What is electronic sports?

Electronic sports (or esports) is a term for organized video game competitions, especially between professionals. The most common video game genres associated with electronic sports are real-time strategy, fighting, first-person shooter, and multiplayer online battle arena. Tournaments such as the The International, the Evolution Championship Series, and the Intel Extreme Masters provide both live broadcasts of the competition, and cash prizes to competitors.

Although esports have long been a part of video game culture, competitions have seen a large surge in popularity in recent years. While competitions before around the year 2000 were largely between amateurs, the proliferation of professional competitions and growing viewership now supports a significant number of professional players and teams, and many video game developers now build features into their games designed to facilitate such competition.

The increasing availability of online video streaming platforms, particularly Twitch, has become central to current esports competitions. In 2012, the most popular titles featured in professional competition were Dota 2, League of Legends, and StarCraft II. During 2013 and early 2014, the Call of Duty series also emerged as a popular title.

History of Esports

Early history (1972-1989)

The earliest known video game competition took place on October 19, 1972, at Stanford University for the game Spacewar, where students were invited to an "Intergalactic spacewar olympics" whose grand prize was a year's subscription for Rolling Stone. The Space Invaders Championship held by Atari in 1980 was the earliest large scale video game competition, attracting more than 10,000 participants across the United States, establishing competitive gaming as a mainstream hobby.

Two players using the front-panel of a PDP-12 to play Spacewar at the Vintage Computer Festival

In the summer of 1981, Walter Day founded a high score record keeping organization called Twin Galaxies. The organization went on to help promote video games and publicize its records through publications such as the Guinness Book of World Records, and in 1983 it created the U.S. National Video Game Team. The team was involved in competitions, such as running the Video Game Masters Tournament for Guinness World Records and sponsoring the North American Video Game Challenge tournament.

During the 1970s and 1980s, electronic sports players and tournaments begun being featured in popular newspapers and magazines including Life and Time. One of the most well known classic arcade game players is Billy Mitchell, for his listing as holding the records for high scores in six games including Pac-Man and Donkey Kong in the 1985 issue of the Guinness Book of World Records. Televised esports events aired during this period included the American show Starcade which ran between 1982 and 1984 airing a total of 133 episodes, on which contestants would attempt to beat each other's high scores on an arcade game. A video game tournament was included as part of TV show That's Incredible and tournaments were also featured as part of the plot of various films, including 1982's Tron

Esports goes online (1990-1999)

In the 1990s, many games benefited from increasing internet connectivity, especially PC games. For example, the 1988 game Netrek was an Internet game for up to 16 players, written almost entirely in cross-platform open source software. Netrek was the third Internet game, the first Internet team game, the first Internet game to use metaservers to locate open game servers, and the first to have persistent user information. In 1993 it was credited by Wired Magazine as "the first online sports game".

Large esports tournaments in the 1990s include the 1990 Nintendo World Championships, which toured across the United States, and held its finals at Universal Studios Hollywood in California. Nintendo held a 2nd World Championships in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System called the Nintendo PowerFest '94. There were 132 finalists that played in the finals in San Diego, CA. Mike Iarossi took home 1st prize. Blockbuster Video also ran their own World Game Championships in the early 1990s, co-hosted by GamePro magazine. Citizens from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Chile were eligible to compete. Games from the 1994 championships included NBA Jam and Virtua Racing.

Television shows featuring esports during this period included the British shows Games Master and Bad Influence the Australian gameshow A*mazing, which would show two children competing in various Nintendo games in order to win points.

Rise of global tournaments (2000 onwards)

Recently, esports has gone through tremendous growth, incurring a large increase in both viewership and prize money. Although large tournaments were founded before the 21st century, the number and scope of tournaments has increased significantly, going from about 10 tournaments in 2000 to about 260 in 2010. Many of the largest tournaments today were founded during this period, including the World Cyber Games, the Intel Extreme Masters, and Major League Gaming. The proliferation of tournaments included experimentation with competitions outside traditional esports genres. For example, the September 2006 FUN Technologies Worldwide Webgames Championship featured 71 contestants competing in casual games for a $1 million grand prize.

