Over time, eSports is becoming an increasingly popular phenomenon in the world. More and more tournaments are appearing, new disciplines are appearing, prize money is growing, and e-sports federations are being created. It is obvious that computer sports are slowly “coming out of the shadows”, irreversibly turning into an industry. Today, eSports is a whole range of popular games of different genres that have a pronounced competitive component. What are these genres that have given the world a new, constantly developing industry of competitions and entertainment? Let's get a look.
Shooters are pioneers in eSports
Let us remember that it all started with a couple of shooter-adventure games, namely Quake and Doom 2, which introduced a network mode and maps for multiplayer. Many players were immediately attracted by the opportunity to fight in the game not against artificial intelligence, but against the same gamers.
A new round of development of the shooter genre in the eSports direction was the release of the game Counter Strike from Valve. The developers did a great job on the physics and mechanics of the game, and also did not forget about its graphical component. CS spread across the planet with incredible speed, conquering the hearts and minds of many players, breaking into computer clubs and even computer science classrooms.
More and more new versions of Counter Strike (1.2, 1.3, 1.4) made the game more perfect, thought out down to the smallest detail. But the most striking event for CS was the release of patch 1.6. It was after its release that the game truly became a legend, a masterpiece, a super popular project by Valve and for many years included shooters in the list of the most popular genres in e-sports.
Counter Strike: Source, released later, did not repeat the success of CS 1.6, but it was a kind of predecessor to one of the most famous shooters in e-sports at the moment - Counter Strike: Global Offensive. CS:GO has attracted huge attention from many players around the world. Today, this particular game is the most popular shooter in computer sports, which certainly provides the gaming genre with a prominent place in this area.
Call of Duty is another well-known series of games that is gradually gaining popularity in eSports. At the moment, competitions in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Black ops II are becoming increasingly popular in the United States, which creates prospects for the discipline to reach a global level.
Continuing the topic of shooters in eSports, it’s worth remembering some less successful games, namely Point Blank and Warface. These disciplines are not as widely known as the previous ones on our list, but they have had a certain audience of fans for quite some time. Today, the shooter is one of the most popular gaming genres in eSports and you can’t argue with this fact.
Strategy and MOBA games
StarCraft, WarCraft, DotA, Dota 2, League of Legends (LoL) - this is a list of the most famous ever strategy and MOBA games in the field of eSports. Of course, a good half of the games on this list are very popular in computer sports today. We are, of course, talking about Dota 2, League of Legends and StarCraft. It is no coincidence that we decided to combine two genres in our list, because as you know, they have a lot in common and MOBAs themselves are a kind of derivative of strategies.
At the moment, LoL is the most popular eSports discipline in the world. Many people have probably heard about entire stadiums of fans of this MOBA game, who gather every year in different parts of the world to watch professional cybersportsmen play with pleasure and great interest. Dota 2 is the main competitor of League of Legends, although it is significantly less popular in the world than LoL. However, this MOBA game continues to develop, and its developers, represented by Valve, never cease to amaze fans with grandiose tournaments with record prize money for the entire eSports industry.
As for strategies specifically, StarCraft 2 has long come to the fore. In the recent past, WarCraft III was also very popular in e-sports, but now this game no longer meets the modern requirements of gamers and the industry as a whole. Note that both games are projects of the same gaming company - Blizzard, which has made a huge contribution to the development of e-sports, developing not only the above-mentioned strategies, but also the well-known Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm. Okay, let's not go off topic.
In general, the strategy genre is quite firmly rooted in eSports, and if we talk about MOBA, the result here is simply excellent. MOBA games are the most popular among eSports disciplines and it is extremely difficult to compete with representatives of this genre, especially when it comes to League of Legends.
