Members of Team Dignitas react during the CS:GO World Finals on Day Two of the Girl Gamer Esports Festival at Meydan Racecourse on February 22, 2020 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Christopher Pike/Getty Images)
Have you heard of esports? Even if you are not into video games, it is hard to miss the ever-growing popularity of esports, especially in the past decade where the greatest number of new
games played competitively was seen by the gaming industry. But what exactly esports?
Esports is the manner of playing video games in a competitive setup where players compete
against each other and a winner is declared at the end of a tournament-style setup. There is no
restriction on what type of genre of games can be played as an esport, as long as people have
agreed and organized a competitive setup, then that is good enough.
Esports had become so big that even the world of gambling already took interest in esports
betting. In fact, according to Silentbet, a lot of bookmakers are offering bettings on eSports
already, and more are following on the trend every day.
Why is esports as big as it is now? When did all of this begin? Here is a comprehensive guide
on everything that you need to know about eSports.
If you think esports only began in the past several years or the past decade, then you are
wrong. The truth is that the history of esports can be traced back to the late 70s when what is
believed to be the first competitive setup or a video game was organized.
In October 1972, students organized a competitive event for the video game “Spacewar,” and
they called it an “Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics.” The grand prize then was a one-year
subscription to Rolling Stone. Since then throughout the 70s and the 80s, there had been some
events that featured competitive video game playing but usually limited to schools or local game
shops. Now, esports tournaments have gone global thanks to newer and better game
technology available as well as the internet, making it possible for players all over the world to
gather and play together.
Although almost every game can become an esport as long as a competitive setup for it can be
organized, here are some of the most popular esports games played around the world.
League Of Legends is a massive online battle arena (MOBA) game that was developed by Riot
Games. The game was released more than ten years ago and managed to remain relevant and
kept its players active through constant updates, new content introduced regularly, as well as
tournaments and events that help keep the community always alive. The game has an annual
tournament organized by Riot Games, but several countries and groups all over the world are
also organizing regular competitive events for the game.
Known as PUBG for short, it paved the way for the popularity of the battle royale genre in
shooter games. Although PUBG was not the first battle royale shooter game to be released, it
was the first to one have gained huge popularity, which even led to the development of many
other games of the same genre.
DoTA 2, a direct sequel to the “Defense of The Ancients” mod from Blizzard’s “Frozen Throne,”
is yet another MOBA game that has an annual worldwide tournament called The International.
At one point, TI’s prize pool, which came from purchases from players and fans all over the
world, amounted to more than $30 million in total.
CS:GO takes on the popularity of the classic Counter-Strike game and keeps the element of an
FPS that made it popular in the 90s to early 2000s. Aside from official tournaments, local and
national events centered on the game are also held.