This period was also the peak of televised esports. Television coverage was best established in South Korea, with competitions featuring StarCraft and Warcraft III regularly televised by dedicated 24-hour cable TV game channels Ongamenet and MBCGame. Elsewhere, esports television coverage was sporadic. The German GIGA Television covered esports until its shutdown in 2009. The UK satellite television channel XLEAGUE.TV broadcast esports competitions from 2007 to 2009. The online esports only channel ESL TV] briefly attempted a paid television model re-branded GIGA II from June 2006 to autumn 2007. The French channel Game One broadcast e-sport matches in a show called "Arena Online" for the Xfire Trophy. The United States channel ESPN hosted Madden NFL competitions in a show called Madden Nation from 2005 to 2008. DirecTV broadcast the Championship Gaming Series tournament for 2 seasons in 2007 and 2008. CBS aired prerecorded footage of the 2007 World Series of Video Games tournament that was held in Louisville, Kentucky. The G4 television channel originally covered video games exclusively, but broadened its scope to cover technology and men's lifestyle, though has now shutdown. The Season 3 League of Legends World Championship, held in 2013, was held in a sold-out Staples Center. Its successor, the 2014 League of Legends World Championship in Seoul, South Korea had over 40,000 fans in attendance.

Esports titles by genre

Fighting games

Fighting games were among the earliest games to be played in professional tournaments, with the founding of what would become the Evolution Championship Series in 1995. Competitions in the genre are generally individual competitions in which both players providing input to the same machine. The genre originally focused on arcade play, but has gradually moved to console play as arcades have declined. The Street Fighter series, The King of Fighters series, Mortal Kombat series, Marvel vs. Capcom series, Tekkenseries, and Super Smash Bros. series are amongst those fighting games played at a professional level. Important tournaments for the genre include the Evolution Championship Series in the USA.

Fighting game enthusiasts generally prefer the moniker "competitive gaming", and often eschew the term "e-sports", citing cultural differences between the predominately PC-gaming esports communities and the older arcade-gaming community. Member of the fighting games community are generally especially cognizant of their connection to the old arcade-era competitions, wishing to prioritize the preservation the spirit of those competitions over simple monetization of fighting competitions.

Street Fighter

The Street Fighter has one of the earliest and longest running professional gaming scenes. Professional Street Fighter players include Daigo Umehara, who had two of his matches included in a 2011 Kotaku list of "The 10 Best Moments in Pro-Gaming History".

An enthralled crowd watches the action at CEO 2014.

His early 1998 match against American player Alex Valle in Street Fighter Alpha 3 ranked sixth and his 2004 comeback against American player Justin Wong in Street Fighter III: Third Strike ranked first, while his 2009 grand finals match against Wong in Street Fighter IV at Evo 2009 was listed as having "just missed the cut."

First-person shooters

First person shooters focus on simulating a firefight from a first person perspective, and may be either individual or team based. Less popular games include the PC game Team Fortress 2, which is featured in a few smaller leagues such as the ESEA League, United Gaming Clans, and European Team Fortress 2 League.

Doom

The release of Doom on December 10, 1993 marked the popularization of first person shooter as a competitive esports genre. Doom spawned newsgroups, chat rooms and among the first known users of IRC for gaming. Players connected to each other modem-to-modem and online competitive gaming was born.

Doom 3 tournament on QuakeCon 2004

Shortly after the release of Doom II on October 10, 1994, the pioneering matchmaking service DWANGO (Dial up Wide Area Network Gaming Operations) firm launched their services. DWANGO, charged users the cost of a local telephone call to connect to their dial-up bulletin board services. With 20+ servers scattered throughout urban locations in North America DWANGO became the early hub of competitive gaming. Initially, online gaming was available only to those with superior internet connections. These included ISP employees, university/college students and large businesses. Early client side software includes iDoom, Kali and iFrag. To accompany the launch of Doom II, Microsoft held the first offline tournament for PC players, Deathmatch '95. Deathmatch '95 (aka Judgment Day Deathmatch 95 & Dwango's Deathmatch 95) was aimed to be a competitive offline gaming tournament featuring the most popular title of the year, Doom II. This format, with gamers attending a single location and using standardized hardware, has defined eSports competitions since.