Tank simulators
The most prominent representative of this genre in professional e-sports is, of course, the well-known World of Tanks (WoT). For about five years now, the game continues to increase the audience of its fans and the genre as a whole. Its genre itself is absolutely unique, except for its MMO component. At the moment, this game does not have any clear genre competitors among other eSports disciplines. In general, of course, there are already analogues in the gaming industry, but they are still far from reaching the level of a full-fledged eSports discipline.
So, the beloved WoT brought tank simulators to the list of the most popular gaming genres in e-sports, and also became the most popular game in this genre and currently continues to firmly hold its position. For such achievements, of course, one cannot help but praise the developers and fans of the game, who remain devoted fans of their beloved World of Tanks.
Based on the foregoing, today there are four most popular gaming genres in the field of eSports:
- Shooters
- MOVA
- Strategies
- Tank simulators
Perhaps in the foreseeable future there will be many more of them, but at the moment it is these game genres that have a pronounced competitive component, which ensures their enormous popularity.
Rating: 7.4 (18 votes)The interface of this game is extremely convenient and simple. In the “dressing room” you can find everything you might need - a store, equipment, a list of clans, ribbons and medals for achievements. You can download the game for free; if you wish, you can easily buy everything you want for real money - super helmets, beautiful pistols, etc.
PlayBattle Carnival is a dynamic shooter that was created specifically for those who love shooting games. The game has a huge number of different characters, and each of them has their own specific abilities and skills.
Starcraft 2 is the sequel to one of the most famous and popular strategy games of all time. During the 12 years that the first Starcraft existed without any sequel, in the gaming industry it managed to go from an ordinary game with an interesting setting to a cult strategy with an audience of millions and regular tournaments around the world.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a card game from Blizzard, in which they again tried to implement their favorite principle of “easy to learn, hard to master.” This game is intended both for those who like to relax online after a working day, and for e-sportsmen.
Heroes of the Storm is one of the most modern MOBAs released by Blizzard, known for games such as World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo. The game takes a completely new approach to the fun and competitive MOBA, making it easy to learn but hard to master.
Many people know about this shooter. Many people have already played CrossFire. What is this game? This is a very successful clone of the popular contra, which today has thousands of its own fans. The developers are constantly introducing new features, so it becomes more and more interesting to play every time.
Counter-Strike: Source is a computer game that is an online team shooter. The project was developed by Valve in 2004. Today Counter-Strike: Source is very popular among users.
This game can be called a copy of Dota, but there are still some distinctive features. In general, the game plot is the same: there are two teams, they appear from different ends of the map. You need to get into the enemy's lair and destroy the crystals. Three paths lead from one base to another - there are evil mobs on them.
The seriousness of e-sports has long been unquestioned by anyone - tournaments Dota 2, CS:GO or League of Legends attract millions of viewers, and annual turnover in this industry reaches a billion dollars. The prize money in the most popular tournaments amounts to millions – and this is far from the limit. The development of e-sports and the expansion of the range of its disciplines has led to the emergence of a phenomenon, although not yet so large-scale, but still promising - mobile e-sports. And if earlier the idea of e-sports tournaments for mobile games caused either a smile or slight bewilderment, now the attitude towards them is changing. What mobile games are currently represented in eSports and why are they interesting?
World of Tanks Blitz
If the famous World of Tanks has long become an eSports discipline, its younger, mobile version has only recently begun to move in this direction. But the promotion is successful - the Blitz Twister Cup tournament has been taking place for two years now, gradually increasing its momentum. 7v7 battles lasting seven minutes are ideal for playing on mobile devices. WoT Blitz competitions take place in the Supremacy mode, which is dynamic and unpredictable and looks quite spectacular, so this game has every chance to gain a foothold in mobile e-sports.
Hearthstone
This CCG has long won its very worthy place among e-sports disciplines. It offers a wide selection of cards from which you can build your own deck and fight your opponents using weapons, spells and summoning creatures. This game surprises with its depth, variety of tactics and unpredictability, and thanks to cross-platform, it makes it easy to switch from tablet to PC and back. The Hearthstone World Championship 2017, organized by Blizzard, gave away $1 million in prize money, and this is a very serious bid for leadership in the field of cyberpsort.
