105-520: ELeague , shortened as EL , and stylized as ΞLEAGUE is an esports league and American television program that airs on TBS . It was announced in September 2015 as a partnership between Turner Broadcasting and talent agency WME/IMG . The name "ELeague" was officially unveiled later that year. Launched with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in May 2016, the league featured 24 teams from across
210-423: A mind sport . Former ESPN president John Skipper described esports in 2014 as a competition and "not a sport". In 2013 on an episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel the panelist openly laughed at the topic. In addition, many in the fighting games community maintain a distinction between their competitive gaming competitions and the more commercially connected esports competitions of other genres. In
315-700: A high score record-keeping organization. The organization went on to help promote video games and publicize its records through publications such as the Guinness Book of World Records, and in 1983 it created the U.S. National Video Game Team . The team was involved in competitions, such as running the Video Game Masters Tournament for Guinness World Records and sponsoring the North American Video Game Challenge tournament. A multicity tour in 1983,
420-424: A large market, the law raised concerns about the future of esports within the country. Labeling competitive video games as a sport is a controversial topic. Proponents argue that esports are a fast-growing "non-traditional sport" which requires "careful planning, precise timing, and skillful execution". Others claim that sports involve physical fitness and physical training, and prefer to classify esports as
525-490: A map on LAN since losing to Gambit Esports at DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017. FaZe Clan defeated Astralis 2–0 after a huge comeback from 12–3 on the first map and dominated the second map to take home the fourth rendition of ELeague. In 2018, ELeague announced their first-ever reality TV series, ELEAGUE The Challenger: Street Fighter V . The series featured seven invited personalities from the fighting game scene as they lived together in one house and competed against each other for
630-606: A marketing stunt to promote their early arcade snake game Hustle in the United States, involving the "Gremlin Girls" who were a duo of professional female arcade players called Sabrina Osment and Lynn Reid. The pair travelled across 19 American cities, where players could challenge them in best-of-three matches for a chance to win money. The duo were challenged by a total of 1,300 players, only about seven of whom managed to beat them. The golden age of arcade video games
735-457: A medal event at the 2022 edition ; esports around games such as Hearthstone , Starcraft II , and League of Legends were presented as an exhibition event at the 2018 Asian Games as a lead-in to the 2022 games. The 2019 Southeast Asian Games included six medal events for esports. Since 2018, World Sailing has held an eSailing World Championship that showed a main sports federation embracing esports. The Virtual Regatta race shadowing
840-431: A new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster later that year. In April 2017, mousesports signed the roster of the former Dota 2 team, Ad Finem, marking the first return for the organisation to the game in nearly two years. On 2 August, Christian 'loWel' Garcia was released from his contract with mousesports. On 4 August former Penta Sports player Miikka 'suNny' Kemppi was announced as his replacement. Less than
945-565: A new partnership with their National Olympic Committee . The proposal was ultimately approved by a unanimous vote on 23 July 2024. A number of games are popular among professional competitors. The tournaments which emerged in the mid-1990s coincided with the popularity of fighting games and first-person shooters , genres which still maintain a devoted fan base. In the 2000s, real-time strategy games became overwhelmingly popular in South Korean internet cafés , with crucial influence on
1050-582: A paid television model renamed GIGA II from June 2006 to autumn 2007. The French channel Game One broadcast esports matches in a show called Arena Online for the Xfire Trophy. The United States channel ESPN2 hosted Madden NFL competitions in a show called Madden Nation from 2005 to 2008. DirecTV broadcast the Championship Gaming Series tournament for two seasons in 2007 and 2008. CBS aired prerecorded footage of
1155-547: A potential method to legitimize esports. A summit held by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in October 2017 acknowledged the growing popularity of esports, concluding that "Competitive 'esports' could be considered as a sporting activity, and the players involved prepare and train with an intensity which may be comparable to athletes in traditional sports" but would require any games used for
SECTION 10
#17327918107071260-564: A replacement for the benched Martin "STYKO" Styk. On 30 July, mousesports announced that they were acquiring the Rocket League team of Tigreee, Alex161, and Skyline. Alex161 and Skyline previously played under Servette Esports, with Tigreee being acquired from Team Secret. This Mousesports team began play in RLCS Season 6, as Alex161 and Skyline retained their qualified spot won under Servette. On 15 October, mousesports announced
1365-479: A single prize. The series showcased the contestants playing against each other in the Capcom fighting game Street Fighter V , as well as the drama and interaction between them as they spent their days living under one roof. It premiered on April 20, 2018, and consisted of five episodes. The people invited to appear as contestants in the show included LowTierGod , Gllty and RobTV. Rapper Lupe Fiasco also appeared on
1470-711: A surge in participation by professional gamers and spectators. By the 2010s, esports was a major part of the video game industry, with many game developers designing for and funding for tournaments and other events. Esports first became popular in East Asia , particularly in China and South Korea (which first licensed professional players in 2000) but less so in Japan , whose broad anti-gambling laws prohibit professional gaming tournaments. Esports are also popular in Europe and
