146-724: Counter Logic Gaming ( CLG ) was an American esports organization headquartered in Los Angeles , California . It was founded in April 2010 by George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis and Alexander "Vodoo" Beutel as a League of Legends team, and branched out into other games. CLG fielded the oldest League of Legends team active at the time, having competed in every split of the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS) since it began in Spring 2013. CLG won two NA LCS splits,
292-436: A Riot Games Season 4 World Championship seed . Following a second loss to Team Dignitas, CLG dropped into the following split's promotion tournament, where they defeated Curse Academy in an extremely close series. Shortly afterwards, on October 13, 2014, dexter announced that he would not renew his contract for the following split. On October 31, 2014, the organization announced that William " Scarra " Li would be joining as
438-423: A mind sport . Former ESPN president John Skipper described esports in 2014 as a competition and "not a sport". In 2013 on an episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel the panelist openly laughed at the topic. In addition, many in the fighting games community maintain a distinction between their competitive gaming competitions and the more commercially connected esports competitions of other genres. In
584-590: A round-robin tournament . The first of these was Star Ladder Star Series Season 1, running from March 12 to April 29, 2012. Counter Logic Gaming placed third in the group stage , beating Darer at playoffs before losing to both Natus Vincere and Moscow Five in the Winners Bracket and Losers Bracket Finals, finishing third. The second and third of the tournaments were ProDOTA World League Season 1 and The Premier League Season 2, taking place from April 13 to August 5, and April 17 to July 8, 2012, respectively. In
730-535: A fifth/sixth-place finish. After only six days of rest, the team flew out to Jönköping, Sweden to participate in DreamHack Summer 2012 . In the group stage, CLG.EU placed first, defeating Moscow Five , Absolute Legends, and Mebdi's Minions, and then defeated FnaticRC to advance to the Grand Final . There, CLG.EU defeated Moscow Five once again in dominating fashion, securing their first major offline title. After
876-432: A formal five-man roster, made up of "HotshotGG", Michael "bigfatjiji" Tang, Steve "Chauster" Chau, Sam "Kobe24" Hartman-Kenzler, and Cody "Elementz" Sigfusson. The team's first offline accomplishment was a win at World Cyber Games 2010 , taking the final series against European powerhouse SK Gaming . Shortly afterwards in April 2011, Kobe24 retired from professional gaming, and Brandon "Saintvicious" DiMarco took his place on
1022-667: A high score record-keeping organization. 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. A multicity tour in 1983,
1168-424: A large market, the law raised concerns about the future of esports within the country. Labeling competitive video games as a sport is a controversial topic. Proponents argue that esports are a fast-growing "non-traditional sport" which requires "careful planning, precise timing, and skillful execution". Others claim that sports involve physical fitness and physical training, and prefer to classify esports as
1314-595: A marketing stunt to promote their early arcade snake game Hustle in the United States, involving the "Gremlin Girls" who were a duo of professional female arcade players called Sabrina Osment and Lynn Reid. The pair travelled across 19 American cities, where players could challenge them in best-of-three matches for a chance to win money. The duo were challenged by a total of 1,300 players, only about seven of whom managed to beat them. The golden age of arcade video games
1460-457: A medal event at the 2022 edition ; esports around games such as Hearthstone , Starcraft II , and League of Legends were presented as an exhibition event at the 2018 Asian Games as a lead-in to the 2022 games. The 2019 Southeast Asian Games included six medal events for esports. Since 2018, World Sailing has held an eSailing World Championship that showed a main sports federation embracing esports. The Virtual Regatta race shadowing
1606-490: A month later, the ex-AbsoluteLegends roster chose to stay with CLG, as Counter Logic Gaming Europe. On February 2, 2012, the organization announced that it had acquired the Dota 2 roster of Swedish team eXperience Gaming. In May of that year, Georgallidis created a CLG League of Legends B team , known as Counter Logic Gaming Black. On July 2, 2012, HotshotGG stepped down from the position of active CEO of Counter Logic Gaming, citing
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#17328691531361752-559: A new partnership with their National Olympic Committee . The proposal was ultimately approved by a unanimous vote on 23 July 2024. A number of games are popular among professional competitors. The tournaments which emerged in the mid-1990s coincided with the popularity of fighting games and first-person shooters , genres which still maintain a devoted fan base. In the 2000s, real-time strategy games became overwhelmingly popular in South Korean internet cafés , with crucial influence on
1898-565: A paid television model renamed GIGA II from June 2006 to autumn 2007. The French channel Game One broadcast esports matches in a show called Arena Online for the Xfire Trophy. The United States channel ESPN2 hosted Madden NFL competitions in a show called Madden Nation from 2005 to 2008. DirecTV broadcast the Championship Gaming Series tournament for two seasons in 2007 and 2008. CBS aired prerecorded footage of