Quake

Quake is a series 1v1 PC based games developed by id Software. In 1996, id released the original Quake, and launched QuakeCon. QuakeCon is an annual convention which hosts competitions for the series, and has become the largest LAN event in North America. The first offline Quake tournament, Red Annihilation took place in May 1997. The winner, Dennis Fong, going under the alias "Thresh", took home the prize of Quake co-creator John D. Carmack's own red Ferrari 328 GTS convertible.

Quake 3 tournament

Quake 4 supported a small professional scene, with a dozen professional players signed to a few professional teams and a number of players marketing themselves through other means. Tournament play for Quake 4 peaked around 2006, with the game included in tournaments such as the Electronic Sports World Cup, the World Series of Video Games before the league's demise, the World Cyber Games 2006, and KODE5. As of 2008, Quake 4 has fallen out of favor in competition for the previous game in the series, Quake III Arena.

Quake Live was released in 2010, primarily based on Quake III Arena. Quake Live was played in tournaments such as DreamHack, QuakeCon, and FaceIt. The popularity of the title declined after a couple years. In 2012, the last major tournament to host Quake competitions, the Intel Extreme Masters, decided to drop the title.

Counter-Strike

A Counter-Strike match in Electronic Sports World Cup 2007, Paris

The Counter-Strike series is a series of team based first person shooters which began as a Half-Life mod which was bought by Valve and released from beta in 2000. Professional competition is centered in North America and Europe in tournaments such as the World Cyber Games, CEVO, ESEA League, and the Electronic Sports League. The defunct league Championship Gaming Series franchised teams with contracted players who played Counter-Strike: Source.

The most recent game in the series, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, was released in 2012. Although it appears counter strike will not appear in the World Cyber Games 2013, the largest prize pool in the series' history has been announced for DreamHack in Winter 2013.

Unreal Tournament

Beginning with the release of the first game in 1998, the Unreal Tournament series of first person shooters supported competitions in the early 2000s, such as the series' inclusion the World Cyber Games from 2001 through 2004. There are no longer major tournaments for the series, as it has been dropped from leagues such as the Electronic Sports League.

Halo

Halo 4 Tournament

The Halo series is an Xbox exclusive first person shooter which has been featured prominently in the American league Major League Gaming. The series has also been played internationally, such as the European Console League's event in July 2010 in Liverpool. The Australian Cyber League hosted a Pro Circuit with tournaments in several major cities in Australia, including a January 2009 event in Brisbane. Partially due to changes to the series' design, Halo competitions have gone into steep decline by 2013, as the ACL only hosts Halo tournaments online, and the formerly staple MLG game was dropped from future competitions.

Call of Duty

The Call of Duty series is a first-person shooter that has been played as an esport primarily in theUnited States. It has been featured in MLG tournaments ever since Call of Duty 4:

Modern Warfare was introduced to the league in 2008.

Call of Duty Championship 2014

Many teams compete in these tournaments to earn money or possibly a living. A well known example is Optic Gaming, a successful roster of the Optic organization. This team that has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from these high-level leagues and tournaments. In June 2014,Call of Duty: Ghosts hosted by MLG will be featured in the Austin X Games.

Real-time strategy

Competitions involving traditional real time strategy games generally feature individual competitors competing on personal computers over a local area network or the internet. While not nearly as popular as other RTS games during this period, the Age of Empires series was played competitively as well, and was part of the World Cyber Games from 2000-2003, and 2007-2008.

StarCraft: Brood War

StarCraft: Brood War was foundational in the establishment of e-sports, and along with StarCraft II, remains among the most popular series in competitive gaming. StarCraft competitions did especially well in South Korea, which remains central to the competitive scene as a whole. Professionals in Korea achieved a status similar to professional athletes. In the west, StarCraft enjoyed significantly less competitive popularity. StarCraft was the very first game to have been accepted into the World Cyber Games tournament, and had a tournament at their events every year until it was replaced by StarCraft II in 2011. In Korea, prominent StarCraft competitions included the Ongamenet Starleague, the MBCGame StarCraft League, and Proleague. Finals for these league attracted tens of thousands of fans, and became very popular on Korean cable TV.