1575-508: A tournament held by several video game publishers to award prizes to many players but with JeSU offering these exemption licenses to the top dozen or so players that emerge, allowing them to compete in further esports events. The Tokyo Olympic Committee has also planned to arrange a number of esports events leading up to the 2020 games. With the IOC, five esports events were set as part of an Olympic Virtual Series from 13 May to 23 June 2021, ahead of
1680-497: A week later, on 8 August, mousesports released Denis 'denis' Howell from his contract and signed Martin 'STYKO' Styk to replace him, formerly of HellRaisers . In December 2017, the mousesports Dota 2 team disbanded. In March 2018, mousesports signed their first full roster for competition in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege . On 27 June, mousesports announced the acquisition of Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski from Virtus.pro as
1785-675: A year and a half. Despite this, however, mousesports continued to maintain the Nihilum brand and on 1 August 2009, launched a new community website to connect the World of Warcraft guild Method, along with the WotLK Wiki and the Nihilum brand under a single domain. On 20 April 2009, mousesports announced that it would be withdrawing its support for Defense of the Ancients despite the huge amount of success they were having. In early 2010,
1890-430: Is a form of competition using video games . Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. Multiplayer competitions were long a part of video game culture , but were largely between amateurs until the late 2000s, when the advent of online streaming media platforms, particularly YouTube and Twitch , enabled
1995-865: Is a professional esports organisation based in Germany . It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its CS:GO team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams . MOUZ's League of Legends team currently competes in the ESL Pro Series , having formerly competed in the European Challenger Series. Mousesports was formed in 2002 in Berlin , Germany , as a Counter-Strike team. The team began to compete in small tournaments, which gradually lead to their progression in larger ones, as well. By 2006, when G7 Teams
2100-600: Is also thought that the high unemployment rate at the time caused many people to look for things to do while out of work. Instrumental to this growth of esports in South Korea was the prevalence of the Komany-style internet café / LAN gaming center , known as a PC bang . The Korean e-Sports Association , an arm of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism , was founded in 2000 to promote and regulate esports in
2205-514: Is the civilized expression about this. If you have egames where it's about killing somebody, this cannot be brought into line with our Olympic values." Due to that, the IOC suggested that they would approve more esports centered around games that simulate real sports, such as the NBA 2K or FIFA series. The issues around esports have not prevented the IOC from exploring what possibilities there are for incorporation into future Olympics. In July 2018,
SECTION 20
#17327918107072310-704: The 2020-2021 Vendee Globe was the first online game believe to have in excess of 1,000,000 unique users Ahead of The International 2021 , which was originally set to take place in Stockholm in 2020, the Swedish Sports Confederation voted in June 2021 to deny recognition of esports as a sporting event, which jeopardized plans for how Valve had arranged the event in regards to travel visas for international players. Valve had tried to work with Sweden to accommodate players, but eventually rescheduled
2415-542: The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris were in discussions with the IOC and the various professional esports organizations to consider esports for the event, citing the need to include these elements to keep the Olympics relevant to younger generations. Ultimately, the organization committee determined esports were premature to bring to the 2024 Games as medal events, but have not ruled out other activities related to esports during
2520-569: The Agganis Arena in Boston University . Only two Legends made the playoffs, as SK Gaming and Fnatic made it into the top eight. New Legends were G2 Esports , FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere , Quantum Bellator Fire, mousesports , and Cloud9 . The grand finals put the pressure on the tournament favorites FaZe Clan, which defeated mousesports and Natus Vincere, and the dark horse Cloud9, which upset G2 Esports and SK Gaming. In what
2625-518: The Commonwealth Games Federation announced that esports would be included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games as a pilot event, with the possibility of it being a medal event in the 2026 Games . The inaugural Commonwealth Esports Championship had separate branding, medals, and organization and included both men and women's Dota 2 , eFootball , and Rocket League events. As a follow-up to 2021's Olympic Virtual Series,
2730-700: The Nintendo PowerFest '94 . There were 132 finalists that played in the finals in San Diego , California. Mike Iarossi took home 1st prize. Blockbuster Video also ran their own World Game Championships in the early 1990s, co-hosted by GamePro magazine. Citizens from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Chile were eligible to compete. Games from the 1994 championships included NBA Jam and Virtua Racing . Television shows featuring esports during this period include
2835-551: The Tokyo Olympic Games Committee for the 2020 Summer Olympics, four esports organizations have worked with Japan's leading consumer organization to exempt esports tournaments from gambling law restrictions. Takeo Kawamura , a member of the Japanese House of Representatives and of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party , led a coalition of ruling and opposing politicians to support esports, called