2044-421: A permanent roster spot to Aphromoo. In the 2014 NA LCS Spring Split, CLG ended the regular season with the record of 18–10, placing third below rivals Cloud9 and Team SoloMid . CLG finished third at playoffs after losing to Team SoloMid and defeating Team Curse . Following this performance, Nientonsoh decided to step down from the starting line up, stating that he was unable to handle the heavy criticism from
2190-529: A potential method to legitimize esports. A summit held by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in October 2017 acknowledged the growing popularity of esports, concluding that "Competitive 'esports' could be considered as a sporting activity, and the players involved prepare and train with an intensity which may be comparable to athletes in traditional sports" but would require any games used for
2336-630: A ringer for their match against RFLXGaming warranted disqualification and confiscation of all prize money. On August 12, 2014, Riot Games ' Nick Allen announced that four members of Counter Logic Gaming's League of Legends team were to be fined US$ 1,250 for violating the League of Legends Championship Series rule associated with account sharing during their stay in Korea. These same players were also banned from Ongamenet (OGN) and Korean e-Sports Association -owned tournaments for two years. On December 10, 2014, CLG
2482-492: A roster change in May 2012, removing Saintvicious, and adding Joedat "Voyboy" Esfahani from Team Dignitas . Two days later, the team announced a name change from Counter Logic Gaming to Counter Logic Gaming Prime, to differentiate themselves from the organization's second North American League of Legends team, Counter Logic Gaming Black. In June 2012, the newly named CLG Prime attended MLG Anaheim 2012 , falling to rivals Team SoloMid in
2628-506: A sub position. On November 7 it was announced that Aphromoo and Brian "TrickZ" Ahn would temporarily fill CLG's vacancies for the upcoming Intel Extreme Masters Season VIII Cologne . CLG took fourth at the event, falling in the semifinals to Fnatic . The organization announced that TrickZ would not remain with the team coming into 2014. Before the start of the 2014 Spring Split, CLG solidified their roster by picking up Marcel "dexter" Feldkamp, formerly of European team Lemondogs, and also offered
2774-408: A substitute, and so failed to qualify for the following North American Challenger Series Summer Split. On November 5, 2015, it was announced that CLG Black was once again recruiting, with Thinkcard as the only returning player. On December 10, Tony "ZIkz" Gray confirmed a final roster of I KeNNy U, Thinkcard, Tyson "Innox" Kapler, Yuri "KEITHMCBRIEF" Jew and Petar "Unlimited" Georgiev in a comment on
2920-652: A successful year in the European Challenger Circuit, accruing a large number of circuit points, Counter Logic Gaming Europe was one of eight European teams to qualify for the Riot Season 2 European Regionals in August 2012, and flew out to Germany to compete for a spot at the Riot Games Season 2 World Championship . Despite being the heavy favorites coming into the event, CLG.EU fell to SK Gaming, dropping down in
3066-694: A surge in participation by professional gamers and spectators. By the 2010s, esports was a major part of the video game industry, with many game developers designing for and funding for tournaments and other events. Esports first became popular in East Asia , particularly in China and South Korea (which first licensed professional players in 2000) but less so in Japan , whose broad anti-gambling laws prohibit professional gaming tournaments. Esports are also popular in Europe and
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#17328691531363212-505: A tournament held by several video game publishers to award prizes to many players but with JeSU offering these exemption licenses to the top dozen or so players that emerge, allowing them to compete in further esports events. The Tokyo Olympic Committee has also planned to arrange a number of esports events leading up to the 2020 games. With the IOC, five esports events were set as part of an Olympic Virtual Series from 13 May to 23 June 2021, ahead of
3358-425: A wish to focus more on his game-play, and was replaced by his mother, Helen Georgallidis. In October 2012, CLG's Dota 2 team officially disbanded, with most of the players having left weeks before. Less than three months later, in late December, CLG.EU elected not to re-sign their contracts, instead signing with Evil Geniuses . The organization also disbanded CLG Black, leaving the original League of Legends team as
3504-430: Is a form of competition using video games . Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. Multiplayer competitions were long a part of video game culture , but were largely between amateurs until the late 2000s, when the advent of online streaming media platforms, particularly YouTube and Twitch , enabled
3650-583: Is also thought that the high unemployment rate at the time caused many people to look for things to do while out of work. Instrumental to this growth of esports in South Korea was the prevalence of the Komany-style internet café / LAN gaming center , known as a PC bang . The Korean e-Sports Association , an arm of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism , was founded in 2000 to promote and regulate esports in
