Esports tournament news
Taking video games to the next level, esports are high-stakes competitions where teams of professional players compete against each other for spectators and sponsorship dollars. Often referred to as competitive gaming, esports is part of the wider world of electronic sports and has grown from a niche pursuit into an industry valued at over $5 billion with millions of active players and spectators.
From the earliest days of home consoles, gamers have sought to beat each other at their favorite game in a competitive setting. The first cited instance occurred in 1972, when Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory held the Intergalactic Spacewar! Olympics, with contestants competing to set the highest scores on different arcade games. More mainstream competitions followed in the 1980’s, when thousands of players took part in the National Space Invaders championship and later first-person shooters such as GoldenEye and Street Fighter grew into their own esports events.
Today, team-based esports are organized into leagues where they play each other in season-long matches. Based on how they perform in a given season, sponsored teams may be promoted into the higher league and those that do poorly may be relegated down. This model is similar to professional sports in Europe and Asia.
Some of the most recognizable names in esports include Faker (League of Legends), Daigo Umehara (Street Fighter) and Puppey (Dota 2). Astralis is synonymous with dominance in CSGO, winning multiple major championships in the past few years.