2940-638: The digital collectible card game (DCCG) genre since its release in 2014. While it is common for video games to be designed with the experience of the player in game being the only priority, many successful esports games have been designed to be played professionally from the beginning. Developers may decide to add dedicated esports features, or even make design compromises to support high level competition. Games such as StarCraft II , League of Legends , and Dota 2 have all been designed, at least in part, to support professional competition. Mousesports Mouz (stylized as MOUZ ), formerly mousesports ,
3045-671: The eGames , was held alongside the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro , though this was not supported by the IOC. During the Eighth Olympic Summit in December 2019, the IOC reiterated that it would only consider sports-simulating games for any official Olympic event, but it would look at two paths for such games in the future: those that promoted good physical and mental health lifestyles, and virtual reality and augmented reality games that included physical activity. In
3150-441: The "Electronic Circus", was used to feature these players in live challenges before audiences, and draw more people to video games. These video game players and tournaments were featured in well-circulated newspapers and popular magazines including Life and Time and became minor celebrities at the time, such as Billy Mitchell . Besides establishing the competitive nature of games, these types of promotional events all formed
3255-568: The 1990s led to the foundation of the international Evolution Championship Series (EVO) esports tournament in 1996. Large esports tournaments in the 1990s include the 1990 Nintendo World Championships , which toured across the United States, and held its finals at Universal Studios Hollywood in California. Nintendo held a 2nd World Championships in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System called
ELeague - Misplaced Pages Continue
3360-471: The 2007 World Series of Video Games tournament that was held in Louisville, Kentucky . The G4 television channel originally covered video games exclusively, but broadened its scope to cover technology and men's lifestyle, though has now shutdown. During the 2010s, esports grew tremendously, incurring a large increase in both viewership and prize money. Although large tournaments were founded before
3465-578: The 2015 World Championship hosted by the International Esports Federation , an esports panel of guests from international sports society discussed the future recognition of esports as a legitimate sport. Russia was the first country that classified "cybersport" as an official sport discipline on 25 July 2001. After a series of reforms in Russian sports, it was classified as a sport again on 12 March 2004. In July 2006, it
3570-561: The 21st century, the number and scope of tournaments has increased significantly, going from about 10 tournaments in 2000 to about 260 in 2010. Many successful tournaments were founded during this period, including the World Cyber Games , the Intel Extreme Masters , and Major League Gaming . The proliferation of tournaments included experimentation with competitions outside traditional esports genres. For example,
3675-520: The Americas , which host regional and international events. The most common video game genres associated with esports are multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), first-person shooter (FPS), fighting games , card , battle royales , and real-time strategy (RTS) games. Popular esports franchises include League of Legends , Dota , Counter-Strike , Valorant , Overwatch , Street Fighter , Super Smash Bros. and StarCraft . Among
3780-519: The Brazilians joining SK Gaming and the Danish players forming a new team, Team X. ELeague saw this as a promotional campaign for the teams, thus, disqualifying both teams from the tournament. It was later reported that at least five ELeague participants— Cloud9 , Echo Fox , NRG Esports , Team Liquid , and Team SoloMid —petitioned to prevent the current SK Gaming from inheriting Luminosity's spot in
3885-748: The British shows GamesMaster and Bad Influence! ; the Australian game show A*mazing , where in the final round contestants competed in a video game face-off; and the Canadian game show Video & Arcade Top 10 . In the 1990s, many games benefited from increasing internet connectivity , especially PC games . Inspired by the fighting games Street Fighter II , Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting , id Software 's John Romero established competitive multiplayer in online games with Doom ' s deathmatch mode in 1993. Tournaments established in
3990-614: The Europe finals. In the grand finals, Misfits defeated EnVyUs three games to one to take home one third of the prize pool. ELeague hosted the Injustice 2 World Championships that started on October 27, 2017, and will end on November 10, 2017. Sixteen players qualified for the tournament and competed for US$ 250,000. Players were separated into two groups of eight. Each group would be an eight player, best of five, double elimination bracket. Only two players from each group would make it to
4095-608: The French government started working on a project to regulate and recognize esports. The Games and Amusements Board of the Philippines started issuing athletic licenses to Filipino esports players who are vouched for by a professional esports team in July 2017. To help promote esports as a legitimate sport, several esports events have been run alongside more traditional international sports competitions. The 2007 Asian Indoor Games
4200-647: The Games. In September 2021, the Olympic Council of Asia announced eight esports games will officially debut as medal sports for the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. In December 2021, the IOC confirmed its Olympic Virtual Series (OVS) will return in 2022. The first edition of the OVS which ran from 13 May to 23 June, featured nearly 250,000 participants and had more than two million entries. In January 2022,
4305-521: The IOC and the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) held a symposium and invited major figures in esports, including Epic Games ' Mark Rein , Blizzard Entertainment 's Mike Morhaime , and esports players Dario "TLO" Wünsch, Jacob "Jake" Lyon , and Se-yeon "Geguri" Kim , for these organizations "to gain a deeper understanding of esports, their impact and likely future development, so that [they] can jointly consider