Clash Royale
The developers of Clash of Clans created this multiplayer online game with eSports in mind - it already hosts numerous tournaments with good prize money. Its competitive gameplay, based on card mechanics and lane defense elements, appealed to many players, and short sessions, a wide range of arenas, well-known characters and simple controls complement the overall picture. This game is not at all difficult to get into, but true mastery is not so easy to achieve, so its prospects in eSports look very good.
Clash of Clans
The popularity of this game has been beyond doubt for many years. Its strategic gameplay has long been able to gather a huge army of fans, calling them to battle to protect their own base and attack enemy settlements. Clans and events, raids and friendly tournaments - there is a lot here. The competitive gameplay of CoC made the authors from Supercell pay attention to eSports. They held several tournaments, but the most successful was last year’s Leaders vs YouTubers, which attracted a solid audience of viewers.
Arena of Valor
MOBA Arena of Valor, incredibly popular in China, features PvP matches 5 on 5, 3 on 3 and 1 on 1, intuitive controls, 40 legendary heroes, the number of which is constantly growing, 6 different classes, alliances, voice chat and, of course, tournaments . Developers from Tencent organized a world Arena of Valor tournament at Gamescom 2017, which attracted a large number of spectators. In China, this game is known as King of Glory, and tournaments there attract millions of people. In fact, this project is as close as possible to the ideas of League of Legends, which is why many call this MOBA something like a mobile version of LoL. The game recently began its march through Western app stores, and it seems that it has a great future, including in e-sports.
Planet of Heroes
Another one that recently burst onto mobile MOBA platforms was Planet of Heroes from My.com. It was created specifically for devices with touchscreens, so matches last no more than 7 minutes, and the controls are accessible and intuitive. The characters of Planet of Heroes have a lot of active and passive skills, and the player’s task is to think strategically, use various tactics, find his role in the team and lead it to victory. The developers are planning to hold tournaments for this game and clearly intend to promote it into the field of mobile e-sports.
Vainglory
In fact, it was this game that became the first real mobile MOBA, not inferior to its older computer brothers. It not only offers strategic depth, thoughtful gameplay and colorful fantasy characters, but also fast-paced 5v5 PvP battles designed specifically for mobile platforms. Its controls are polished with touchscreens in mind, and five-minute battles are ideal for short gaming sessions. This project is successful not only among mobile gamers - it made its debut in eSports, and the world Vainglory championships already offer prize pools of over one hundred thousand dollars. The developers from Super Evil Megacorp are constantly updating their project, making significant improvements and adding new content.
Brawl Stars
Another attempt by Supercell to move into eSports, and it looks like it will be successful. The upcoming game combines elements of the MOBA genre with a shooter and a brawler. Three players take part in matches, and gaming sessions are designed to be ideal for mobile devices - only 2.5 minutes each. There are no clearly defined roles of the heroes in the team, due to which their combination will play a significant role in the battle. Its gameplay is as simple as possible; success in it is influenced by reflexes, skill development and knowledge of the map structure. We just have to wait for its global release.
E-sports is blooming and smelling, and more and more popular projects of various genres and directions are falling into the category of e-sports disciplines. In this article, we have collected the top eSports games on PC. If you want to devote yourself and your time to the sport of the future, then read this material and choose the best game in your opinion.
21. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds
The esports popularity of Dota 2 and League of Legends Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds is still a long way off, but the game took its first steps in this direction back in May 2017. Then Bluehole studio and game creator Brendan Greene held the first charity PUBG championship, which brought together 128 famous streamers. A larger gaming tournament with a prize fund of 350 thousand dollars was held in August 2017 as part of the GamesCom exhibition. Well-known esports teams Team Spirit, Team SoloMid, Luminosity Gaming, M19, Cloud 9 and Team Liquid have their own rosters for Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds.