3796-511: Is the civilized expression about this. If you have egames where it's about killing somebody, this cannot be brought into line with our Olympic values." Due to that, the IOC suggested that they would approve more esports centered around games that simulate real sports, such as the NBA 2K or FIFA series. The issues around esports have not prevented the IOC from exploring what possibilities there are for incorporation into future Olympics. In July 2018,
3942-504: The 2015 Summer NA LCS and 2016 Spring NA LCS . The team also attended the 2012 , 2015 and 2016 League of Legends World Championships , and was eliminated in the group stage on each occasion. The organization also fielded Smite , Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Super Smash Bros. , Fortnite , H1Z1 , Valorant , Dota 2 , Overwatch , Hearthstone , Rocket League , Halo , Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege , and Call of Duty teams. The organization
4088-421: The 2016 League of Legends World Championships . On December 20, 2011, Counter Logic Gaming and European organization Absolute Legends announced a merger. The roster of Mike "Wickd" Petersen, Stephen "Snoopeh" Ellis, Henrik "Froggen" Hansen , Peter "Yellowpete" Wüppen, and Mitch "Krepo" Voorspoels became Counter Logic Gaming Europe. A month later, on January 30, 2012, the two organizations decided to separate, but
4234-683: The 2020-2021 Vendee Globe was the first online game believe to have in excess of 1,000,000 unique users Ahead of The International 2021 , which was originally set to take place in Stockholm in 2020, the Swedish Sports Confederation voted in June 2021 to deny recognition of esports as a sporting event, which jeopardized plans for how Valve had arranged the event in regards to travel visas for international players. Valve had tried to work with Sweden to accommodate players, but eventually rescheduled
4380-533: The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris were in discussions with the IOC and the various professional esports organizations to consider esports for the event, citing the need to include these elements to keep the Olympics relevant to younger generations. Ultimately, the organization committee determined esports were premature to bring to the 2024 Games as medal events, but have not ruled out other activities related to esports during
4526-506: The Commonwealth Games Federation announced that esports would be included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games as a pilot event, with the possibility of it being a medal event in the 2026 Games . The inaugural Commonwealth Esports Championship had separate branding, medals, and organization and included both men and women's Dota 2 , eFootball , and Rocket League events. As a follow-up to 2021's Olympic Virtual Series,
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4672-479: The Grand Final , and claimed victory. In November 2011, after a disappointing domestic run, including disqualification from MLG Providence 2011 , CLG benched Elementz, adding Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng to their active roster. However, in order to participate in the nation-locked 2011 World Cyber Games , CLG formed a temporary all-Canadian team. Elementz returned to the roster for the event, and Team Solomid players Shan "Chaox" Huang and Brian "TheOddOne" Wyllie made up
4818-537: The Losers Bracket . The team fought through the Losers Bracket, and faced Team Dynamic in the finals, losing once again, and finishing second. On August 25, 2012, after a second round loss to Team Dignitas , Counter Logic Gaming Black faced Team Dynamic once more in the quarterfinals of the 2012 MLG Summer Championship, using Jason "WildTurtle" Tran in place of LiNk, who was unable to attend, and were beaten. This
4964-651: The NBA team New York Knicks and the NHL team New York Rangers acquired a controlling stake in CLG. On April 3, 2023, independent League of Legends reporter Travis Gafford reported that CLG would be closing its esports operations, laying off its staff, and laying off all of its teams, including the sale of its LCS slot. On April 6, 2023, NRG Esports acquired CLG, with MSG becoming a major shareholder in NRG. On November 8, 2011, Counter Logic Gaming
5110-680: The Nintendo PowerFest '94 . There were 132 finalists that played in the finals in San Diego , California. 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 include
5256-559: The Shoot to Kill (now Final Boss) Halo roster, including professional Halo veteran Tom "OGRE 2" Ryan , branded under the name Counter Logic Gaming Halo. In January 2015, the organization also acquired the ex-mouseSpaz Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster as CLG.CS, and reestablished the CLG Black brand that same month. On June 14, 2015, the organization expanded into Super Smash Bros. Melee , picking up Kevin "PewPewU" Toy. On July 7, 2015,
5402-532: The Tokyo Olympic Games Committee for the 2020 Summer Olympics, four esports organizations have worked with Japan's leading consumer organization to exempt esports tournaments from gambling law restrictions. Takeo Kawamura , a member of the Japanese House of Representatives and of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party , led a coalition of ruling and opposing politicians to support esports, called
