The Biggest eSports Events in 2020
By far the biggest sporting event to look forward to this year is the 2020 Summer Olympics, hosted by Japan. The event will have several brand new sports to show, like skateboarding, wall climbing, and surfing. The eSports community has hoped to get competitive video gaming a spot among the other Olympic disciplines this year but unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough for the International Olympic Committee. What it got, in turn, a major international eSports tournament right ahead of the Olympic Games (with the support of the IOC, too).
The popularity of eSports is growing around the world. This growth is reflected by the growing respect it gets not only from the media and the sports organizations but also bookmakers. The Betway eSports events are listed alongside the “traditional” disciplines at their website, showing that from their point of view, it’s as much a sport as any other. And it has its share of major tournaments we can follow this year.
Intel World Open
As mentioned above, eSports didn’t make it to the Olympics but it will steal the show right before the grand opening of the event at the Intel World Open tournament held in Tokyo this summer.
Gamers from all over the world will get a chance to show their skills in competitive sessions of Rocket League and Street Fighter V at the event that will take place between the 22nd and the 24th of July.
This is not the first major eSports event coupled with the Olympics: the Intel® Extreme Masters PyeongChang took place ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics hosted by China.
Fortnite World Cup
The Fortnite World Cup is a brand new event, introduced last year by Epic Games. And it was massive, too, with participants from all over the world battling for its total prize pool of $30 million. The finals took place at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, attracting more than 23,000 live viewers and over 2.3 million concurrent viewers on the finals’ YouTube and Twitch streams.
This year’s event is still in the making but what’s already known is that it will introduce a new discipline - aside from solo and duo matches, it will add “trios” to the roster.
League of Legends World Championship
League of Legends is one of the most popular competitive games today, with a massive player base - and viewership - online. This year’s League of Legends World Championship finals will be held in Shanghai Stadium, a massive live venue in Shanghai, China, with a capacity of around 55,000 spectators.
Last year’s championship (and an undisclosed amount of prize money, probably well over $3 million) was won by the Chinese eSports team FunPlus Phoenix.
FIFA eWorld Cup
Football is the most popular sport in the world - and it’s an eSport, too, with the support of the sport’s highest global governing body, FIFA. The FIFA eWorld Cup is the organization’s official eSports competition where teams from around the world measure their skill in EA Sports’ FIFA 20.
This year, the qualifications for the FIFA eWorld Cup 2020 will begin in February, and events will take place all over the world leading up to the event’s Playoffs in June.
Last August, the winner of the finals pocketed $250,000 in prize money.
The International
The International is one of the oldest major eSports tournaments, established in 2011. What makes it special that its prize pool is crowdfunded - the players chip in through the DotA 2 game’s battle pass system that transfers a quarter of all revenues toward the pool. The International 2019 had a total prize pool of $34 million collected this way.
The exact date of the 2020 finals is yet to be announced but we already know the venue: the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden. And, of course, a series of online streaming outlets as well.
The popularity of eSports is growing around the world. This growth is reflected by the growing respect it gets not only from the media and the sports organizations but also bookmakers. The Betway eSports events are listed alongside the “traditional” disciplines at their website, showing that from their point of view, it’s as much a sport as any other. And it has its share of major tournaments we can follow this year.
Intel World Open
As mentioned above, eSports didn’t make it to the Olympics but it will steal the show right before the grand opening of the event at the Intel World Open tournament held in Tokyo this summer.
Gamers from all over the world will get a chance to show their skills in competitive sessions of Rocket League and Street Fighter V at the event that will take place between the 22nd and the 24th of July.
This is not the first major eSports event coupled with the Olympics: the Intel® Extreme Masters PyeongChang took place ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics hosted by China.
Fortnite World Cup
The Fortnite World Cup is a brand new event, introduced last year by Epic Games. And it was massive, too, with participants from all over the world battling for its total prize pool of $30 million. The finals took place at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, attracting more than 23,000 live viewers and over 2.3 million concurrent viewers on the finals’ YouTube and Twitch streams.
This year’s event is still in the making but what’s already known is that it will introduce a new discipline - aside from solo and duo matches, it will add “trios” to the roster.
League of Legends World Championship
League of Legends is one of the most popular competitive games today, with a massive player base - and viewership - online. This year’s League of Legends World Championship finals will be held in Shanghai Stadium, a massive live venue in Shanghai, China, with a capacity of around 55,000 spectators.
Last year’s championship (and an undisclosed amount of prize money, probably well over $3 million) was won by the Chinese eSports team FunPlus Phoenix.
FIFA eWorld Cup
Football is the most popular sport in the world - and it’s an eSport, too, with the support of the sport’s highest global governing body, FIFA. The FIFA eWorld Cup is the organization’s official eSports competition where teams from around the world measure their skill in EA Sports’ FIFA 20.
This year, the qualifications for the FIFA eWorld Cup 2020 will begin in February, and events will take place all over the world leading up to the event’s Playoffs in June.
Last August, the winner of the finals pocketed $250,000 in prize money.
The International
The International is one of the oldest major eSports tournaments, established in 2011. What makes it special that its prize pool is crowdfunded - the players chip in through the DotA 2 game’s battle pass system that transfers a quarter of all revenues toward the pool. The International 2019 had a total prize pool of $34 million collected this way.
The exact date of the 2020 finals is yet to be announced but we already know the venue: the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden. And, of course, a series of online streaming outlets as well.
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