Warcraft III

Warcraft III has been played professionally all around the world, especially in South Korea, China, France, and Germany. Although the game never achieved the same competitive popularity of the original StarCraft, the game supported a few dozen professional teams. The game lacks a singular world championship, as there have been numerous large tournaments. Events have been organized by Blizzard Entertainment, have also been televised Korean leagues, and large tournaments have been held in China. Chinese players generally have used their own clients for online competition, due to a poor connection to the outside world. Notable Warcraft III players include: Xiaofeng "Sky" Li, Dae Hui "FoV" Cho, Jang "Moon" Jae Ho, Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson and Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen. In more recent times, Warcraft III competition has declined in popularity. Many professional Warcraft III players have since moved to Starcraft II, including Grubby and Moon. Despite this, Warcraft III continues to be played competitively, still appearing in events such as WCG 2013.

StarCraft II

The 2011 GSL championship at Blizzcon.

After its release in 2010, StarCraft II competitions gradually replaced the prior Brood War competitions. For example, StarCraft II has replaced the original game in the WCG, and the initially Brood War-focused Proleague mixed StarCraft II into their competitions, before finally phasing out Brood War entirely. Initially, disagreements between Blizzard and Kespa prevented many players in Korea from moving to StarCraft II, but conditions improved, and were ultimately resolved by 2012.

Many leagues and e-sports organizations in Korea and across the world host StarCraft II tournaments, including the Team Liquid StarLeague, Major League Gaming, North American Star League, DreamHack, the Intel Extreme Masters and the GOMTV Global Starcraft II League.

In 2012, Blizzard Entertainment created the StarCraft II World Championship Series. In the tournament's initial 2012 season, Korean player PartinG beat Creator to win the $100,000 grand prize. As of 2013, the WCS system divides players into three leagues: WCS Korea, WCS Europe, and WCS North America. Players earn points based on their performance in many different tournaments, including the ones mentioned above, and the 16 players with the most points advance to world championship at BlizzCon. In the 2013 grand finals, sOs beat the crowd favorite Jaedong 4-1, winning the $100,000 grand prize. The 2nd place finish for Jaedong awarded him $45,000, making his total prizepool earnings $489,384.83, the highest of any eSports player in history.

Sports games

Sports games are games based on physical competitions. Along with the more popular games below, NASCAR hosts an affiliated annual video game competition since 2010 known as the NASCAR iRacing.com World Championship Series, which had a grand prize of $10,500 USD in 2011. The TrackMania racing series supports esports competitions centered in France at the Electronic Sports World Cup, but also at the Electronic Sports League, and the FuturTech Gaming League, for example.

FIFA

World League eSport Bundesliga Kick-Off Event

FIFA Football is a generally individual competition available on consoles as well as PCs. FIFA has been an official game of the World Cyber Games since its first tournament in 2001. In 2003, a FIFA tournament was also held at the first event of CPL Europe. Germany has the biggest FIFA Football community, hosting leagues such as the Electronic Sports League and the World League esport Bundesliga (which was aired on the national TV-broadcaster Deutsches Sportfernsehen before the league's cessation). There are also leagues in South Korea like the Ongamenet FifaLeague that are televised. The ESL continues to host FIFA competitions into 2013, as does the ESWC.

Multiplayer online battle arena

Multiplayer online battle arena games are historically a spin off of real time strategy games, but are different enough that they are now generally considered a separate genre. While traditional RTS games feature many units controlled by a single player, MOBAs are typically team focused, the model being five players on a team, each controlling a single "hero" unit. MOBAs are generally played on personal computers. Other competitive MOBAs include Heroes of Newerth.

Dota

A crowd watching a Dota 2 match during The International at Gamescom 2011.