ELeague - Misplaced Pages Continue
4410-709: The IOC and the Singapore National Olympic Council held the inaugural Olympic Esports Week in Singapore in June 2023. Games featured at the event included: In June 2024, the IOC Executive Board announced the proposal to establish the Olympic Esports Games during the 142nd IOC Session held prior to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, with the inaugural event to take place in 2025 at Saudi Arabia following
4515-516: The IOC announced the appointment of the organization's first ever head of virtual sport, tasked with the development of virtual sport for the global Olympic body, increasing the organization's engagement with gaming communities, and overseeing the Olympic Virtual Series, IOC's first licensed non-physical sports event. The inaugural series included virtual baseball, cycling, rowing, esailing and motorsports events. In February 2022,
4620-517: The Japan esports Union, or JeSU. Kawamura said that they would be willing to pass laws to further exempt esports as needed so that esports athletes can make a living playing these sports. So far, this has resulted in the ability of esports players to obtain exemption licenses to allow them to play, a similar mechanism needed for professional athletes in other sports in Japan to play professionally. The first such licenses were given out in mid-July 2018, via
4725-603: The Last Chance Qualifier bracket. In addition, the top two third-place teams move on to the Last Chance Qualifier bracket. The Last Chance Qualifier teams play in an eight-team, single-elimination bracket, in which two teams move on to the Playoffs bracket. The Playoffs consisted of the six group winners— Team EnVyUs , Fnatic , Natus Vincere , Cloud9 , Astralis , and Ninjas in Pyjamas —and the two teams out of
4830-564: The Last Chance Qualifier— mousesports and Virtus.pro . The finals took place on July 30, 2016. It headed Fnatic and Virtus.pro, in which Virtus.pro won 2–0, and the inaugural ELeague season. Luminosity Gaming and SK Gaming were both disqualified from ELeague. The Luminosity players, coach, and manager had all signed with SK to play with the team in the future prior to joining Luminosity. After weeks of contract disputes, Luminosity and SK settled to an agreement, resulting in
4935-490: The Ministry stating that they anticipate over 2 million such people in this profession in five years. In 2013, Canadian League of Legends player Danny "Shiphtur" Le became the first pro gamer to receive an American P-1A visa , a category designated for "Internationally Recognized Athletes". In 2014, Turkey's Ministry of Youth and Sports started issuing esports licenses to players certified as professionals. In 2016,
5040-513: The Olympics fitting "with the rules and regulations of the Olympic movement". Another article by Andy Stout suggests that 106 million people viewed the 2017 Worlds Esports competition . International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach has noted that the IOC is troubled by violent games and the lack of a global sanctioning body for esports. Bach acknowledged that many Olympic sports originated from violent combat, but stated that "sport
5145-428: The Playoffs. SK Gaming's Epitácio "TACO" de Melo alleged that his team was not notified of the ruling before it was publicly announced. At the end of the season 1 finals, analyst Richard Lewis announced that the second season of ELeague would air on October 7, 2016. ELeague confirmed that the second season will once again use CS:GO . The second season strayed away from the first season's format. Instead, it reflected
5250-555: The Season 2 title, tarik and RUSH were transferred to Cloud9, and NAF was moved to the backup position and then later joined Renegades , leaving mixwell as the only remaining member of the squad. OpTic later brought in four Europeans to fill up its lineup. Replacing the majority of the lineup would thus disqualify the team based on the ELeague ruleset. A third team from the Americas qualifier, which would later be Renegades, took its spot in
5355-445: The September 2006 FUN Technologies Worldwide Webgames Championship featured 71 contestants competing in casual games for a $ 1 million grand prize. The popularity and emergence of online streaming services have helped the growth of esports in this period, and are the most common method of watching tournaments. Twitch , an online streaming platform launched in 2011, routinely streams popular esports competitions. In 2013, viewers of
SECTION 50
#17327918107075460-536: The Turner Studios facility in Atlanta . ELeague Season 1 began on May 24, 2016. Twenty-four teams were divided into six groups. After each team in a group plays the other three teams in its group twice, the teams are placed into a four-team, single-elimination bracket, with seeding based on the results of the group results. The winner of the group bracket moves on to the Playoffs and the runner-up moves on to
5565-470: The competition. In 2015, the first Esports Arena was launched in Santa Ana, California , as the United States' first dedicated esports facility. The global esports audience reached 662.6 million in 2020, and 921 million in 2022. In 2021, China announced a law which forbade minors from playing video games, which they described as "spiritual opium", for more than three hours a week. With China being
5670-505: The concept of direct, tournament-level competition between two players. Previously, video games most often relied on high scores to determine the best player, but this changed with Street Fighter II , where players would instead challenge each other directly, "face-to-face", to determine the best player, paving the way for the competitive multiplayer and deathmatch modes found in modern action games . The popularity of fighting games such as Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom in
5775-552: The country. Physical viewership of esports competitions and the scope of events have increased in tandem with the growth of online viewership. In 2013, the Season 3 League of Legends World Championship was held in a sold-out Staples Center . The 2014 League of Legends World Championship in Seoul , South Korea, had over 40,000 fans in attendance and featured the band Imagine Dragons , and opening and closing ceremonies in addition to