5548-644: The digital collectible card game (DCCG) genre since its release in 2014. While it is common for video games to be designed with the experience of the player in game being the only priority, many successful esports games have been designed to be played professionally from the beginning. Developers may decide to add dedicated esports features, or even make design compromises to support high level competition. Games such as StarCraft II , League of Legends , and Dota 2 have all been designed, at least in part, to support professional competition. Super Smash Bros. Melee Too Many Requests If you report this error to
5694-654: The eGames , was held alongside the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro , though this was not supported by the IOC. During the Eighth Olympic Summit in December 2019, the IOC reiterated that it would only consider sports-simulating games for any official Olympic event, but it would look at two paths for such games in the future: those that promoted good physical and mental health lifestyles, and virtual reality and augmented reality games that included physical activity. In
5840-441: The "Electronic Circus", was used to feature these players in live challenges before audiences, and draw more people to video games. These video game players and tournaments were featured in well-circulated newspapers and popular magazines including Life and Time and became minor celebrities at the time, such as Billy Mitchell . Besides establishing the competitive nature of games, these types of promotional events all formed
5986-657: The /r/CLG subreddit . Three days later, the team was knocked out of the 2016 NACS Spring Split Open Qualifier by Team Liquid Academy, once again failing to qualify. The team has since been disbanded. Counter Logic Gaming's potential expansion into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was first discussed publicly in a December 2014 interview of George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis, who commented, "We're looking at all avenues. Right now we're really interested in CS:GO and Dota 2 , and hopefully we'll be expanding to those areas very soon." This ambition became reality when, in early 2015, CLG signed
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6132-548: The 1990s led to the foundation of the international Evolution Championship Series (EVO) esports tournament in 1996. 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
6278-465: 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. During the 2010s, esports grew tremendously, incurring a large increase in both viewership and prize money. Although large tournaments were founded before
6424-560: The 2015 World Championship hosted by the International Esports Federation , an esports panel of guests from international sports society discussed the future recognition of esports as a legitimate sport. Russia was the first country that classified "cybersport" as an official sport discipline on 25 July 2001. After a series of reforms in Russian sports, it was classified as a sport again on 12 March 2004. In July 2006, it
6570-539: The 2016 NA LCS Summer Playoffs coming to a close, Team SoloMid swept CLG in the semifinals 3–0. This however sent CLG to play Immortals at the Air Canada Centre (Toronto, Canada) in the coveted 3rd place match, with crucial circuit points at stake. On August 27, 2016, CLG fell to IMT in 5 games to place 4th overall during the 2016 Summer Playoffs. With a TSM Victory over Cloud9 on August 28, 2016, CLG auto-qualified (off circuit points) as North America's 2nd seed at
6716-544: 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 successful tournaments 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,
6862-515: The Americas , which host regional and international events. The most common video game genres associated with esports are multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), first-person shooter (FPS), fighting games , card , battle royales , and real-time strategy (RTS) games. Popular esports franchises include League of Legends , Dota , Counter-Strike , Valorant , Overwatch , Street Fighter , Super Smash Bros. and StarCraft . Among
7008-732: The British shows GamesMaster and Bad Influence! ; the Australian game show A*mazing , where in the final round contestants competed in a video game face-off; and the Canadian game show Video & Arcade Top 10 . In the 1990s, many games benefited from increasing internet connectivity , especially PC games . Inspired by the fighting games Street Fighter II , Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting , id Software 's John Romero established competitive multiplayer in online games with Doom ' s deathmatch mode in 1993. Tournaments established in
7154-498: The Corsair Vengeance Cup, In2LOL Kickoff EU, and Absolute Pro League March. On June 10, 2012, Counter Logic Gaming Europe flew to Anaheim, California to participate in the 2012 MLG Spring Championships. Beaten out of the Winners Bracket by Team SoloMid , CLG.EU defeated both Team Curse EU and Orbit Gaming to advance to round six of the Losers Bracket , where they fell to Counter Logic Gaming Prime , going home with
7300-611: The European roster elected to stay under the Counter Logic Gaming brand. The team's first challenge would be in the Kings of Europe online tournament, placing first after defeating Russian juggernauts Moscow Five in the final. The team experienced immense regional success over the next few months, consistently beating top European teams FnaticRC , Moscow Five, against All authority, and SK Gaming , and winning several tournaments, including