Among the obvious advantages of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds for eSports are a low barrier to entry, no problems with balance, a variety of tactics and possible situations, and equal conditions for victory for all gamers.
Esports competitions for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege began in 2016 with the opening of the ESL tournament platform. Since then, three seasons of the Pro League have been held every year, bringing together teams from all over the world. The prize fund of the first one was 50 thousand US dollars. Now the amount of prize payments has increased to 167 thousand. And in February of this year, the first world championship Six Invitational 2018 took place, where 500 thousand US dollars were already up for grabs.
PENTA Sports, Team Vitality, ENCE, Millenium, Flipsid3 Tactics and Team Orbit have strong Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege teams. Gamers from the CIS have not yet shown any significant achievements in this discipline. The Room Factory team is considered the strongest team.
Project CARS is a leader in eSports racing competitions. The project launched many local leagues, large-scale championships at gaming exhibitions (Gamescom, Paris Games Week and EGX) and monthly finals at ESL series tournaments. Don't forget about the epic battles at Intel Extreme Masters, Dreamhack and Red Bull 5G.
The young cartoon shooter Paladins from the Hi-Rez studio rushed into eSports immediately after its official release in 2016. International tournaments in this discipline took place at DreamHack festivals and captured all continents. At first, the prize fund of the tournaments was 100 thousand US dollars, but in 2017, with the launch of the Paladins Global Series, it was increased to 350 thousand dollars.
Since last summer, Hi-Rez Studios has been collaborating with the WESA esports association. Immediately after this, Paladins leagues opened around the world, and Fnatic, G2 Esports, SK Gaming, Natus Vincere and Virtus gathered their rosters for this game. pro. In January 2018, as part of the Hi-Rez Expo, the first Paladins World Championship was held. Its winners were the NaVi team. They took home $80,000 out of a total prize pool of $200,000.
The shooter began its journey in eSports back in 2015. It was then that the first Warface Open Cup tournament took place: Spring 2015. Its prize fund amounted to 1.5 million rubles. For comparison, the last February Warface Open Cup: Season XII 2018 gave away 3 million rubles between participants. The AG champion team took home 1.2 million rubles. The silver medalists, the ArenaStars team, received 600 thousand rubles.
Starting with the spring Warface Open Cup, tournaments are held regularly and attract participants from all over the world. Members of the CIS countries AG, Sluper, ArenaStars and Youngstars are considered strong Warface teams. From Europe, Asteria and Exception stand out, the USA is worthily represented by team XIII, and in South America, the Brazilian team Black Dragons is considered the strongest.
15. Halo 5: Guardians
Halo tournaments began with the first parts of the series, but only Halo 5: Guardians and the associated world championships can be considered a serious eSports discipline. The prize pool for the 2016 Halo World Championship was $2.5 million. The 2017 World Championship gave away $1 million between teams, and in addition to it, there are many more regional tournaments in the United States and Europe. There teams fight for more modest money. The minimum for such tournaments is 15 thousand dollars. Maximum - 200 thousand. And yet, no matter what sums the game creators play out, this project most likely will not crawl beyond North America and part of Europe.
The current champions of Halo 5: Guardians are the American team OpTic Gaming. Well-known esports organizations from the USA have strong squads. Among them are Splyce, Team EnVyUs, Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses and Luminosity Gaming. It is worth noting that the game (and, accordingly, tournaments for it) is only available on the Xbox One console.
The popular fighting game Mortal Kombat X was originally designed for eSports, which was known even before its release. Immediately after the release of Mortal Kombat X, ESL announced its own tournament for the game. It is included in the list of ESL Pro League disciplines and is called ESL Mortal Kombat X Pro League. Participants include residents of North America, Europe and the CIS. The first LAN final gave away $50,000, and the prize fund for the third season of ESL Mortal Kombat X Pro League was already $500 thousand. One of the best Mortal Kombat X players is considered to be the American cR SonicFox.