5880-731: The country. Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Park Jie-won coined the term "Esports" at the founding ceremony of the 21st Century Professional Game Association (currently Korean e-Sports Association ) in 2000. " Evo Moment 37 ", also known as the "Daigo Parry", refers to a portion of a Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike semi-final match held at Evolution Championship Series 2004 (Evo 2004) between Daigo Umehara (playing Ken Masters ) and Justin Wong (playing Chun-Li ). During this match, Umehara made an unexpected comeback by parrying 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move while having only one pixel of vitality . Umehara subsequently won
5985-905: The creation of the Halo Championship Series and a prize pool of US$ 50,000. Both Blizzard Entertainment and Riot Games have their own collegiate outreach programs with their North American Collegiate Championship. Since 2013 universities and colleges in the United States such as Robert Morris University Illinois and the University of Pikeville have recognized esports players as varsity level athletes and offer athletic scholarships . In 2017, Tespa , Blizzard Entertainment's collegiate esports division, unveiled its new initiative to provide scholarships and prizes for collegiate esports clubs competing in its tournaments worth US$ 1 million. Colleges have begun granting scholarships to students who qualify to play esports professionally for
6090-399: The development of esports worldwide. Competitions exist for many titles and genres, though the most popular games as of the early 2020s are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , Call of Duty , League of Legends , Dota 2 , Fortnite , Rocket League , Valorant , Hearthstone , Super Smash Bros. Melee , StarCraft II and Overwatch . Hearthstone has also popularized
6195-448: The early 2010s, viewership was about 85% male and 15% female, with most viewers between the ages of 18 and 34. By the late 2010s, it was estimated that by 2020, the total audience of esports would grow to 454 million viewers, with revenue increasing to more than US$ 1 billion, with China accounting for 35% of the global esports revenue. The earliest known video game competition took place on 19 October 1972 at Stanford University for
6300-425: The end, OpTic Gaming defeated Astralis, two games to one, to win season two of ELeague. For the third season, ELeague invited thirty-two players from around the world to compete in this tournament. Sixteen of the players were invited based on their 2016 Capcom Pro Tour results and the other sixteen received invites from Capcom . The 32 players will advance to the regular season and then eight players will advance to
6405-498: The esports scene, Nintendo hosted Wii Games Summer 2010. Spanning over a month, the tournament had over 400,000 participants, making it the largest and most expansive tournament in the company's history. In 2014 Nintendo hosted an invitational Super Smash Bros. for Wii U competitive tournament at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) press conference that was streamed online on Twitch. Halo developers 343 Industries announced in 2014 plans to revive Halo as an esport with
SECTION 60
#17327918107076510-482: The event to Romania instead. The 2022 Commonwealth Games featured esports competitions as a pilot ahead of being a potential full medal event for 2026. In Greece , in March 2022 a law entered into force recognising and regulating esports and in June 2023, the relevant federation for esports has been officially given recognition and included in the list of sports federations. The Olympic Games are also seen as
6615-625: The format of that of a Valve -sponsored CS:GO major, such as MLG Columbus 2016 or ESL One Cologne 2016 . The season will feature open and closed qualifiers, double elimination group stages, and—like last season—a Playoffs. The second season began on October 21, 2016. The eight teams in the playoffs were the group winners— mousesports , Virtus.pro , Astralis , and Team Dignitas —and the group runners-up— FaZe Clan , Ninjas in Pyjamas , SK Gaming , and OpTic Gaming . The finals pitted Astralis, which defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas and SK Gaming, and OpTic Gaming, which defeated mousesports and FaZe Clan. In
6720-485: The former ENCE esports Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege roster, as well as coach Michiel "oVie" van Dartel but later dropped the team on 1 July 2019. On 14 March, mousesports revamps their roster with the acquisition of woxic, frozen, and karrigan. While oskar is released, suNny and STYKO is benched from the line-up. On 22 June 2020, mousesports announced their withdrawal from the RLCS and competitive Rocket League as
6825-410: The game Spacewar . Stanford students were invited to an "Intergalactic spacewar olympics" whose grand prize was a year's subscription for Rolling Stone , with Bruce Baumgart winning the five-man-free-for-all tournament, and Slim Tovar and Robert E. Maas winning the team competition. Contemporary esports has roots in competitive face-to-face arcade video game competitions. A forerunner of esports
6930-709: The games. Each event in auto racing, baseball, cycling, rowing and sailing will be managed by an IOC-recognized governing body for the sport along with a video game publisher of a game for that sport. For example, the auto racing event will be based on the Gran Turismo series and overseen by the International Automobile Federation along with Polyphony Digital . The baseball, cycling, and esailing events will be based on eBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball 2020 , Zwift , and Virtual Regatta , respectively. The organization committee for
7035-524: The government encouraged esports, stating that by participating in esports, players were also "training the body for China". Furthermore, by early 2019, China recognized esports players as an official profession within the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security 's Occupation Skill Testing Authority recommendations, as well as professional gaming operators, those that distribute and manage esports games. By July 2019, more than 100,000 people had registered themselves as professional gamers under this, with
