The International
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The International’s prize pool has topped $18 million.
Photo by: Getty Images |
The International 2015, held in Seattle’s KeyArena, garnered plenty of attention for its largely crowd-funded prize pool of over $18 million, the largest in e-sports to date. The annual event, hosted by Valve Corp. for its “Dota 2” game, will likely only continue to grow in both stature and prize pool.
Electronic Sports League
European-based Electronic Sports League is the largest independent organizer of e-sports tournaments, competitions and live events, supporting over 50 games at a variety of player skill levels. Two of its most visible platforms are the ESL One series, essentially tent-pole events within the seasons of each game, and the Intel Extreme Masters, a series of tournaments held across the world. While operating primarily in Europe and Asia, ESL has made significant inroads into the U.S., holding events in San Jose, Los Angeles and New York to date.
Major League Gaming
Major League Gaming is the longest-standing, U.S.-based e-sports organization. It continues to operate both live and online tournaments for all the major games and has built out a burgeoning streaming platform called MLG.tv. MLG built its first e-sports tournament space outside of its New York headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, in the fall of 2014, and currently is building a facility in China, expected to open in 2017.
League of Legends World Championship
Hosted by developer Riot Games, the world championship is the culmination of two annual seasons Riot Games also operates. While the prize pool is smaller than The International — with the winning team taking home a combined $1 million in 2015 — its viewing metrics have had no comparison. Riot reported that its finals had a peak concurrent viewership of more than 14 million viewers.
DreamHack
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Multiple players compete before the crowd at the DreamHack digital festival held Dec. 5 in Moscow.
Photo by: Getty Images |
Calling itself “the world’s largest digital festival,” DreamHack is a gaming tournament, concert, expo and gathering place all rolled into one, drawing upward of 25,000 people to its bi-annual events held across Europe. As the event has grown, so has its focus on e-sports, consistently boasting tournaments featuring the best players in a variety of games. In May 2016, DreamHack will hold its inaugural U.S. event in Austin.
Evolution Championship Series
Born out of coin-operated arcades, the fighting game genre within e-sports, featuring games such as “Mortal Kombat” and “Street Fighter,” has one of the most loyal and dedicated fan bases. The Evolution Championship Series, or Evo for short, is the biggest annual event, drawing competitors from around the world to Las Vegas. While its viewership numbers and prize pool have been far eclipsed by other e-sports tournaments that focus on different game genres, few can match Evo’s history, dating back to 1996.