13.SMITE
The reimagined multiplayer shooter Quake Champions from the legendary studio id Software began its journey into eSports at the beta testing stage. The first 125 FPS Sunday Cup tournament took place in June 2017. At this time, Quake Champions had been in open beta for two months. The winner of the first championship was Belarusian Alexey Cypher Yanushevsky.
And already in August of the same year, at the QuakeCon 2017 exhibition, the first Quake World Championship 2017 took place. The prize fund of the competition was $1 million. The winner was another gamer from Belarus, Nikita “clawz” Marchinsky. He took home 100 thousand US dollars. There are also team rivalries. Most current Quake Champions players play for well-known esports teams. TeamLiquid, Natus Vincere and Virtus already have their rosters. pro.
Amateur and semi-professional championships in Team Fortress 2 have been held since 2008. And only in 2016 Valve added long-awaited support for a competitive mode. Over these seven years, fans of the project have assembled teams and leagues, and also held online and offline tournaments. The most popular leagues were UGC and ETF2L, as well as ESEA. In addition to leagues, Team Fortress 2 has special services that allow gamers to form teams and play against gamers of their level.
8. FIFA
The official Wargaming eSports league rules the roost. net League. It is supported and sponsored by Wargaming itself. The league united the regional World of Tanks championships into a single esports organization. The first World Cup among club teams of the World of Tanks game within Wargaming. net League took place in 2014. The prize fund for each championship is 300 thousand US dollars. Since then, the World Cup has been held regularly, and the winner of the last Grand Final was the Ukrainian team TORNADO ENERGY.
6.Heroes of the Storm
Blizzard's young MOBA Heroes of the Storm has been in eSports almost immediately since its release, that is, since 2016. The scale here is smaller, and the rewards are much lower than those of League of Legends and Dota 2. In 2016, the first world championship, Heroes of the Storm Global Championship 2016, was held with a prize fund of 500 thousand US dollars. Since 2017, Heroes of the Storm introduced a league system, the best teams from them come to the World Cup, and in addition receive 100 thousand US dollars.
Blizzard and GosuGamers also launched open division tournaments. Here, in addition to money, the prizes are rating points. In addition, the top squads in the division take on the weakest teams in the official Heroes of the Storm Premier League and sometimes win their spots for the next season.
5. StarCraft II
The action shooter Overwatch went into eSports immediately after its release. The first leagues to appear were in Asia (APEX, OPS and OPC). The prize fund for such regional tournaments immediately amounted to 300 thousand US dollars. Then the Overwatch championships reached America and Europe. Here it resulted in the Major League Gaming, DreamHack, and Intel Extreme Masters tournaments. True, the prizes here are smaller and rarely exceed 100 thousand.
In 2016, the first world championship in Overwatch was held - Overwatch World Cup 2016. Judging by it, South Korea became the benders in Overwatch. In 2017, Blizzard launched the official Overwatch League, which will include 14 teams. The league's total prize fund was $3.5 million. However, in order to take part in the official championship, an eSports team must buy a permanent place. Depending on the region, its cost reaches $20 million. This scared off some of the professional teams and yet almost all the places are taken. Among the well-known teams, Cloud9, Immortals, Team EnVyUs, Lunatic-Hai, NRG eSports and Misfits have their rosters in the Overwatch League.
3.League of Legends
MOBA League of Legends, the brainchild of Riot Games, is considered the most popular e-sports discipline in the world. The number of gamers, who are called “summoners” here, has long exceeded 100 million people. But in terms of the money that can be earned from championships and leagues, the project is significantly inferior to Dota 2.
In addition to the official League of Legends World Championship, the League of Legends World Championship, which has been held annually since 2011, there is a Continental League, where participants are selected for the World Championship. The prize fund of the first World Championship was 100 thousand US dollars. In 2017, it reached 4.6 million. Compared to The International in Dota 2, this is a pittance, but if you take into account other e-sports games, this is a lot of money.
