Play and Earn: Top Prize Pool Esports Tournaments (Topic)

Would you like to become a millionaire? Then devote as much time as possible to video games, and to be more precise, focus on any one game, become a master in it. Yes, we know, this advice sounds like the exact opposite of everything that parents tell their extremely addicted to video games children, but one look at the prize pools in the world of esports is enough to redefine the stereotypes. Today we propose to dwell on the financial side of esports in more detail and recall the largest prize pools in the history of esports tournaments.

World Electronic Sports Games 2016 (CS: GO) - $ 1.5 million

The Counter-Strike series, despite its status as one of the main promoters of the esports industry, cannot boast of really impressive prize pools at themed tournaments. Of course, only when compared directly with other industry mastodons. The most impressive prize fund for the Global Offensive to date was the World Electronic Sports Games 2016, which is taking place in China. 40 players from 8 teams competed for a prize pool of one and a half million dollars. First place went to Team EnVyUs, which took away $ 800,000.

Halo World Championship 2016 - $ 2.5 million

The original console Halo series has always been distinguished not only by a spectacular story campaign, but also by additive multiplayer, which, with each new part, proved that a gamepad can be an excellent tool for playing high-speed competitive shooters. Separately, it is worth noting the desire of Microsoft to consolidate the Halo series in the esports arena, which was facilitated by the holding of regular tournaments for the game. The most famous is the Halo World Championship 2016, which brought together 64 players from 16 teams, who shared the prize pool of $ 2.5 million. The first place prize of $ 1 million was taken by the Counter Logic Gaming team.

Six Invitational 2020 - $ 3.0M

Despite the relatively recent appearance of the Rainbow Six Siege shooter, the game from Ubisoft in less than five years from a project that almost failed at the start of sales has managed to grow into one of the main world cyber disciplines. Sounds loud? Still, but the prize fund of the Six Invitational 2020, the official international Rainbow Six Siege championship, looks even louder and more revealing. In total, the organizers managed to collect $ 3 million, played out between 80 players from 16 teams. First place and a prize of $ 1,000,000 were shared by five players from the Spacestation Gaming team. 250 thousand per person is quite a decent reward for thousands of hours spent in front of the monitor.

Overwatch League - Season 2 Playoffs - $ 3.5 million

Overwatch is another newcomer to the modern esports industry, which in the 4 years since its release as an armored train broke into the Major Leagues. However, another scenario could hardly have been expected from the next Blizzard game, which has established itself as a master of multiplayer projects. The largest Overwatch tournament to date is the Overwatch League - Season 2 Playoffs in North America with an impressive $ 3.5 million prize pool. 77 players from 8 teams competed for the prize at once. The tournament was won by the San Francisco Shock team, who took home $ 1.1 million.

PUBG Global Championship 2019 - $ 4.08 million

Continuing to talk about the most expensive prize pools in the history of eSports, one cannot fail to mention the championships for the next successful newcomer to the industry - PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which has rapidly gained popularity. The largest prize pool was collected at the PUBG Global Championship 2019 held in California. The total amount of money raffled among 128 players from 32 teams is just over $ 4 million. The main prize of $ 2 million 20 thousand was awarded to the Gen.G team, consisting of 4 players from South Korea.

League of Legends 2018 World Championship - $ 6.45 million

League of Legends, as one of the pillars of the modern esports industry, guarantees all pro gamers who decide to try their hand at the professional gaming arena the opportunity to enrich themselves through annual tournaments with a multi-million dollar budget. The largest prize pool for a Riot Games MOBA tournament to date has been recorded in the League of Legends 2018 World Championship. The total amount of financial resources participating in the tournament is almost 6 and a half million dollars, for which 130 players in 24 teams fought. We can only rejoice for the winners from Invictus Gaming, who divided their winnings of $ 2,418,750 by 6 people.

Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019 - $ 34.5 million

Fortnite has remained arguably the most popular game in the world over the years, delighting developers with nine-figure annual revenue. Given the commercial success of the game, it's no surprise that Epic Games hosted the 2019 Fortnite World Cup Finals last year with one of the largest prize pools in esports history at $ 34.5 million. Note that the total prize pool was almost equally divided between the two stages of FWCF 2019, held with a difference of one day: $ 15.28 million for the competition between players in solo matches and $ 15.1 million for the matches of doubles teams. The solo tournament was won by the player under the nickname Bugha, who made himself $ 3 million in gold. In the doubles competition, Cooler Esport took first place with a total of $ 3 million.

The International 2019 - $ 34.33 million

Since 2015, literally every year, one can hear the opinion on gaming sites that the time for DOTA 2 is already irrevocably gone, Valve is not keeping up with the trends, and all the players and pro-gaming stars have scattered about other multiplayer games. In fact, the situation is completely opposite and the official DOTA 2 tournament - The International - has been showing an increase in the prize pool for five years in a row, which sets new records in the industry every year. The apotheosis of DOTA 2's esports popularity was The International 2019, with an incredible $ 34.33 million prize pool raffled among 90 players across 18 teams. The first place was taken by the OG team consisting of five people. The amount won is $ 15.62 million.

We also draw your attention to our article, where we talked about the main events of 2019 in the world of esports.

The Topic of Article: Play and Earn: Top Prize Pool Esports Tournaments.
Author: Jake Pinkman