7 million, 131 tournaments, DOTA 2
* Invictus Gaming: $10.7 million, 432 tournaments, DOTA 2
* Natus Vincere: $10 million, 432 tournaments. DOTA 2
* Wings Gaming: $9.7 million, 27 tournaments, DOTA 2
* SK Telecom T1: $9.2 million, 257 tournaments, League of
Legends
* Cloud 9: $9.2 million, 674 tournaments, CS:GO
* PSG: $9 million, 56 tournaments, DOTA 2
* OpTic Gaming: $7.8 million, 292 tournaments, Call of Duty
* FaZe Clan: $7.7 million, 285 tournaments, CS:GO
* Astralis: $7.3 million, 75 tournaments, CS:GO
* Team Envy: $6.5 million, 324 tournaments, CS:GO/Call of
Duty
* SK Gaming: $6.3 million, 649 tournaments, CS:GO
It’s worth noting that our list doesn’t take into account
the overall value of each esports team. Forbes recently released their second
annual valuation of esports teams.
It’s clear to see that these teams are much more than just
competitors in gaming tournaments. With 10’s of millions of followers across
every platform, they’ve amassed a cult-like following and are able to reap the
rewards.
Faze clan, for example, weren’t on the list in 2018 but have
surged up the rankings with an estimated valuation of $35 million in 2019. Most
of this is due to them becoming content-creation machines, thanks to the help
of their massive fanbase.
Most of the teams on the list have seen increases in excess
of 50%, which is a startling representation of just how explosive the esports
industry is right now.
The list should be taken with a grain of salt, as it’s
difficult to verify their results, but it’s a reminder that esports is bigger
than the players. Global investors are watching, and with the huge rise in
popularity of the sport, it’ll be interesting to see how it develops in the
future.
How Much Do Esports
Players Make?
As you can see, some eSports games have become so popular
that they’re even outclassing traditional sports in terms of viewership. For
example, in 2019 Tiger Woods won the most infamous trophy in Golf – The Masters
– and walked away with $3 million. That’s in a sport that’s been around for
hundreds of years.
It’s also the same as what was won by 16 year old ‘Bugha’ in
the Fortnite World Championship – A game which was created in 2017.
Esports Health and
Addiction Concerns
Although eSports and the capacity to earn money as a gamer
are positive developments for the industry, there are valid concerns to be
aware of.
To be the next eSports star involves gaming many hours each
day, and research on the negative impact on your health when you spend hours
sitting in a chair in a dark room starring at a screen is conclusive. Faker,
one of the world’s biggest eSports stars practices for hours a day1212.The
Guardian: The rise of eSports: are addiction and corruption the price of its
success?×. That does not bode well for your health.
A recent study carried out by Zwibel et alinto the health
impacts imposed on esports players discovered that athletes are more likely to
incur musculoskeletal injuried in their neck, back, and upper extremities.
Also, metabolic disturbances may come about due to excessive time spent in
front of a computer monitor. Most of these problems come about due to poor
posture and sedentary conditions that are commonplace among esports players .
Because of the sedentary nature of the sport and
accompanying poor posture, esports athletes are likely to have musculoskeletal
injuries of the neck, back, and upper extremities. Additionally, these athletes
may have metabolic disturbances resulting from light-emitting diode computer
monitors as well as mental health concerns regarding gaming addiction and
social behavior disorders. The authors explore the osteopathic physician’s role
in promoting health and reducing injury in this new gaming phenomenon.
The introduction of college scholarships for eSports is
another concern, as teenagers will now justify their excessive gaming use
because they are going to be the next eSports star—when in reality the chance
of that is very slim.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to compete at a high
level, but when children are using eSports as a justification for their
excessive gaming it starts to become a problem.
There’s a huge difference between a kid playing for 12 hours
a day by themselves to a regulated and regimented team with coaches, personal
trainers, and advisors; which is what we see in the majority of college
programs. This enables people to game in an environment which fosters a healthy
relationship to gaming and is crucial in avoiding mental health problems
further down the line.
I’m not one to discourage a teenager, or anyone for that
matter, to not pursue their dream, however doing so while being informed about
what it truly takes is important, and what it takes is more than gaming all day
every day. It takes focus and determination, responsibility, maturity, and
optimal health—mentally, physically, and emotionally—amongst many other
factors, including luck.
When the competition to become a professional gamer involves
millions of players for hundreds of spots, having a backup plan if it doesn’t
work out would be highly recommended.
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Read More: What's Esports?
