Which Games Will Help You Get Into Esports? 

The outbreak of COVID-19 across the world has led to a huge surge in popularity in virtual gaming. Whether it be existing fans flocking round their screens to take in the action from the ESL Pro League of LEC Spring Season, or traditional sports fans getting their sporting fix from virtual competitions organised by Fifa or the NBA, the future of sports entertainment really has shifted.

In truth, the video gaming world was already an industry behemoth well within its own right before the outbreak of COIVD. The industry regularly attracted millions of fans from right around the world, the competitions were stacked full of skill and passion and the industry itself was more lucrative than most of its real-world rivals. The recent partnership between car giant BMW and a number of Esports teams is just the latest example of the scale and diversity of sponsorships going on in the scene right now, and why we all need to pay the scene more attention.

Competitive video gaming, known as Esports in the industry, is more of an umbrella term for lots of little communities active right now. Like with real-world sports, games can be strikingly different from one another and can attract very different kinds of audiences to them. So, which Esports should you be tuning into to make sure you stand the best chance of enjoying the ride?

Fortnite

Arguably the most famous game in the whole world, Fortnite was always going to make a splash in the competitive gaming sector following its explosion in popularity over the course of 2018 and onwards. The game’s competitive scene is divided mainly into three parts: Solo, Duos and Creative, with the biggest event in the game’s calendar coming with the annual Fortnite World Cup.

The 2019 edition of the tournament featured the world’s best players converging in New York in a heated battle for a prize purse worth $35 million. 16 year old superstar ‘Bugha’ defied most pre-tournament esports wagering odds and romped to a thrilling victory, netting himself a cool $3 million in the process.

League of Legends

Arguably the most famous of any Esport in the world, League of Legends boasts the perfect blend of high skill ceilings, lightning fast reflexes and jaw dropping moments of strategy. The has a huge following in the Far East, with the game’s loyal fanbase helping to set the record for the most amount of viewers for a single Esport event in history.

The League of Legends World Championship is one of the highlights of the Esports calendar even for those who don’t play the game, and with its modern competitive format now resembling something more akin to Overwatch or Dota, if you know how to follow League of Legends, you know how to follow a lot of other competitive gaming structures.

Counter-Strike

The world’s most popular first person shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is arguably the easiest Esport to just hop into a stream of and follow along the action. Featuring two teams of five, the game takes the simple premise of one team planting a bomb while the other team prevents it, and turns it into one of the most electrifying, exciting spectacles you can imagine.

The game recently broke its own record for concurrent players when it registered over 1 million active accounts last month, and things don’t look to be changing any time soon. With big events such as ESL Cologne and the developer-sponsored Major set to be hosted in Rio on the horizon, Counter-Strike could be the game to jump into the Esports world with.