eSports tournaments are some of the most highly-anticipated events in the world, and there have been some amazing events over the years. Gamers from all around the globe come together to compete for glory and prize money.
It's crazy to think that just a decade or two ago, the idea of eSports being as large as some Olympic sports would be laughed at. Yet today, here we are, eSports tournaments selling out stadiums and streaming live to millions of viewers worldwide.
Some of these tournaments have been around for years, while others are still in their infancy. In this guide, we'll look at the ten biggest eSports tournaments of all time.
Brace yourselves – it's about to get competitive!
#1 - DOTA 2: The International 2019
This tournament, hosted by Valve, was held in Shanghai, China. It featured teams from all over the world competing for a whopping $34 million prize pool, most of which was actually crowdfunded via the in-game Battle Pass.
Team OG emerged as the victor and took home the lion's share of the prize money at $15 million. Team Liquid, PSG.LGD and Team Secret came 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively. The tournament wasn't the largest in terms of viewers, with a peak of around 1.9 million, but it still had over 88 million hours watched over the course of the series.
You can watch the nail-biting final overflowing with epic moments here;
True Sight : The International 2019 Finals
#2 - The League of Legends World Championship 2022
Often known as 'Worlds,' organized by Riot Games, League of Legends is renowned for having some of the biggest eSports tournaments and some of the most anticipated among video game players.
Hosted in San Francisco, 24 teams from 13 different countries competed for a $2 million prize fund. Korea is one of the best League of Legends regions in the world, home to some of the most incredible players, including Faker.
In this year's final, T1 fought it out with known underdogs DRX for what was one of the most intense showdowns in Korean eSports history. DRX came out on top in the incredible five-game series in front of 18,000 fans in the stadium and 5.15 million concurrent viewers online, making it the most-watched LoL event in history.
#3 - Overwatch League 2020 Grand Finals
Hosted by Blizzard Entertainment in Philadelphia, USA, for its third year, the Overwatch Grand Finals featured eight teams from around the world competing for a $1.5 million prize pool.
Once again, the Korean eSport titans, Seoul Dynasty, were expected to win, only this time having the rug swept beneath their feet as the San Francisco Shock emerged as the champion and took home the main share of the winnings in a 4-2 sweep.
Viewership was high, with over 180 thousand concurrent viewers tuning into the YouTube broadcast and over 1.39 million average minute viewers in China alone, all in all, raising viewer counts by 38% on the year before.
#4 - The Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2019
The Intel Extreme Masters is always a tournament to keep your eyes on if you're looking for thrilling gameplay, nail-biting moves, and some of the best examples of eSports you'll find in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive world.
The tournament, hosted in Katowice, Poland, by Valve, saw sixteen teams from all around the world competing for a $1 million prize fund. Astralis took the $500,000 share of the prize pool, followed by ENCE.
#5 - DreamHack Winter 2014
This Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is an S-tier tournament held in Jönköping, Sweden by DreamHack and Valve. It featured sixteen teams from all over the world competing for a $250,000 prize pool. This might not seem like a lot, but tournaments like this laid the groundwork for modern eSports.
Even back in 2014, it seemed unreal that eSports could be a viable sport and have the viewership to support such tournaments. Yet, events like this proved it was possible.
Team LDLC took home the main share of the prize, followed by Ninjas in Pyjamas.
#6 - Fortnite World Cup 2019
Fortnite World Cup Solo Finals - Full Match (Bugha)
The Fortnite World Cup was one of the biggest events in eSports. Ever. The series took place over the course of ten weeks between April and June and allowed anybody to enter to stake their claim at the incredible $100 million prize pool.
Plenty of online events took place, offering prizes in multiple game modes, including solos and duos. The finals were held on 28th July 2019 and were won by 16-year-old Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf from the US, who took home a whopping $3 million.
There were also various prizes of $112,000 to $1.2 million for 2nd to 20th place, with the rest of the top 100 players receiving $50,000.
#7 - PUBG Global Invitational 2018
This tournament was the first-ever major international PUBG tournament ever to take place, featuring 20 teams from 11 different countries that battled it out for first place and the $2 million prize pool. The champion was Gen.G, who took home the lion's share of the prize money, $420,000 for the third-person perspective category, and Oh My God for the 1st person.
#8 - EVO Japan 2019
Perhaps less known to us here in the US, Evo Japan is a Japanese fighting game tournament that features various of the most popular fighting games. The games list includes;
- Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition
- Tekken 7
- Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2
- BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle
- Soul Calibur VI
- The King of Fighters XIV
Held in Fukuoka, Japan, by EVO LLC, this tournament was the second series of this tournament, and while mainly featuring Japanese and Korean players, there were some Western players involved. Single-player 1st places won players around $21,000 per game.
#9 - Call of Duty World Championship 2013
Call of Duty Championship 2013 Final | Fariko Impact VS Envyus *2hrs Live* (Black Ops 2)
Even as far back as 2013, eSports competitions were being held, but none were as popular as the Call of Duty World Championship.
This was the first Call of Duty tournament ever to take place and was hosted in Hollywood, USA, by Activision Blizzard. There was a huge $1 million prize pool, with Fariko Impact coming first with a $400,000 win.
The games were played on Xbox consoles and on the Black Ops II franchise episode.
#10 - WESG 2017 Grand Finals
Fnatic champion 🏆 WESG 2017 World Grand Final CSGO 2018 Winning moment vs Space Soldiers #CyberWins
The World Electronic Sports Game competition is a huge CS:GO tournament, and in 2017, the series hosted its second-ever event with a prize pool of $1.5 million. Teams worldwide took part after fighting for their place through regional LAN events.
Hainan Sporting Events Co held this event in Haikou, China, and after some edge-of-your-seat gameplay, Fnatic took home the 1st place win, bagging $800,000.
There you have it - the ten biggest eSports tournaments of all time! It's clear that eSports are growing in popularity yearly, with bigger prize pools and more intense competition than ever before.
Have you watched any of these tournaments? Ever thought about competing? Victory has never been closer, and with the rise of eSports continuing to grow year or year, there's never been a better time to get started.
If not, why not start training now and join the ranks of the world's top gamers?
Good luck!