In 2019 alone, more than $ 760 million in prize money was distributed to e-sports tournaments. Naturally, this is an additional incentive for hundreds of thousands of young players around the world who invest money in equipment and time in the theory and practice of their chosen game.
Some of the biggest events in e-sports in 2019 were:
Fortnite 2019 World Cup ($ 100 million prize pool); League of Legends World Cup 2019; Dota 2 The International ($ 34 million in prize money); Call of Duty World League (CWL) ($ 6 million prize pool); Counter-Strike: Global Offensive IEM Katowice ($ 1 Million Prize Fund); League Overwatch ($ 5 million prize pool); HALO World Cup; PUBG World Cup ($ 3 million prize pool).
In order to afford such rewards, in addition to huge spectator interest and broadcast revenue, serious sponsors are also needed. The biggest ones in e-sports in recent years are giants such as: Intel, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Audi, Mercedes, Corsair, Twitch, AMD. The interest of such mastodons is further evidence of the scale of the relatively new industry.
In Bulgaria, electronic sports are gaining popularity, and we have representatives in some of the largest teams in the world. The best example of this is Ivan Ivanov - MinD_ContRoL, 24, playing Dota 2, winner of the 2017 World Cup title and owner of over $ 4 million in prize money. Zdravets Golubov - Hylissang, 24, is our star in League of Legends, with several titles and over $ 280k under his belt. Tsvetelin Nikolov - CeRq, 19 years old, is our most profitable competitor in CS:GO, who has participated in over 66 competitions and has earned over 260 thousand dollars.
The gaming industry is gaining ground and is not looking to slow down anytime soon. There is hardly ever going to be one opinion as to whether e-sports have the right to be called such, but we have every reason to believe that they will attract more and more audiences as well as participants. The alluring variety of easily available games, immense glory and impressive revenue are enough incentives for young people around the world to pursue their dream of winning a big tournament. And we at sportalaxy will look forward to the next successes of Bulgarians in e-sports.
Category: Other sports