7140-439: The greatest-known tragedies in electronic sports history, mouz Counter-Strike player Antonio "cyx" Daniloski died on 29 July 2010 in a car accident caused by tire failure after missing a flight to China to compete for his team. The aftermath of his death featured numerous memorials, tributes, eulogies and a permanent dedication on the official mousesports website. Several months following Daniloski's death, mousesports announced
7245-690: The late 1990s include the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), QuakeCon , and the Professional Gamers League . PC games played at the CPL included the Counter-Strike series, Quake series, StarCraft , and Warcraft . The growth of esports in South Korea is thought to have been influenced by the mass building of broadband Internet networks following the 1997 Asian financial crisis . It
7350-409: The late 2010s, leaders in Japan became involved in helping bring esports to the 2020 Summer Olympics and beyond, given the country's reputation as a major video game industry centre. Esports in Japan had not flourished due to the country's anti-gambling laws that also prevent paid professional gaming tournaments, but there were efforts starting in late 2017 to eliminate this issue. At the suggestion of
7455-410: The main playoffs. In the playoffs, players played in a four player, best of five, double elimination bracket. In the end, Dragon defeated A F0xy Grandpa from the winner's side of the bracket to take home $ 150,000 of the $ 250,000 prize pool home. ELeague announced the Rocket League Cup that would start on December 1, 2017, and end on December 3, 2017. The studio invited eight premier teams from around
7560-548: The major and eight other teams will play through a qualifier. ELeague Major 2017 took place from January 22 to 29, making it the longest-running major with eight days. Previous majors lasted three to six days. Like previous majors, eight teams received an automatic bid based on their top eight placement at the previous major, ESL One Cologne 2016 , and another eight teams qualify through the Major Qualifier. The group stage format differed completely from previous majors, as
7665-436: The major would use a 16-team Swiss system rather than the four group GSL system. The top eight teams in this major were Natus Vincere , Virtus.pro , Astralis , and North , FaZe Clan , Fnatic , SK Gaming , and Gambit Gaming , who were called Legends by making the top eight. In the quarterfinals, Astralis defeated Natus Vincere, Fnatic defeated Gambit Gaming, Virtus.pro defeated North, and SK Gaming defeated FaZe Clan. In
7770-523: The match. "Evo Moment #37" is frequently described as the most iconic and memorable moment in the history of competitive video gaming. Being at one point the most-watched competitive gaming moment of all time, it has been compared to sports moments such as Babe Ruth's called shot and the Miracle on Ice . In April 2006, the G7 teams federation were formed by seven prominent Counter-Strike teams. The goal of
7875-757: The most popular tournaments are the League of Legends World Championship , Dota 2 's International , the fighting game-specific Evolution Championship Series (EVO) and Intel Extreme Masters . Many other competitions use a series of league play with sponsored teams, such as the Overwatch League . Although the legitimacy of esports as a true sporting competition remains in question, they have been featured alongside traditional sports in some multinational events in Asia. The International Olympic Committee has discussed their inclusion in future Olympic events. In
7980-421: The nature of the marketing and promotion that formed the basis of modern esports. In 1984, Konami and Centuri jointly held an international Track & Field arcade game competition that drew more than a million players from across Japan and North America. Play Meter in 1984 called it "the coin-op event of the year" and an "event on a scale never before achieved in the industry". As of 2016 , it holds
8085-457: The organisation announced the addition of a star-studded StarCraft: Brood War roster, which originally consisted of several American, Canadian, German, Polish and Ukrainian players. Since their original induction into the organisation, the team completely switched focus to StarCraft II during the Wings of Liberty beta period and has since become one of the greatest-renowned teams. In one of
8190-457: The organization was to increase stability in the esports world, particularly in standardizing player transfers and working with leagues and organizations. The founding members were 4Kings , Fnatic , Made in Brazil , Mousesports , NiP , SK-Gaming , and Team 3D . The organization only lasted until 2009 before dissolving. The 2000s was a popular time for televised esports. Television coverage
8295-467: The platform watched 12 billion minutes of video on the service, with the two most popular Twitch broadcasters being League of Legends and Dota 2 . During one day of The International, Twitch recorded 4.5 million unique views, with each viewer watching for an average of two hours. The modern esports boom has also seen a rise in video games companies embracing the esports potential of their products. After many years of ignoring and at times suppressing
8400-505: The playoffs. The fourth season of ELeague returned to competitive play in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive . Initially, twelve teams were invited to the competition based on previous ELeague results. Another four teams would have to qualify in their respective regional qualifiers. However, Season 2 champion OpTic Gaming only kept one of its five players, as stanislaw moved to Team Liquid shortly after winning
8505-633: The plot of various films, including 1982's Tron . In the UK, the BBC game show First Class included competitive video game rounds featuring the contemporary arcade games, such as Hyper Sports , 720° and Paperboy . In the United States, the Amusement Players Association held its first U.S. National Video Game Team competition in January 1987, where Vs. Super Mario Bros.