The Dota franchise began as a fan-made Warcraft III mod named Defense of the Ancients (DotA), released in 2003. The popularity of the original mod, both in casual and competitive play, encouraged Valve Corporation to create a stand-alone sequel, Dota 2. Together, the two games are amongst the most popular electronic sports games played professionally. These titles have been featured at major international tournaments, including DreamHack, as well as the World Cyber Games and the ESWC. Valve hosted Dota 2's public debut in 2011 at The International, which featured a US $1 million grand prize. In 2012, Valve hosted The International 2, which also had a million dollar grand prize. It was won by Chinese team Invictus Gaming. In 2013, The International 3 offered the largest prize pool for a single event in electronic sports history, totaling over $2.8 million USD.

Early in the development of Dota 2, Valve was legally opposed by Riot Games and Blizzard Entertainment, both of which voiced their opinions that the DotA name should have remained a community asset. On August 9, 2010, Riot filed an opposing trademark for "DOTA", in order to "protect the work that dozens of authors have done to create the game". Valve subsequently won the case, but was opposed by Blizzard, who filed a trademark with similar reasoning. On May 11, 2012, Blizzard and Valve announced that the dispute had been settled, with Valve retaining the commercial franchising rights to the term "Dota", while non-commercial usage of the name could still be utilized.

League of Legends

League of Legends (LoL) is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games for Microsoft Windows, primarily inspired by Defense of the Ancients. It was released on October 27, 2009. In an early LoL tournament, the game was featured as a promotional title in the 2010 World Cyber Games in Los Angeles. The victors were the Counter Logic Gaming team from North America, winning a $7,000 prize. LoL was added to the Intel Extreme Masters lineup for the 2011 Electronic Sports League season. The Season 1 World Championships were held at DreamHack Summer 2011 in Sweden. The European team Fnatic defeated teams from Europe and the USA to win US$50,000 of the tournament's US$100,000 prize pool. According to Riot, the final match drew 210,000 concurrent viewers.

LoL 2014 World Championship

Riot announced a prize pool of US $5 million to be paid out over Season 2, allocated to tournaments featuring League of Legends. The Season 2 World Championship featured a prize pool of 2 million US dollars. Taipei Assassins of Taiwan defeated Azubu Frost of South Korea in the grand finals, winning the 1 million dollar grand prize. During the quarterfinal match against Team Solomid, Azubu Frost player Woong looked at the spectator minimap, resulting in a fine that reduced their winnings by US$30,000. The League of Legends Season 2 World Finals match drew a peak of 1.1 million concurrent viewers, who observed the matches from Internet streams, Korean television, and Chinese television.

In season 3, the total prize pool was US $8 million. The 2013 Season 3 Championships was held in Los Angeles, featuring a prize pool is $2 million with $1 million for first place. The team SKT T1 won the final, which took place at the Staples Centre on October 4. The event drew 1.4 million concurrent viewers during the final series.

Smite

Smite is a third-person MOBA developed and published by Hi-Rez Studios. Prior to release, Smite was kept in an extended beta that resulted in over 74 million hours of playtime and the realization of a robust competitive community. Throughout the beta, Hi-Rez hosted a series of LAN and online events with cash prize pools. Smite was officially released in North America and western Europe on March 25, 2014.

Smite Launch Tournament

The weekend following its release, Hi-Rez hosted a Smite Launch Tournament in Atlanta where the eight best teams from Europe and North America played for a prize pool of over $200,000 USD, half of which was raised by the community from sales of a character skin. Team Solo Mid from Europe won first place, with Team Dignitas from North America taking second place. Viewers at home could make their own predictions for a chance to win various prizes. According to Hi-Rez, the event drew more than 400,000 unique viewers worldwide. After the event, Hi-Rez added a custom-branded skin in honor of Team Solo Mid's victory.

In May 2014, Hi-Rez announced the Smite World Championship Series (SWC). The SWC began with three months of regional qualifiers, which will culminate into two separate $50,000 regional LAN events for Europe and North America. The Smite World Championship is currently scheduled for January 9-11, 2015 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, and will feature a prize pool starting at $600,000; however, that amount is expected to significantly increase prior to the event based on community contributions and exclusive content sales. Hi-Rez has revealed that the World Championship will feature teams from North America, Europe, China, Brazil, and Spanish-speaking Latin America.