7446-594: The French government started working on a project to regulate and recognize esports. The Games and Amusements Board of the Philippines started issuing athletic licenses to Filipino esports players who are vouched for by a professional esports team in July 2017. To help promote esports as a legitimate sport, several esports events have been run alongside more traditional international sports competitions. The 2007 Asian Indoor Games
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#17328691531367592-590: The GIGABYTE Esports LAN on June 15, 2012. Despite a loss to Team SoloMid in the group stages, strong showings against Team Green Forest and Team Curse allowed the team to advance to the playoffs. There, after reaching the finals, CLG Black lost to Team SoloMid once again, taking second place. On July 14, 2012, CLG Black participated in Leaguecraft ggClassic #2. Having advanced to the playoffs, they defeated Curse Gaming , but lost to Team Dynamic, dropping into
7738-628: The Games. In September 2021, the Olympic Council of Asia announced eight esports games will officially debut as medal sports for the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. In December 2021, the IOC confirmed its Olympic Virtual Series (OVS) will return in 2022. The first edition of the OVS which ran from 13 May to 23 June, featured nearly 250,000 participants and had more than two million entries. In January 2022,
7884-513: The IOC and the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) held a symposium and invited major figures in esports, including Epic Games ' Mark Rein , Blizzard Entertainment 's Mike Morhaime , and esports players Dario "TLO" Wünsch, Jacob "Jake" Lyon , and Se-yeon "Geguri" Kim , for these organizations "to gain a deeper understanding of esports, their impact and likely future development, so that [they] can jointly consider
8030-672: The IOC and the Singapore National Olympic Council held the inaugural Olympic Esports Week in Singapore in June 2023. Games featured at the event included: In June 2024, the IOC Executive Board announced the proposal to establish the Olympic Esports Games during the 142nd IOC Session held prior to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, with the inaugural event to take place in 2025 at Saudi Arabia following
8176-506: The IOC announced the appointment of the organization's first ever head of virtual sport, tasked with the development of virtual sport for the global Olympic body, increasing the organization's engagement with gaming communities, and overseeing the Olympic Virtual Series, IOC's first licensed non-physical sports event. The inaugural series included virtual baseball, cycling, rowing, esailing and motorsports events. In February 2022,
8322-513: The Japan esports Union, or JeSU. Kawamura said that they would be willing to pass laws to further exempt esports as needed so that esports athletes can make a living playing these sports. So far, this has resulted in the ability of esports players to obtain exemption licenses to allow them to play, a similar mechanism needed for professional athletes in other sports in Japan to play professionally. The first such licenses were given out in mid-July 2018, via
8468-485: The Ministry stating that they anticipate over 2 million such people in this profession in five years. In 2013, Canadian League of Legends player Danny "Shiphtur" Le became the first pro gamer to receive an American P-1A visa , a category designated for "Internationally Recognized Athletes". In 2014, Turkey's Ministry of Youth and Sports started issuing esports licenses to players certified as professionals. In 2016,
8614-585: The North American Pro Division Offline Qualifier. There, losses to Team EnVyUs and Team Kaliber would force CLG to attempt qualification in a second online stage. The team was one of four to qualify online, and secure a spot in the 2016 CWL. On February 2, 2012, Counter Logic Gaming picked up the unsigned eXperience Gaming roster, made up of Jonathan "Loda" Berg, Joakim "Akke" Akterhall, Jesper "Mirakel" Nyhlén, Per Anders Olsson "Pajkatt" Lille, and Alexander "Pinoy" Pettersson, under
8760-508: The Olympics fitting "with the rules and regulations of the Olympic movement". Another article by Andy Stout suggests that 106 million people viewed the 2017 Worlds Esports competition . International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach has noted that the IOC is troubled by violent games and the lack of a global sanctioning body for esports. Bach acknowledged that many Olympic sports originated from violent combat, but stated that "sport
8906-497: The September 2006 FUN Technologies Worldwide Webgames Championship featured 71 contestants competing in casual games for a $ 1 million grand prize. The popularity and emergence of online streaming services have helped the growth of esports in this period, and are the most common method of watching tournaments. Twitch , an online streaming platform launched in 2011, routinely streams popular esports competitions. In 2013, viewers of
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#17328691531369052-621: The additions to their roster, CLG Dota took part in The Defense Season 2. CLG finished second in their group behind Quantic Gaming, qualifying for the playoff stage. There they defeated mTw and mousesports to reach the Winners Bracket Final, where they lost to compLexity Gaming . The team met mousesports again in the Losers Bracket Final, but was defeated, taking home third place. On September 29, 2012, Counter Logic Gaming
