Following this year’s World Cup, there are a variety of other tournaments sports fans are looking forward to. Esports tournaments may not have the same viewing figures as international soccer’s biggest stage, but you may be surprised to hear just how big this industry has become. By breaking down the size and scale of these tournaments, initial detractors of the esports business model have been left scratching their heads. Companies in this sector have begun to make multimillion-dollar profits annually. This will likely continue as the market expands to new consoles, games, and countries.
Given that gambling companies have begun to offer odds on the outcome of these tournaments, it shows just how far-reaching and popular they are. At TheGameDay.com, plenty of these markets are available to browse and place wagers on.
However, for those betting on esports tournaments, it’s important to remember gambling should ont be viewed as a form of income. If you find yourself losing more money than you can afford and chasing losses, you should seek the help of a specialist.
Initially, only a handful of console games were played during esports tournaments. Now, dozens of titles are available, which has broadened the scope for players to enter various tournaments. In addition, it has increased the size of the prize pools available. For example, in 2019, at the inaugural Fortnite World Cup, a 16-year-old won an astonishing prize of $3m. With all that said, let’s take a look at some big tournaments to watch out for in 2023.
eSports Tournaments to Watch For In 2023
Fortnite World Cup
While this isn’t exactly an esports tournament on the fringes of the sector, it is one that every esports fan should have on their calendar. It attracts many players and viewers, and the finals are often battled out for prizes in the millions of dollars, as we touched on at the end of the last section. Epic Games gained some notoriety for setting the prize pool up and guaranteeing the tournament’s winners a sizeable share of the $100m fund. The tournament is split into a solo tournament and a doubles tournament and is one of the most popular esports tournaments on the planet.
League of Legends
League of Legends is one of the most popular games you can find anywhere. One of the main reasons behind the huge popularity of the game is how accessible it is. You do not need to purchase the game, and you can take advantage of the low-cost nature of the hugely popular release. The venue for the 2023 tournament is yet to be announced. However, given the resounding success of last year’s tournament, it is guaranteed to sell out wherever it is hosted. While Fortnite was only released recently in 2017, League of Legends was originally released back in 2009. The fact that a largely free-to-play game still maintains huge popularity illustrates how engaging it is.
Valorant Champions Tour Seoul 2023
As this is the first esports tournament held in Asia, plenty of people are looking to see how well received and how well the Valorant tournament unfolds. It shares similarities with League of Legends as it is also a free-to-play game. Even though there are many players throughout the world, the game is immensely popular in South Korea. So, it makes perfect sense to host the Valorant Champions Tour in Seoul. With the Asian continent having such a rich and varied history in the design of console games, it is only fitting that such a huge tournament is the first to be hosted on the continent.
As esports tournaments are the newest form of gaming, it will be exciting to see how many new tournaments spring up in the future. For example, Fortnite was only released in 2017. Two years later, it had a multimillion-dollar prize pool and millions of players looking to enter the tournament to win this huge prize. In gaming, a year can be a long time. Five years from now, we could witness a game that hasn’t even been released yet have its tournament. That tournament could be even bigger than the initial Fortnite World Cup in 2019.
Not only are the games new, but the whole concept of esports tournaments is also new. As the industry is still in its early stages, a decade from now, we could see esports tournaments being played in stadiums instead of arenas. Where it heads from here should be an exciting path as more and more generations enter these tournaments to try and land huge prizes.
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