List of tournaments and event organizers
Some started by doing a LAN in their city and ended up organizing international tournaments (ESWC for example), others directly constituted themselves as the eSport League.
The eSport world needs to gather around major competitive events, to reward the best gamers Here is the list of meetings not to be missed.
Major international events, excluding publishers
ESL - DreamHack - IEM
The Electronic Sport League is the major international organizer of e-sports competitions, all games combined, Counter Strike being the spearhead of the franchise. Qualifications are done online through ESL Play. The biggest teams compete in the ESL Pro Tour. In 2019, the DreamHack and IEM circuits are incorporated into the ESLs.
Official website: eslgaming.com
MLG
Major League Gaming is the eSport version of the American sport's Major League. It has organized major matches in the United States such as the Hearthstone GrandMasters, the Overwatch League, the HearthDtone Master's Champion and the CWL. This league has been owned by Activision Blizzard since 2016.
Official website: mlg.com
WCG
The World Cyber Games are a set of international tournaments born in South Korea in 2000 and supported by the world's leading video game publishers. This competition is very well attended in Asia. The endowments are several hundred thousand euros and the best players receive medals as in the Olympic Games.
Official website: wcg.com
ESWC
The eSports World Convention is an international multi-game event that offers several tournaments per year depending on the game offered (Fifa, PUBG, Just Dance, StreetFighter, Fortnite...). Qualifications are made during physical meetings (mainly in Europe) and the endowments are several hundred euros. This organization has been owned by Webedia since 2016.
Official website: eswc.com
EVO
The Evolution Championship Series is a set of tournaments specialized in versus fighting that take place every year for 3 days in the United States. The event, more than 10 years old, distributes viewers' donations to charities.
Official website: evo.shoryuken.com
Publishers' events
To support the competitive level of their games, major publishers organize their own tournaments. It is in general in this type of meeting that the endowments are the highest, because they are financed by these same publishers.
Here are the essentials ones.
FIFA eWorld Cup
The FIFA Interactive World Cup is the official FIFA organization that organises the competition on its own game. Every year since 2004, the 32 best players in the world have competed against each other. It is one of the most popular eSport events.
Official website: fifa.com/fifaeworldcup/
The International
Created in 2011, TI is the world tournament of the elitist MOBA DOTA 2 managed by Valve. It is held every year following regional qualifications. It was for a long time the most endowed tournament ($34 million in 2019), thanks in particular to its participatory system.
Official website: http://www.dota2.com/international/
Overwatch League
The Overwatch League sees the world's top 20 teams compete for a million dollar prize. All competitions have been organized in the United States by Blizzard since 2016. The game is dominated by American pro players and broadcast in streaming but also on TV.
Official website: overwatchleague.com
WCS
The StarCraft 2 World Championship Series has been hosted by Blizzard since 2012. This event has a global reach, is attended by millions of viewers. The allocation exceeds $1 million.
Official website: wcs.starcraft2.com
LOL WCS
The League of Legends World Championship is the official tournament organized every year since 2011 by Riot Games. It is followed by almost 50 million viewers and its prize pool is several million euros. Korean and Chinese players have historically dominated the competition.
Official website: nexus.leagueoflegends.com
Fortnite World Cup
This tournament follows the success of Fortnite's Battle Royale mode. It is organized by Epic Games and has the particularity of being accessible by anyone online. In addition, it broke all endowment records with more than $30 million ($3 million for the solo winner). The first edition in 2019 attracted more than 2 million viewers.
Official website: epicgames.com/fortnite/competitive/
Other major events:
- The Pokémon World Championships | USA pokemon.com,
- Call of Duty Championship | CWL callofduty.com/esports/,
- TopAnga - Versus Fighting | Japon topanga.co.jp,
- Canada Cup Gaming - Versus Fighting | Canada - canadacupgaming.com,
- Find a LAN in your area - lanpartylist.com.