Others

World of Warcraft

Blizzard's MMO World of Warcraft added PvP features to the game after its release, and was received enthusiastically as an eSport. The game was generally phased out of MLG between 2010 and 2011.

BlizzCon 2013 (WoW)

Blizzard continues to hold the World of Warcraft Arena Global Invitational annually. The prize pool for the 2013 World of Warcraft Arena Global Invitational totaled over $180,000.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a digital collectible card game from Blizzard Entertainment. It is already gaining popularity as an eSport with MLG and BlizzCon hosting tournaments.

Top 100 Largest Overall Prize Pools

1.

The International 2014

$10,931,103.00

Dota 2

14 Teams

70 Players

2.

The International 2013

$2,874,407.00

Dota 2

8 Teams

40 Players

3.

LoL 2014 World Championship

$2,130,000.00

League of Legends

16 Teams

82 Players

4.

LoL Season 3 World Championship

$2,050,000.00

League of Legends

14 Teams

70 Players

5.

LoL Season 2 World Championship

$1,970,000.00

League of Legends

12 Teams

60 Players

6.

The International 2011

$1,600,000.00

Dota 2

8 Teams

42 Players

7.

The International 2012

$1,600,000.00

Dota 2

8 Teams

40 Players

8.

Call of Duty Championship 2013

$1,000,000.00

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

8 Teams

32 Players

9.

Call of Duty Championship 2014

$1,000,000.00

Call of Duty: Ghosts

8 Teams

32 Players

10.

Call of Duty XP

$1,000,000.00

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

8 Teams

28 Players

11.

CPL World Tour Finals 2005

$510,000.00

Painkiller

32 Players

12.

CGS 2007 (CS: Source)

$477,500.00

Counter-Strike: Source

11 Teams

55 Players

13.

WCA 2014 (Dota 2)

$472,410.00

Dota 2

8 Teams

40 Players

14.

CGS 2008 (CS: Source)

$455,000.00

Counter-Strike: Source

8 Teams

40 Players

15.

i-League

$308,200.00

Dota 2

8 Teams

40 Players

16.

Halo 4 Global Championship

$300,000.00

Halo 4

8 Players

17.

Wargaming World of Tanks Grand Finals

$300,000.00

World of Tanks

4 Teams

21 Players

18.

MLG Dallas 2010 (Halo 3)

$280,000.00

Halo 3

8 Teams

32 Players

19.

MLG Las Vegas 2007 (Halo 2 4v4)

$280,000.00

Halo 2

8 Teams

28 Players

20.

MLG Las Vegas 2008 (Halo 3)

$280,000.00

Halo 3

8 Teams

32 Players

21.

MLG Orlando 2009 (Halo 3)

$280,000.00

Halo 3

8 Teams

32 Players

22.

MLG Providence 2011 (Halo: Reach)

$280,000.00

Halo: Reach

8 Teams

28 Players

23.

OGN The Champions Summer 2014

$263,879.10

League of Legends

22 Teams

80 Players

24.

DreamLeague Season 1

$259,996.00

Dota 2

12 Teams

59 Players

25.

DreamHack Winter 2013 (CS:GO)

$250,000.00

Counter-Strike: GO

16 Teams

80 Players

26.

EMS One Katowice 2014 (CS:GO)

$250,000.00

Counter-Strike: GO

16 Teams

80 Players

27.

ESL One: Cologne

$250,000.00

Counter-Strike: GO

16 Teams

79 Players

28.

WCS 2012: Global Finals

$250,000.00

StarCraft II

32 Players

29.

WCS 2013 Global Finals

$250,000.00

StarCraft II

16 Players

30.

OGN The Champions Spring 2014

$249,930.61

League of Legends

22 Teams

80 Players

31.

WPC 2014

$245,549.70

Dota 2

8 Teams

40 Players

32.

OnGameNet The Champions 2013-2014

$244,353.96

League of Legends

22 Teams

90 Players

33.

OnGameNet The Champions Summer 2013

$243,265.12

League of Legends

22 Teams

80 Players

34.

OnGameNet The Champions Spring 2013

$239,425.41

League of Legends

18 Teams

60 Players

35.