8610-571: The qualifier for the main tournament. The winners of each continent faced off in the ELeague Arena. The tournament took place between August 1 and September 30, 2016. In North America, the final four teams were Team EnVyUs , Cloud9 , Fnatic , and NRG Esports . EnVyUs defeated Fnatic 3–1 in the North American final. In Europe, the final four teams were Ninjas in Pyjamas , Misfits , Rogue, and FaZe Clan . Misfits defeated Rogue 3–2 in
8715-537: The record for the largest organized video game competition of all time, according to Guinness World Records . Televised esports events aired during this period included the American show Starcade which ran from 1982 to 1984 airing a total of 133 episodes, on which contestants would attempt to beat each other's high scores on an arcade game. A video game tournament was included as part of TV show That's Incredible! , and tournaments were also featured as part of
8820-602: The retirement of remaining Counter-Strike players Fatih "gob b" Dayik, Navid "Kapio" Javadi and stand-in Christian "Blizzard" Chmiel, effective following the ESL Pro Series Season XVII Finals. In March 2012, mousesports announced that it would be ending its support of its Counter-Strike division, citing the organisation's perception of the lack of market, considering the rising prominence of Dota 2 and League of Legends . Mouz picked up
8925-460: The return of Martin "STYKO" Styk to the starting line-up. On 15 November, the coach of the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege team announced the team was dropped by mousesports and he would not stay with the team. On 10 January 2019, mousesports announced the acquisition of Linus "al0t" Möllergren from compLexity Gaming , replacing Skyline. On 13 February 2019, mousesports announced the signing of their second Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege team,
9030-419: The school. Colleges such as Columbia College , Robert Morris University , and Indiana Institute of Technology have taken part in this. In 2018, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology began a tuition scholarship program for esports players. In 2014, the largest independent esports league, Electronic Sports League , partnered with the local brand Japan Competitive Gaming to try and grow esports in
9135-456: The semifinals, Astralis defeated Fnatic after a close game one and a clean game two. Virtus.pro scraped by a somewhat crippled SK Gaming in a close 2–0 set. The finals pitted Astralis, who was in its first major championships, and Virtus.pro, who was in its second and had one major title under its belt. In a close and intense three-game set, Astralis defeated Virtus.pro—12–16, 16–14, 16–14—to win its first-ever major title. Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye
9240-628: The show as a special guest. In the last day of the ELeague Major: Boston 2018 , host Richard Lewis announced that a new Premier season of ELeague would debut on July 21, 2018. On September 27, 2016, Valve announced the tenth major in CS:GO and the first major of 2017: the ELeague Major 2017 , also known as ELeague Atlanta 2017. Like other majors, the top eight teams from the last major, ESL One Cologne 2016 , will be invited to
9345-506: The tournament "proved to be the biggest event ever" in the arcade game industry, and was attended by members from leading Japanese newspapers and leisure industry companies. Sega stressed "the importance of such tournaments to foster better business relationships between the maker-location-customer and create an atmosphere of competition on TV amusement games". In 1977, Gremlin Industries (a year before being acquired by Sega) held
9450-585: The tournament to sixteen for CS:GO. The third season of ELeague featured the popular fighting game Street Fighter . EL also featured side events, such as the Overwatch Open and the Rocket League Cup. The addition of esports programming was of part of a plan to revamp original programming for TBS. The broadcast is simultaneously available online through Twitch and YouTube , with additional content also being streamed. Matches are played at
9555-508: The tournament. The playoffs pitted the group winners— FaZe Clan , North , Cloud9 , and Astralis —and the group runners-up— G2 Esports , Fnatic , Team EnVyUs , and Heroic. Astralis defeated Fnatic and Cloud9 to reach the finals and FaZe Clan defeated Team EnVyUs and North on its path to the finals. Astralis kept its same lineup as it had when it won the ELeague Major 2017 while FaZe Clan brought in its new superteam and had not lost
9660-564: The ways in which [they] may collaborate to the mutual benefit of all of sport in the years ahead". The IOC has tested the potential for esports through exhibition games. With support from the IOC, Intel sponsored exhibition esports events for StarCraft II and Steep prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , and five South Korean esports players were part of the Olympic Torch relay. A similar exhibition showcase,
9765-532: The world that included Chiefs Esports Club , Cloud9 , G2 Esports , Gale Force eSports, Ghost Gaming, Method, Mock-It eSports, and PSG eSports. The teams competed for a $ 150,000 prize pool. In a tense grand finals between G2 Esports and Gale Force eSports, G2 was able to take down the then current world champions in a close best-of-seven series, four games to three, to take home $ 70,000 of the $ 150,000 prize pool. Esports Esports ( / ˈ iː s p ɔːr t s / ), short for electronic sports ,
