The top 6 esports games you must play
Esports Games: For upon |Esports, whether you are a fan of them or not, have become one of the most popular pass times in the world. Esports fans come in a variety of shapes and sizes and from all four corners of the globe. They consist of; professional gamers who play competitively, amateur gamers who play for fun, streamers, analysts, online audiences, and live audiences. Esports have a place for everyone and anyone. The most popular esports franchises are free to play and free to watch on streaming sites such as Twitch, it is not difficult to see why esports are competing with traditional sports in viewing figures and popularity.
Esports has reached a stage where online and live audiences are now able to bet on the outcome of live esports matches and tournaments like they would if they were watching a traditional sport such as football or tennis. Esports are becoming more and more popular each passing day and with this popularity comes investment and with investment comes even more popularity.
Iain Fenton, writing for ‘BrooWaha’ gives us a sneak peek into the world of esports and runs us through a top-five list of the most popular esports.
League of Legends
The most popular and watched computer game of them all, there is no stopping League of Legends. League of Legends or LoL as it is affectionately known, is an online battle arena multiplayer game. LoL has the largest footprint of any game within streaming media communities. It is the most-watched game on Twitch by quite a long way. In 2016, the company that developed Lol – Riot Games – suggested that there are over 100 million active players playing LoL each month.
League of Legends has one of the biggest competitive scenes in the world. LoL, esports tournaments take place all over the world. Regional LoL tournaments exist in the USA, China, South Korea, and various other regions. These regional tournaments end at the annual World Championship. The 2016 LoL World Championship had a prize pool of over $ 6 million and an audience viewership of 43 million unique viewers.
CS: GO
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter game. A different kind of game to LoL completely, CS: GO pits two teams against each other and is tasked with eliminating one another whilst completing certain objectives. CS: GO is especially popular with female gamers – CS: GO hosts female-only tournaments and there are many female esports athletes who play the game. Esports Games.
However, some female CS: GO athletes have complained about the female-only events, one such person is ESports pro-Julia ‘CSGO’ Strunkowski, who says: “The problem with female-only events is that we are staying on the same level. Right now my me and my team are trying to become better as a team, to win events but we don’t really need much to win it. If we could play against males, we would need to do even more and harder work for it. I really hope that one day some girls fight hard enough and put more time into the game so that there will be a girl who competes with and against males.”
CS: GO is, however, currently the most popular esports franchise to watch in the UK and is regularly competing with LoL for the number one most-watched esports franchise on Twitch. CS: GO won the esports game of the Year award in 2015.
Dota 2
Officially released in 2013 after two years of beta testing, Dota 2 is an online battle arena multiplayer game. Similar to LoL, Dota 2 is played in matches between two teams that consist of five players. Each of the 10 players independently controls a title character, each one, of more than a hundred characters, has their own unique skills and abilities to use in matches. A team wins by being the first to destroy their opponent’s ‘ancient’ a large structure located in the opposing team’s base.
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According to the statistics website Newzoo.com, Dota 2 was the third most-watched game on Twitch – the primary medium for professional esports coverage – in March 2017. Some major gaming publications, including PC Gamer, have called Dota 2 one of the best computer games of all time. Since its release in 2013, Dota 2 has been the most-played game on Steam with over 630,000 average players per hour in 2016, nearly double that of the game in second place.
Dota 2 tournaments and league events are also extremely popular with audiences. The best Dota 2 players in the world recently competed at the Kyiv Major where a prize pool of $3 million – one of the biggest prize pools in esports history – was competed for. The game has been known to become a “way of life” for many players – the addictiveness of the game has been likened to gambling and poker. Some universities have even held Dota 2 seminars teaching students the fundamentals and core skills to use in the game.
Smite
With one of the strongest esports scenes out there, Smite has become one of the most popular PC games in the world. Similar to League of Legends and Dota 2, Smite is a third-person multiplayer online battle arena game where players control gods or goddesses or other mythological figures and take part in team-based combat. The Smite earnings leaderboard is currently topped by five American pros who have each earned over $300,000,00 from playing the popular fantasy game. Esports Games.
Smite has many different game modes for players to try out but the goal of each game is to destroy the opposing team’s phoenixes and the titan, a giant warrior who must be defeated to win the game. The game is suitable for all ages, there is an offline mode as well as an online mode. The annual Smite Championship, which has one of the biggest prize pools in esports – $1M – consists of online and offline matches so a high level of skill is a must for all players. Esports Games.
FIFA 17
Although the FIFA football franchise has been around the gaming scene for decades, it is a relative newcomer to the esports scene. For those of you who don’t know, unlike other games on this list, FIFA 17 is primarily played on a games console rather than a PC. FIFA is a football game, it’s not complicated, it’s not particularly strategy based – it is just football. However, its popularity is growing.
Real football clubs across the world are beginning to see the value in esports. Major European football clubs such as PSG, Roma, and Wolfsburg have begun signing professional esports FIFA athletes to represent the respective clubs at esports tournaments. These football clubs are recognizing the huge audiences that esports are attracting and the massive growth in the sector.
Two of the biggest clubs in the world – Barcelona and Real Madrid are expected to announce an esports team in the near future. Television broadcasters have begun buying the rights to air esports FIFA tournaments on their channels. Fox Sports in the USA and BT Sports in Europe are the first TV channels to do this. The growth of FIFA as an esports is set to become massive, it is just up to the FIFA developers – EA – to provide a game capable of being balanced and competitive enough for professional gamers to compete in. Esports Games.
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm revolves around 5 versus matches. The unique feature of the game is that it features heroes from all of the creators – Blizzard – franchises, including Warcraft, StarCraft, and Overwatch. The game is free-to-play but also has an option where the gamer may use his/her own money in order to purchase heroes, visual alterations for the player in the game, and mounts. On release, the game received largely very positive reviews, although IGN awarded Heroes of the Storm just 6.5/10 describing it as a “flawed varied MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) with terrific team fighting yet poor objectives.” Esports Games.
As far as competitive Heroes of the Storm goes, the best players of the game have earned over $100,000,00 competing. Currently, the most successful heroes of the Storm players in the world reign from South Korea and China. The BlizzCon 2016 World Championships saw the all-South Korean team of Ballistix crowned champions, scooping a prize of $300,000,00 between them.
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