2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular eSports games. Thanks to its long history and past games in the series, CS: GO attracts not only schoolchildren and students, but also gamers under 30 and older.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive hosts many tournaments, leagues and championships. The main one is World Electronic Sports Games. In 2017, its prize fund was $1.5 million. Besides this, the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship stands out among the major championships, where half a million dollars are up for grabs. Don't forget about the European esports league Electronic Sports League, SL i-League StarSeries, ELEAGUE Major and dozens of small sponsorship leagues.
CS:GO is often dominated by teams from the CIS countries. The favorites are the Ukrainian Natus Vincere and the Russian Virtus.pro. The last World Cup was won by the Swedes from the fnatic team. They received 800 thousand dollars. In 2017, the Russian team Russian Forces won WESG 2017 among women.
Dota 2 does not have the largest gaming community, but it does have the largest prizes for the World Championship. The first world Dota 2 tournament was held in 2011. The champion of The International 2011 was the legendary composition of the Ukrainian team NAVI. The prize fund of that championship was $1.6 million. Then and now, the Dota 2 World Championships give away the biggest money in all of eSports, and the amount of prizes is growing at a breakneck pace. Thus, the prize fund of The International 2017 amounted to 23 million US dollars. The winning team, in 2017 it was Team Liquid, took home an impressive US$10.8 million. The silver medalist, Newbee, took home $3.9 million. This amount is several times higher than the money that the winners of other eSports games earn in a year, or even a couple of years.
For a long time now, computer games have been more than just entertainment. For some players, it's a way of life. After all, with their help you can not only kill your free time, but also earn good money from it. But to achieve such a result, you must have played more than one thousand hours.
Now, games have become a full-fledged sport. Over the past years, many tournaments have been held with huge prize pools, where teams from all over the world competed for the title of the best.
Most often, tournaments are held in a team format, but despite this, there are also singles. Every eSports player must have good reactions, high gaming skills and other qualities that are needed for team interaction.
There are quite a lot of games in which eSports competitions are held. But only a few provide players with large prize pools, convenient devices and other necessary things. And in this article you can see the most popular eSports gaming disciplines.
Like most games that now host many popular competitions, FIFA 16 started with small, local tournaments. The first of them was carried out back in 2000. But now, this game has taken an important place in such a major tournament as the World Cyber Games.
In addition, the FIFA organization itself also organizes various championships with acceptable prizes. And registration for the 2016 tournament has already started.
Fighting games like Mortal Kombat X have always been known for attracting huge audiences due to their entertainment value. Of course, for the competition it was necessary to learn many different combinations in order not only to defeat the enemy, but also to surprise all the spectators. That is why the skills of e-sportsmen in this industry were treated with a special approach.
During the existence of the game, many tournaments were held, ranging from local ones, where the prize fund left much to be desired, to world championships.
This year, the Electronic Sports League announced its own Mortal Kombat X championship. The tournament acquired the name ESL Mortal Kombat X Pro League. Most participants are residents of North America, the CIS and Europe. At the LAN finals, players received approximately $50,000 in total.
Heroes of the Storm is a new MOBA game from Blizzard, and is among the best eSports games because of its unusual nature. The game features characters from all universes created by Blizzard developers. The overall gameplay is somewhat similar to DOTA (Defense of the Ancients). Despite this, HotS has its own rules.
Two teams, each of which has 5 people, fight each other on different maps. And the main task of everyone is to destroy the main structure of the opponents. As you may have noticed, this is another product from Blizzard that will stay in the esports industry for a long time. After all, now, Heroes of the Storm is the best of a number of fast-growing games. And already today, most of the popular e-sports organizations have begun to assemble rosters for this discipline.
Hearthstone is another game from the Blizzard studio, which is among the top eSports disciplines of all time. It stands out for its unique genre. The idea is quite simple at first glance. Two players battle each other using unique decks. At the same time, the game has many interesting modes that differ significantly from each other. On the first visit, the player receives a starting deck, which expands over time by obtaining other cards.
