Top Four eSports Events with the Largest Prize Pools - Article
by Craig S , posted on 25 August 2021 / 6,374 Views
The following is a guest editorial.
The popularity of eSports has been rising ever since its relatively recent birth, and although the pandemic disrupted some live events, it also showed how resilient eSports can be and won over a lot of new fans. Here are some of the biggest events in eSports history.
Dota 2's The International
Often abbreviated to just TI, The International is an annual Dota 2 tournament that is also the 800lb gorilla of eSports events. Most leading eSports players focus on League of Legends, Dota, and CS:GO, but TI is easily the most lucrative tournament around. Starting out way back in 2011 with a prize pool of $1.6 million, the yearly event has grown each year and now offers a total prize pool of a staggering $40 million for 2021. It’s no surprise, therefore, that so many of the highest-paid eSports players, as reported by Top10casinos.com site, focus on Dota 2 and have made substantial proportions of their income from The International.
The International’s huge prize fund has helped it attract the best players from all over the world, and during its decade-long existence has had winning teams from Europe, China, and the USA. Last year no tournament was held due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the incumbent champions are the 2019 winners - OG (who happen to also be the first back-to-back title winners). The tournament has helped to bolster the bank balances of leading Dota 2 professionals, including JerAx and N0tail, and the generous winnings are sure to continue to draw in the most talented players in the world.
The Fortnite World Cup
Even people not into eSports, let alone video games generally, can’t help but have noticed the immense rise and unrivalled popularity of Fortnite. This led to its entry into the realm of eSports being a very big bang indeed. In 2019 the Fortnite World Cup made its debut, hosted in New York City’s Arthur Ashe Stadium (best known as the home of the US Open Grand Slam tennis tournament). The finals occurred over three days, starting on 26 July, with a combined prize pool of a staggering $30 million.
The tournament’s biggest event was the solo competition, which turned American gamer Kyle Giersdorf (also known as Bugha) into a millionaire when he scooped the $3 million top prize by winning the whole thing. Million dollar plus prizes were also awarded to those who finished 2nd to 4th. The duos had similar prize pools. In addition, and unusually for eSports, there was a different sort of category in the Creative Cup. This saw eight teams do their best to make the most interesting and unique courses.
The 2020 Fortnite World Cup was cancelled due to the global pandemic, but you can be sure that when the competition returns it’ll have ferocious contests for truly epic prize pools.
League of Legends World Championship
Although it doesn’t have quite the earning potential of Dota’s International, the annual League of Legends World Championship still packs a financial punch, with Invictus Gaming, the winners in 2018, making over $2.4 million. Europe’s Fnatic finished runners-up, with just over $870,000 in winnings. Prize money has fallen since then, not helped by the pandemic meaning that some 2020 teams were unable to attend. However, the 2018 finals were also the most-watched eSports event in history, with over 200 million concurrent viewers at its peak, beating the Super Bowl.
League of Legends is often the preferred game for newer pro gamers, as it has a greater number of pro competition opportunities to make money. So although it lacks the huge prize pools of The International, the eSport itself has a broader appeal for players and spectators alike.
And the state of play for eSports generally is very good indeed, with audience figures up 10% from 2019 to 2020.
PUBG Global Invitational.S 2021
The first event organized by the PUBG (Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds) Corporation in 2021 was also one of the biggest in eSports history. The PUBG Global Invitational.S 2021 had a main event pool exceeding $7 million and featured 32 teams invited from every corner of the globe. Big names from Europe included FaZe Clan and Team Liquid, while the half dozen Chinese competitors included Four Angry Men. Teams were also fielded from North America, Korea, Japan, Latin America, and Chinese Taipei.
It’s sometimes forgotten now, but the battle royale fashion was supercharged by the staggeringly popular PUBG, and while the game isn’t at that zenith anymore (thanks chiefly to Fortnite), it’s still got a large fanbase and top tier recognition. The shrinking map naturally increases tension and can add a strategic element, with teams varying from guns blazing aggression to more considered sniping and ambushes. With every game spiced up by the chance elements of what the map does and what it contains, this ensures there’s no guarantee of any strategy working, as the perfect ambush spot might end up out of bounds.
With the collective global streaming eSports sector estimated to be worth $3.5 billion by 2025 it’s no wonder we’re still seeing prize funds on the up. Pro gamers and those who love to watch competitive video games already have a lot of options, and some tournaments at the elite level come with life-changing prize funds, but we can expect even more such tournaments in the future.
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