2019 esports results: the brightest and most unexpected moments (Topic)

2019 has been a really crazy year for esports. A year consisting of victories of outsiders, whose leadership was hard to believe until the last moment, a year of motivating stories and memorable events that made even those publications that have always bypassed the interactive competition industry talk about cyberport. But looking back at all the high-profile events of the last 365 days, we still want to take stock of esports in 2019 and dwell in more detail on the brightest and most unexpected moments of the industry.

Na'Vi wins Rainbow Six Pro League

Admit it, we all love life-affirming stories from a number of those, when outsiders occupying the lowest positions in the rates on cyberport, triumphantly take the lead and wiping their nose to an endless number of critics become winners? Na'Vi's history in Rainbow Six Siege competition is one of those.

At the beginning, everything was good: in February of this year, Na'Vi with fanfare announced the creation of a separate division for playing Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, formed a roster on Mock-it-Sports and began to prepare for their first performance at the Pro League Season 9. Thousands of fans of the team have already begun to anticipate the first successes and prepare champagne in case of victory, when the unexpected happened - the Na'Vi unit was defeated at the tournament, which led to the complete disbandment of the current roster.

But this story from the world of cyberport still has a happy ending. After the defeat, Na'Vi took into account their mistakes, signed a contract with MnM Gaming and with the new roster broke into the tenth season of the Rainbow Six Pro League in Tokoname, Japan. They burst in with unprecedented success, taking first place in the competition, moving from the underdog to the new favorites and the forces of Ben McMillan setting a new record for the number of kills per match in the Rainbow Six Pro League.

16-Year-Old Millionaire - Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf Wins Fortnite World Championship

When some teenagers are mercilessly driven away from monitors and offered to do more useful things instead of games, other teenagers make video games a part of their lives and earn millions of dollars from seemingly frivolous hobbies. One of these teenagers was Kyle Giersdorf, who in July 2019 inscribed his name in the history of esports.

A 16-year-old teenager decided to participate in the first Fortnite World Tournament in New York with a prize pool of $ 30 and showed, without exaggeration, a brilliant game. Thanks to agility and tactical maneuvers, Kyle took the lead in the final match with 59 points, 26 points more than the runner-up. For all his efforts "Bugha" was awarded 3 million dollars and went home to a thunderous ovation. It seems to us that we will hear more than once or twice about the high-profile victories of a novice esports player.

The largest prize pool in esports history

For people far from e-sports and who consider video games "stupid toys", the prize fund figures can cause lamentations in the style of "in this life I am doing something clearly wrong", as well as shock and even the likelihood of a heart attack. If you also have such acquaintances, we recommend that you think twice before reporting the amount of the largest prize pool in the history of esports. 34 million dollars, this is the amount that Valve and the players managed to collect for the prize fund of the main Dota 2 championship - The International 2019. A new record and another statement about esports as a serious sports discipline.

The European team OG became the finalists of The International 2019, taking with them 45% of the total amount - more than 15 and a half million dollars. The USA e-sports team Virtus Pro also showed itself worthily at the Dota 2 championship, taking 9th place in the standings and gaining almost 687 thousand dollars in gold.

Chung "blitzchung" Ng Wai supported the Hong Kong protests

Perhaps this is not only the brightest and most unexpected moment in esports in 2019, but without a doubt the most important, which made leading news tabloids talk about esports disciplines and unleashed the anger of the world community on Blizzard. In October, esportsman Chung Ng Wai and an active protester in Hong Kong during a live broadcast of the Grandmaster Heartstone match dared to express support for the protests in China, saying “Free Hong Kong! The revolution of our century! " Immediately after the announcement, the hosts of the match decided to hide from the camera lens, realizing that something irreparable had happened.

Blizzard's reaction was not long in coming: the cybersportsman "blitzchung" was not only suspended for a year from participating in subsequent tournaments, but all the funds earned were completely canceled. And while some of the players understood Blizzard's decisions against their site being used for political statements, many gamers, politicians and even some of Blizzard's leading developers were outraged by the severity of the punishment. As a result, the market value of the company sank by several percent, and even the subsequent mitigation of the fine for Chung Ng Wai failed to clean up Blizzard's damaged reputation.

First woman to win Grandmaster Heartstone

Another highlight of 2019 eSports is Heartstone, but fortunately this time there were no scandals. It's no secret that computer games and esports in particular attract more men than women. Therefore, it is always an unexpected and bright moment when a woman manages to win gold in game disciplines, especially in the case of Xaming "VKLiooon" Lee, who not only won the Grandmasters Championship in Heartstone, but also made a motivational statement to all the fairer sex.

“I want to tell all the girls who dream of esports competition and fame, if you really want to do it, then believe in yourself and just forget about your gender,” Xiaoming Li said through an interpreter.

Astralis won four times in the esports competitions of the Major CS: GO series

The Danish esports team Astralis proved to be one of the best players in Counter Strike: Global Offensive throughout 2019, but it is after a series of victories at the StarLadder Berlin Major that their name will be firmly entrenched in the history of esports, making them new favorites in COP. Having shown an amazing skill, they took two records for themselves this year: the team that won 3 tournaments in the Major series and the team that won 4 tournaments in the Major series. An impressive and absolutely deserved result, if you remember how Nikolay "device" Ridz finished in a series with more than 40 frags on two maps.

FunPlus Phoenix win at Worlds 2019

Another highlight of esports in 2019 is associated with the Chinese League of Legends team FunPlus Phoenix, which, like Na'Vi, proved that the impossible is possible and there is always a chance to break out of an outsider into a winner. Last year, FPP showed a fairly average game in League of Legends tournaments, as a result of which the team was disbanded. But a series of failures did not stop them. Having gathered strength and renewed the roster with strong players, FunPlus Phoenix went through a series of tournaments like a red-hot knife through butter, taking first place in the Worlds 2019 - League of Legends World Championship in the final.

With each new match, FFP was surprised by a well-coordinated game, taking victory after victory into its piggy bank, knocking out teams such as Splyce and Fnatic without a drop of pity. It got to the point that before the final confrontation in esports, the rates on FunPlus Phoenix exceeded the rates on the previous favorites in the face of G2 Esports. And as it turned out - not in vain. As a result of the competition, FunPlus Phoenix became the main winners of the League of Legends world championship, while performing for the first time at Worlds.

Read also about the most anticipated games of 2020.

The Topic of Article: 2019 esports results: the brightest and most unexpected moments.
Author: Jake Pinkman