When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the shutdown of the sporting world during 2020, the video game market grew in relevance. In 2020, eSports (electronic sports) drew in profits of $1.1 billion, up 15.7 percent from 2019. By the year 2023, these events are projected to reach a profit level of $1.6 billion. In sports gambling, the 2020 valuation of the industry was $142 million, projected to grow to $203 million by 2026. In 2018, over 200 million watched the League of Legends World Championship finals; in that same year, 103 million watched the Super Bowl. The size of that audience means that eSports will continue to grow in terms of sports betting significance.
Let’s take a look at the five biggest eSports events for the coming year.
eSports News: The Top 5 Events of 2021
ESL Pro Tour 2020/21 StarCraft II
The Electronic Sports League (ESL) has compiled a series of events with a prize pool in excess of US$1.9 million. The Pro Tour this year will be split between EPT Korea and the EPT Circuit, which is divided into smaller regions. The Global Finals will take place at IEM Katowice 2021 to finish the season. There will be 36 in the Global Finals (also known as the Masters Championship 2021), either through winning certain events or ranking highly enough in EPT Korea or the EPT Circuit.
League of Legends World Championship 2021
The Finals of this tournament will take place in Shenzhen, China, as over 100 teams from a dozen regional LoL leagues will fight for the chance to represent those leagues at the world championship. The choice of Shenzhen recognizes the role that China plays, through participation, in the success of LoL. Also, China seems to have managed the COVID-19 spread more effectively than many other nations.
FIFAe World Cup 2021
This is a yearly tournament set up by FIFA, working with EA SPORTS. The qualifiers from the EA SPORTS FIFA Global Series will fight at the final for the title of FIFAe World Champion, which comes with a sizable cash prize and a paid excursion to The Best Fifa Football Awards. The regional qualifiers will take place online ahead of the playoffs that will send regional champions to the FIFAe World Cup. Germany’s Mohammed Harkous is the defending champion from 2020.
DOTA 2’s The International 2021
As of this writing, DOTA 2’s The International may well take place in New Zealand. After the cancellation of the 2020 event, the prize purse was combined with this year’s, with a record US$40 million. The choice of New Zealand stems from the success that the island nation has had in eliminating COVID-19 from its shores; while much of the world continues to fight infection, in New Zealand life has largely returned to normal — with the exception of harsh restrictions on incoming travelers. The International 2021 remains scheduled tentatively for the end of August.
EVO Champions 2021
EVO Champions (short for the Evolution Championship Series) is the longest running and largest fighting game tournament on the planet. It will take place at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas in 2021. The tournaments are open to all players and go through a double elimination format. It was initially held in the San Francisco area but has been in the Las Vegas area since 2005. It was also canceled for 2020 due to pandemic concerns but is set to take place at the end of July, its usual time slot.
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