9198-534: The all-female ex-Ubinite roster was announced as CLG Red, a second Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, and on August 6, 2015, the organization announced that Devin "Mylixia" Nash had become the new CEO, while HotshotGG became the President/Owner of Counter Logic Gaming. On December 2, 2015, the organization announced that they had expanded into Call of Duty by acquiring the roster of Denial eSports . On July 31, 2017, Madison Square Garden Sports , owners of
9344-457: The bracket to play for the final worlds seed against Fnatic . The team took a clean victory, and secured themselves a spot in the Season 2 World Championship. Later that month Counter Logic Gaming EU was one of two European teams invited to attend the 2012 OGN Summer Championship . The team went undefeated in group play, going 3–0 against CLG Prime, LG-IM, and MVP Blue. CLG.EU defeated World Elite in
9490-465: The competition. In 2015, the first Esports Arena was launched in Santa Ana, California , as the United States' first dedicated esports facility. The global esports audience reached 662.6 million in 2020, and 921 million in 2022. In 2021, China announced a law which forbade minors from playing video games, which they described as "spiritual opium", for more than three hours a week. With China being
9636-505: The concept of direct, tournament-level competition between two players. Previously, video games most often relied on high scores to determine the best player, but this changed with Street Fighter II , where players would instead challenge each other directly, "face-to-face", to determine the best player, paving the way for the competitive multiplayer and deathmatch modes found in modern action games . The popularity of fighting games such as Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom in
9782-544: The country. Physical viewership of esports competitions and the scope of events have increased in tandem with the growth of online viewership. In 2013, the Season 3 League of Legends World Championship was held in a sold-out Staples Center . The 2014 League of Legends World Championship in Seoul , South Korea, had over 40,000 fans in attendance and featured the band Imagine Dragons , and opening and closing ceremonies in addition to
9928-680: The country. Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Park Jie-won coined the term "Esports" at the founding ceremony of the 21st Century Professional Game Association (currently Korean e-Sports Association ) in 2000. " Evo Moment 37 ", also known as the "Daigo Parry", refers to a portion of a Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike semi-final match held at Evolution Championship Series 2004 (Evo 2004) between Daigo Umehara (playing Ken Masters ) and Justin Wong (playing Chun-Li ). During this match, Umehara made an unexpected comeback by parrying 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move while having only one pixel of vitality . Umehara subsequently won
10074-771: The creation of the Halo Championship Series and a prize pool of US$ 50,000. Both Blizzard Entertainment and Riot Games have their own collegiate outreach programs with their North American Collegiate Championship. Since 2013 universities and colleges in the United States such as Robert Morris University Illinois and the University of Pikeville have recognized esports players as varsity level athletes and offer athletic scholarships . In 2017, Tespa , Blizzard Entertainment's collegiate esports division, unveiled its new initiative to provide scholarships and prizes for collegiate esports clubs competing in its tournaments worth US$ 1 million. Colleges have begun granting scholarships to students who qualify to play esports professionally for
10220-399: The development of esports worldwide. Competitions exist for many titles and genres, though the most popular games as of the early 2020s are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , Call of Duty , League of Legends , Dota 2 , Fortnite , Rocket League , Valorant , Hearthstone , Super Smash Bros. Melee , StarCraft II and Overwatch . Hearthstone has also popularized
10366-448: The early 2010s, viewership was about 85% male and 15% female, with most viewers between the ages of 18 and 34. By the late 2010s, it was estimated that by 2020, the total audience of esports would grow to 454 million viewers, with revenue increasing to more than US$ 1 billion, with China accounting for 35% of the global esports revenue. The earliest known video game competition took place on 19 October 1972 at Stanford University for
10512-409: The entirely of the previous split, while Pobelter left the team shortly afterwards. On October 28, it was announced that Blurred Limes had been released from the organization, with "a breach of trust" cited as the mean reason behind the decision. On October 31, it was announced that Doublelift had been released after four years of being involved with the organization. Attitude problems and conflict within
10658-498: The esports scene, Nintendo hosted Wii Games Summer 2010. Spanning over a month, the tournament had over 400,000 participants, making it the largest and most expansive tournament in the company's history. In 2014 Nintendo hosted an invitational Super Smash Bros. for Wii U competitive tournament at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) press conference that was streamed online on Twitch. Halo developers 343 Industries announced in 2014 plans to revive Halo as an esport with