In 2013, BlizzCon held Innkeeper`s Invitational, the first tournament in this discipline. The competition took place over two days and was broadcast via Twitch. And in 2014, 16 of the best players from all over the world met in a card battle for the title of the strongest. At the same time, the winner received a fairly large prize fund - $100,000.
With the help of the efforts of the World of Tanks game developers themselves, it was able to take a high position among the most popular e-sports disciplines. In 2014, the company decided to make its own platform for organizing tournaments and major competitions. But the Wargaming.net League succumbed to reorganization and remained a regular platform for the league.
The most significant event for all e-sportsmen in this discipline was the international championship called “Continental Rumble”. It was first held on October 17, in Poland (Poznan). It was there that the best teams from Europe and the CIS fought. And the players from the Tornado Rox team took the victory. In addition to the title of champion, they received $45,000 from the total prize pool, which was worth $100,000.
StarCraft 2 is one of the very first strategies that began to gather many spectators at various tournaments, championships and other competitions. Games of this genre have always been the first at World Cyber Games. At the same time, StarCraft 2 is the most difficult discipline in eSports.
At the very beginning of 2012, Blizzard Entertainment announced a World Championship Series tournament for the game StarCraft 2. Throughout the competition, spectators could enjoy many interesting battles in the qualifying games. And after that, the expected final followed, in which the strongest players took part. It was held in Shanghai. The world champion was the Korean e-sportsman Lee-Sak “PartinG” Won. As the winner, he was awarded the championship cup and a prize of $100,000. It was after this event that the game became the main e-sports discipline of the Battle.net World Championship Series. But despite the game's incredible success, it still lost to the World Championship at BlizzCon.
Smite stands out a bit from other esports titles. After all, it has its own site for holding tournaments and other competitions. And this is one of the reasons why it comes in fourth place in our top eSports games. Smite rosters have many popular organizations around the world, including Fnatic, Team Solomid, Cloud 9.
In 2014, Smite players collected a prize fund of $2,145,803 for the World Championship. The collection was carried out in the same way as at last year's The International 2015. Users bought in-game items, and most of the cost went towards the prize fund for the World Championship. In addition, the Smite game has an initial fund that adds $600,000 and increases with the help of donations.
League of Legends is one of the most popular MOBA games created by Riot Games. Immediately after its release, it took high positions among the most popular eSports disciplines. The game first debuted at the World Cyber Games back in 2010. Since 2011, the company has been holding separate World Championships, which feature large prize money.
In 2013, the United States publicly recognized League of Legends esports players as true professional athletes. And obtaining visas for them is now much easier. With the help of innovations, esports athletes can stay in the United States for 5 years. This was a significant step in the esports industry. Last year, the World Championship was held for the title of the best and, of course, a prize fund of $3,000,000.
Counter Strike: Global Offensive is not only the most popular shooter of all time, but also the main e-sports discipline of its genre. At the moment, CS: GO is the main discipline in major tournaments from the Electronic Sports League and Intel Extreme Masters.
In addition to minor tournaments, Valve hosts official competitions called Majors, where teams compete for big prize money and the title of champion. Before the start of the event, Vale prepares various events and items for players. Last year, at Counter Strike: Global Offensive tournaments, the prize pool totaled more than $3,800,000 in prize money.
So we are approaching first place in our top eSports disciplines. And in it you learned what games are included in eSports. And the first place is taken by DotA 2, which is the first and most popular game in the MOBA genre. At the peak of the game's growing popularity, it debuted at such a major tournament as the World Cyber Games.
Today, Valve is organizing major championships in the DotA 2 discipline. They take place in different regions, leagues and, of course, at the world level. Last year, The International 2015 had a prize pool of $18,000,000. It is because of DotA 2 that esports has become significantly more profitable than many other popular sports.