Esports : The Future Of Gaming

Esports, broadly known as electronic sports, is a form of competitive video gaming. Beginning in the 1990s, gaming went from a casual hobby, to an organized professional sport. Today competitive professional gaming, also known as eSports, is a soon-to-be $1 billion dollar industry. Championships are being watched live by tens of millions of people and their potential Olympic debut is on the horizon

Most people recognize the names Luka Modric, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo, figures often seen as the faces of their respective sports. Names like Lee “Faker” Sang-Hyeok, Amer Al-Barkawi "Miracle", and Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang may not have quite the same recognition yet, but these athletes are also becoming global superstars.

The Commonwealth Esports Championship is an international event held between national teams during the 2022 Commonwealth Games, supported by the Commonwealth Games Federation. The event is spread between 3 games, Rocket League, eFootball and DOTA 2.

DOTA 2

Defense of the Ancients(Dota) 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve released in 2013. It is a sequel to Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a community created workshop mod for the game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Dota 2 is played in matches between two teams of five players, with each team occupying and defending their own separate base on the map. Each of the ten players independently controls a powerful "hero" that has unique abilities and different style of play. During a match players collect items and experience points for their heroes to successfully defeat the opposing team's heroes in player versus player combat. A team wins by being the first to destroy the other team's "Ancient", a large structure located within their base.

Valve invited sixteen esports teams to compete at a Dota 2-specific tournament at Gamescom in August 2011, which later became an annually held event known as The International with a prize pool of $1 Million. From 2011 until 2021, each iteration of the International surpassed the previous one's prize pool, with The International 2021 peaking at $40 million. The highest income from any esports game comes from players in Dota 2. Currently Johan Sundstein aka "Notail" has the highest esports income of $7,184,163.05.

Counter-Strike Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a 2012 multiplayer first-person shooter tactical game developed by Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. Developed for over two years, Global Offensive was released in August 2012. The game is played with two teams, Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists, against each other. The most common game modes involve the Terrorists planting a bomb while Counter-Terrorists attempt to stop them, or Counter-Terrorists attempting to rescue hostages that the Terrorists have captured.

The professional scene of csgo consist of tournaments and leagues. Majors are considered the most prestigious tournaments in Counter-Strike circuit and have among the largest prize pools starting with US$250,000, the prize pools for Majors have risen to US$1,000,000 since 2016. Oleksandr Kostyliev aka "S1mple" is one of the best player in csgo with highest income in CSGO.

There is growing interest in esports from tournament organizers around the world. The 2022 Commonwealth Games in the UK has included esports as a pilot event for the first time. Esports has also made its debut at the 2022 Asian Games in China, featuring games such as DOTA 2, League of Legends and EA Sports FIFA. We predict an esports Olympics event in future. The International Olympic Committee has said 2024 is “premature” to include esports.