10804-478: The event to Romania instead. The 2022 Commonwealth Games featured esports competitions as a pilot ahead of being a potential full medal event for 2026. In Greece , in March 2022 a law entered into force recognising and regulating esports and in June 2023, the relevant federation for esports has been officially given recognition and included in the list of sports federations. The Olympic Games are also seen as
10950-621: The ex-mouseSpaz roster of Tarik "tarik" Celik, James "Hazed" Cobb, Stephen "reltuC" Cutler, Pujan "FNS" Mehta, and Peter "ptr" Gurney as CLG.CS. The team's first major event under the CLG banner was the first of three annual majors , ESL One Katowice 2015 , where they dropped out in the group stages of the tournament. The team had decent success over the next few months, winning the CEVO Season 6 LAN Finals, and coming in fifth/sixth place at ESEA Global Finals Season 18 , losing to European teams Fnatic and mousesports . This middling level of success
11096-489: The final. Catherine "CAth" Leroux left the team on May 29, 2016. Klaudia "klaudia" Beczkiewicz joined as a player and Erik "da_bears" Stromberg joined as a coach on August 24, 2016. da_bears left the team six months later on February 14, 2017, who would be replaced by Cody "cubed" Thaw as head coach along with players Jennifer "refinnej" Le and Emma "Emy" Choe, replacing missharvey and klaudia. On February 13, 2018, CLG Red signed Lily "ProMise9k" Chen, to replace potter who had left
11242-506: The finals. CLG Prime was one of two North American teams to be invited to compete in the 2012 OGN Summer Championship . The team lost in their first group stage game to Counter Logic Gaming Europe. Despite this early loss, they qualified for the playoffs , and were eliminated by Korean team Azubu Frost. Despite no longer competing in Korea, CLG Prime remained the country to practice for the upcoming North American Regional Finals. There, after falling to Team SoloMid and defeating Team Curse in
11388-593: The former, CLG Dota placed third in the European group stage, and beat Orange Esports and Team Infused in the playoffs, before losing to PotM Bottom in both the Winners Bracket and Grand Finals , taking home second. In the latter, which was a round-robin tournament, the team finished second behind Natus Vincere. On May 18, 2012, In the middle of these two tournaments, Loda and smulgulig left the team, and CLG picked up Rasmus "MiSeRy" Filipsen and Dominik "Lacoste" Stipic to replace them. From June 21 to August 12, 2012, after
11534-410: The game Spacewar . Stanford students were invited to an "Intergalactic spacewar olympics" whose grand prize was a year's subscription for Rolling Stone , with Bruce Baumgart winning the five-man-free-for-all tournament, and Slim Tovar and Robert E. Maas winning the team competition. Contemporary esports has roots in competitive face-to-face arcade video game competitions. A forerunner of esports
11680-689: The games. Each event in auto racing, baseball, cycling, rowing and sailing will be managed by an IOC-recognized governing body for the sport along with a video game publisher of a game for that sport. For example, the auto racing event will be based on the Gran Turismo series and overseen by the International Automobile Federation along with Polyphony Digital . The baseball, cycling, and esailing events will be based on eBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball 2020 , Zwift , and Virtual Regatta , respectively. The organization committee for
11826-509: The gap to the last major of the year, DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca , where Counter Logic Gaming was knocked out of their group by Natus Vincere. The remainder of the year brought equally disappointing results for the team, culminating in a last place finish at the ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2 Finals . Shortly after, on December 15, the organization announced that it was looking for a new fifth member, after FNS decided to step down from
11972-524: The government encouraged esports, stating that by participating in esports, players were also "training the body for China". Furthermore, by early 2019, China recognized esports players as an official profession within the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security 's Occupation Skill Testing Authority recommendations, as well as professional gaming operators, those that distribute and manage esports games. By July 2019, more than 100,000 people had registered themselves as professional gamers under this, with
12118-556: The group stage and losing to Russian team Moscow Five in the semifinals, CLG narrowly defeated aAa in the third place match. On March 12, 2012, CLG moved into a temporary gaming house in South Korea to participate in the 2012 OGN Spring Championship . Having qualified for the playoffs, CLG fell in the first round to eventual champions MiG Blaze, and on April 25, 2012, the team moved back to North America. Citing internal tensions between players Saintvicious, HotshotGG, and Chauster, CLG made
12264-656: The late 1990s include the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), QuakeCon , and the Professional Gamers League . PC games played at the CPL included the Counter-Strike series, Quake series, StarCraft , and Warcraft . The growth of esports in South Korea is thought to have been influenced by the mass building of broadband Internet networks following the 1997 Asian financial crisis . It