LPL Summer 2013

$237,974.10

League of Legends

8 Teams

47 Players

36.

LPL Spring 2013

$236,341.11

League of Legends

8 Teams

46 Players

37.

LPL Summer 2014

$235,868.60

League of Legends

8 Teams

40 Players

38.

SLTV StarSeries Season X (Dota 2)

$235,604.00

Dota 2

8 Teams

40 Players

39.

LPL Spring 2014

$231,839.05

League of Legends

8 Teams

40 Players

40.

WPC ACE Dota 2 League

$231,328.48

Dota 2

3 Teams

15 Players

41.

OnGameNet The Champions Winter 2012

$228,310.49

League of Legends

12 Teams

55 Players

42.

Smite Launch Tournament

$217,909.60

Smite

8 Teams

40 Players

43.

CGS 2007 (DoA4)

$216,000.00

Dead or Alive 4

12 Teams

22 Players

44.

ESL One Frankfurt

$210,900.00

Dota 2

8 Teams

40 Players

45.

CGS 2008 (Forza Motorsport 2)

$207,000.00

Forza Motorsport 2

9 Teams

16 Players

46.

CPL Summer 2003 (Counter-Strike)

$200,000.00

Counter-Strike

16 Teams

80 Players

47.

GPL Spring 2014

$200,000.00

League of Legends

12 Teams

60 Players

48.

GPL Winter 2014

$200,000.00

League of Legends

12 Teams

60 Players

49.

WCA 2014 (Hearthstone)

$195,480.00

Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft

16 Players

50.

GPL Summer 2014

$192,000.00

League of Legends

12 Teams

60 Players

51.

CGS 2007 (PGR3)

$191,000.00

Project Gotham Racing 3

11 Teams

22 Players

52.

SLTV StarSeries Season IX (Dota 2)

$189,512.00

Dota 2

8 Teams

40 Players

53.

BlizzCon 2012 (WoW)

$189,000.00

World of Warcraft

4 Teams

12 Players

54.

BlizzCon 2013 (WoW)

$189,000.00

World of Warcraft

4 Teams

12 Players

55.

WCA 2014 (CrossFire)

$187,335.00

CrossFire

4 Teams

0 Players

56.

WCA 2014 (WoT)

$187,335.00

World of Tanks

4 Teams

0 Players

57.

SK Planet Proleague Regular Season

$186,749.65

StarCraft II

8 Teams

92 Players

58.

GSL Super Tournament 2011

$185,832.56

StarCraft II

32 Players

59.

CGS 2008 (Dead or Alive 4)

$182,000.00

Dead or Alive 4

8 Teams

16 Players

60.

HoN Tour Season 2 World Finals

$181,888.00

Heroes of Newerth

8 Teams

20 Players

61.

MLG Las Vegas 2006 (Halo 2 4v4)

$180,000.00

Halo 2

3 Teams

12 Players

62.

GSL Open Season 2

$176,942.60

StarCraft II

64 Players

63.

GSL Open Season 1

$176,621.52

StarCraft II

64 Players

64.

GSL Open Season 3

$172,784.13

StarCraft II

64 Players

65.

Dota 2 Super League

$171,207.75

Dota 2

10 Teams

51 Players

66.

OnGameNet The Champions Spring 2012

$170,532.00

League of Legends

16 Teams

80 Players

67.

WEC 2014 (Dota 2)

$167,738.59

Dota 2

8 Teams

40 Players

68.

ESWC 2006 (Counter-Strike)

$160,000.00

Counter-Strike

8 Teams

40 Players

69.

WCS Korea 2014 Season 2 Premier

$158,011.53

StarCraft II

32 Players

70.

WCS Korea 2014 Season 3 Premier

$154,753.20

StarCraft II

32 Players

71.

WCS Korea 2014 Season 1 Premier

$151,934.79

StarCraft II

32 Players

72.

CPL World Championship 2001 (Counter-Strike)

$150,000.00

Counter-Strike

32 Teams

77 Players

73.

IEM VII - Gamescom (LoL)

$150,000.00

League of Legends

8 Teams

40 Players

74.