9870-421: The world to compete in two 10-week league seasons annually, which includes a regular season, playoffs, and a championship. ELeague currently has no plans to lock teams into exclusivity, unlike the Championship Gaming Series , a previous attempt to bring professional video games to television in the United States . Matches are broadcast live on TBS every Monday night. ELeague later shortened the number of teams in
9975-657: Was being called one of the best series of all time in Global Offensive, Cloud9 upset FaZe Clan—14–16, 16–10, 22–19—to take home the Boston 2018 major. In addition, Cloud9 became the first ever North American team to win a major title. In July 2016, ELeague announced the first Overwatch Open , starting in August 2016, with a total prize pool of $ 300,000. Sixteen teams took part in the main tournament, eight from North America and eight from Europe, and many more took part in
10080-480: Was best established in South Korea, with StarCraft and Warcraft III competitions regularly televised by dedicated 24-hour cable TV game channels Ongamenet and MBCGame . Elsewhere, esports television coverage was sporadic. The German GIGA Television covered esports until its shutdown in 2009. The United Kingdom satellite television channel XLEAGUE.TV broadcast esports competitions from 2007 to 2009. The online esports only channel ESL TV briefly attempted
10185-420: Was created, mousesports was one of the greatest gaming organisations in Europe, consisting of Counter-Strike , Warcraft III , Quake 4 , Battlefield 1942 and Unreal Tournament divisions. On 13 May 2007, mousesports announced that it had acquired Nihilum, the officially recognised premiere worldwide World of Warcraft organisation, with Nihilum recognised as a subsidiary of mousesports. The guild
10290-633: Was held by Sega in 1974, the All Japan TV Game Championships, a nationwide arcade video game tournament in Japan. The tournament was intended by Sega to promote the play and sales of video games in the country. There were local tournaments held in 300 locations across Japan, and then sixteen finalists from across the country competed in the final elimination rounds at Tokyo 's Hotel Pacific. Prizes awarded included television sets ( color and black-and-white ), cassette tape recorders and transistor radios . According to Sega,
10395-462: Was heralded by Taito 's Space Invaders in 1978, which popularized the use of a persistent high score for all players. Several video games in the next several years followed suit, adding other means of tracking high scores such with high score tables that included the players' initials in games like Asteroids in 1979. High score-chasing became a popular activity and a means of competition. The Space Invaders Championship held by Atari in 1980
10500-869: Was named the MVP of the major. On October 5, 2017, Valve announced that ELeague would host the first major of 2018 and the twelfth major in CS:GO history: ELeague Major: Boston 2018 . Unlike past majors, Boston major featured 24 teams as Valve expanded the format to include what was formerly known as "The Major Qualifier", now rebranded as "The New Challengers Stage". This major was the first in CS:GO major tournaments' history to take place in two different cities. The group stage took place in Turner Studios, where all ELeague season matches were played, in Atlanta from January 19 to 22. The playoffs took place in Boston from January 26 to 28 at
10605-498: Was popular among competitive arcade players. The 1988 game Netrek was an Internet game for up to 16 players, written almost entirely in cross-platform open-source software . Netrek was the third Internet game , the first Internet game to use metaservers to locate open game servers, and the first to have persistent user information . In 1993 it was credited by Wired Magazine as "the first online sports game". The fighting game Street Fighter II (1991) popularized
10710-486: Was remade into a community called "Nihilum: mousesports MMO". Nihilum was mousesports' consistently strongest gaming team in the European competition. However, the relations between mousesports and Nihilum grew uncertain in the fall of 2008 and finally, on 10 November, it was announced that the former PvE team of SK Gaming would be merging with the players of Nihilum, effectively ending the partnership that lasted for over
10815-434: Was removed from a list of sport disciplines because it did not fit the new sport standards. On 7 July 2016, The Ministry of Sport decided to add cybersport into the sport registry and on 13 April 2017, esports become an official sport discipline once again. China was another one of the first countries to recognize esports as a real sport in 2003, despite concerns at the time that video games were addictive. Through this,
10920-516: Was the earliest large scale video game competition, attracting more than 10,000 participants across the United States, establishing competitive gaming as a mainstream hobby. It was won by Rebecca Heineman . Walter Day , owner of an arcade in Iowa, had taken it upon himself to travel across the United States to record the high scores on various games in 1980, and on his return, founded Twin Galaxies ,
11025-692: Was the first notable multi-sport competition including esports as an official medal-winning event, alongside other traditional sports, and the later editions of the Asian Indoor Games , as well as its successor the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games , have always included esports as an official medal event or an exhibition event up to now. Moreover, the Asian Games , which is the Asian top-level multi-sport competition, also included esports as
#706293