IEM VII - World Championship (LoL)

$150,000.00

League of Legends

12 Teams

55 Players

75.

IEM VIII - World Championship (LoL)

$150,000.00

League of Legends

8 Teams

40 Players

76.

Season 2 Regional Finals - Seattle

$150,000.00

League of Legends

8 Teams

40 Players

77.

WCS 2013 Season 1 Finals

$150,000.00

StarCraft II

16 Players

78.

WCS 2013 Season 2 Finals

$150,000.00

StarCraft II

16 Players

79.

WCS 2013 Season 3 Finals

$150,000.00

StarCraft II

16 Players

80.

MLG Providence 2011 (CoD: Black Ops)

$140,000.00

Call of Duty: Black Ops

8 Teams

32 Players

81.

Virgin Gaming FIFA Challenge 2013

$140,000.00

FIFA 13

1 Player

82.

Virgin Gaming MADDEN Challenge 2013

$140,000.00

Madden NFL 13

1 Player

83.

WSVG ISC 2006 (Counter-Strike)

$139,500.00

Counter-Strike

16 Teams

80 Players

84.

MLG Fall Championship 2013 (Dota 2)

$136,760.00

Dota 2

9 Teams

40 Players

85.

OnGameNet The Champions Summer 2012

$132,684.68

League of Legends

16 Teams

80 Players

86.

ESL One New York

$132,445.00

Dota 2

8 Teams

40 Players

87.

WCS Europe 2014 Season 1 Premier

$131,000.00

StarCraft II

32 Players

88.

WCS Europe 2014 Season 2 Premier

$131,000.00

StarCraft II

32 Players

89.

WCS Europe 2014 Season 3 Premier

$131,000.00

StarCraft II

32 Players

90.

WCS North America 2014 Season 1 Premier

$131,000.00

StarCraft II

32 Players

91.

WCS North America 2014 Season 2 Premier

$131,000.00

StarCraft II

32 Players

92.

WCS North America 2014 Season 3 Premier

$131,000.00

StarCraft II

32 Players

93.

GOMTV MSL #2 2007

$126,451.20

StarCraft: Brood War

32 Players

94.

GOMTV MSL #3 2007

$126,425.69

StarCraft: Brood War

32 Players

95.

EM III - Global Finals (Counter-Strike)

$125,000.00

Counter-Strike

12 Teams

60 Players

96.

SLTV StarSeries Season VIII (Dota 2)

$124,358.00

Dota 2

4 Teams

20 Players

97.

D2CL Season 2

$124,167.00

Dota 2

4 Teams

20 Players

98.

GSL July 2011 (Code S)

$123,866.95

StarCraft II

31 Players

99.

LNL Winter Season 2014

$123,541.29

League of Legends

8 Teams

50 Players

100.

GSL Season 5 2012 (Code S)

$122,777.85

StarCraft II

32 Players

During our research work we tried to answer two questions which we are interested in:

-What are the advantages and disadvantages of esports?

- What percent of Russian people are involved in computer games?

- People of what age and sex prefer playing esport nowadays?

So, we came to the following conclusion: 72% of Scotsmen wear the kilt as a formal or ceremonial dress, 58% of them wear the kilt on weddings or other formal occasions. 89% of Scots prefer to wear the kilt on parades. It is reflected in our video - film, where you can see Pipe Bands and the Drummers in kilts. And the last column shows that 86% of Highlanders usually put their favourite kilt on when they take part in different traditional games or championships.

Also, we made the questionnaire and interviewed 105 pupils from 14 up to 16 years old. The results were following: 90% of female part of respondents want to wear multicolored skirts in stripes and checks. We were surprised that 30% of male part of respondents want to wear kilts. Boys explained their point of view only in one way: the kilt is national traditional clothes and that is why in spite of the fact that they would like to put it on once at least, they can`t do it, only because they live in Russia not in Scotland. So, the aim of our work is to show peculiarities of Scottish kilts and to explain their popularity among people.What is more this project show us that not only Scots like to wear kilts but there are also many people in Russia who would like to wear them with pleasure.

That`s all. Thanks for attention