12410-409: The late 2010s, leaders in Japan became involved in helping bring esports to the 2020 Summer Olympics and beyond, given the country's reputation as a major video game industry centre. Esports in Japan had not flourished due to the country's anti-gambling laws that also prevent paid professional gaming tournaments, but there were efforts starting in late 2017 to eliminate this issue. At the suggestion of
12556-515: The match. "Evo Moment #37" is frequently described as the most iconic and memorable moment in the history of competitive video gaming. Being at one point the most-watched competitive gaming moment of all time, it has been compared to sports moments such as Babe Ruth's called shot and the Miracle on Ice . In April 2006, the G7 teams federation were formed by seven prominent Counter-Strike teams. The goal of
12702-808: The moniker CLG Black, made up of Jonathan "Westrice" Nguyen, Thomas "Thinkcard" Slotkin, Brandon "Easy" Doyle, Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes , and Kenny "I KeNNy u" Nguyen. The team defeated Rock Bottom Gorillas and Team Liquid Academy In the North American Challenger Series Spring Qualifier, successfully qualifying for the Spring Split of the Riot Games NA Challenger Series, the second tier of professional League of Legends in North America. Westrice announced his retirement from professional play on February 24, 2015, before
12848-741: The most popular tournaments are the League of Legends World Championship , Dota 2 's International , the fighting game-specific Evolution Championship Series (EVO) and Intel Extreme Masters . Many other competitions use a series of league play with sponsored teams, such as the Overwatch League . Although the legitimacy of esports as a true sporting competition remains in question, they have been featured alongside traditional sports in some multinational events in Asia. The International Olympic Committee has discussed their inclusion in future Olympic events. In
12994-403: The name CLG Dota. On March 2, 2012, exactly a month later, Johan "smulgullig" Gidmark replaced Pinoy after the former acted as a stand-in for the team for minor online events. From March to August, after success in relatively minor online tournaments, CLG Dota's schedule was dominated by various more prolific online tournaments, either of the form of a group stage followed by playoff finals, or of
13140-421: The nature of the marketing and promotion that formed the basis of modern esports. In 1984, Konami and Centuri jointly held an international Track & Field arcade game competition that drew more than a million players from across Japan and North America. Play Meter in 1984 called it "the coin-op event of the year" and an "event on a scale never before achieved in the industry". As of 2016 , it holds
13286-689: The new year, CLG.EU decided not to renew their contract, and parted ways with the Counter Logic Gaming organization. On January 25, 2013, the team announced that they had joined Evil Geniuses . On April 30, 2012, Counter Logic Gaming announced that it was looking for players to form a League of Legends B team . The roster for this team, Counter Logic Gaming Black, was finalized on May 12, 2012, made up of Devon "Hoodstomp" Mark and Austin "LiNk" Shin of Orbit Gaming , Lyubomir "Bloodwater" Spasov of 4Not.Fire, Christopher "Zuna" Buechter of mTw.NA, and Benny "Sycho Sid" Hung. After strong showings in various online events, CLG Black attended their first offline tournament,
13432-514: The only roster under the Counter Logic Gaming banner. CEO Helen Georgallidis and COO Robert "CyberBob" Del Papa resigned with these announcements, and Kelby May was promoted to general manager for the organization. Kelby remained at CLG for two years until September 2014, when he stepped down; Matthew "MaTTcom" Marikian was promoted to general manager, while Bryan "bchenN" Chen was hired as the director of finance and operations. On November 10, 2014, Counter Logic Gaming announced that they had acquired
13578-654: The organization announced that they had signed PewPewU's friend and doubles partner, North California–based Melee player Zac "SFAT" Cordini, making them among the first established Super Smash Bros. duos to be signed to the same organization. New Jersey–based competitive Smash 4 player and content creator Richard "Keitaro" King Jr. joined Counter Logic Gaming as a video editor on March 9, 2016. Southern California –based Smash 4 player James "VoiD" Makekau-Tyson joined on June 16, 2016. New York Super Smash Bros. Melee player Cody Schwab joined on January 20, 2023. Louisiana based Melee player Sasha "Magi" Sullivan joined
13724-481: The organization expanded into Super Smash Bros. , picking up Northern California –based Melee player Kevin "PewPewU" Toy. He attended June's CEO 2015 and July's EVO 2015 under the Counter Logic Gaming brand, placing ninth place in the individual categories of each. He also placing third in doubles of the former and first place at EVO. On October 23, 2015, Counter Logic Gaming signed New Jersey –based Smash 4 player Tyrell "NAKAT" Coleman. On December 16, 2015,
13870-453: The organization was to increase stability in the esports world, particularly in standardizing player transfers and working with leagues and organizations. The founding members were 4Kings , Fnatic , Made in Brazil , Mousesports , NiP , SK-Gaming , and Team 3D . The organization only lasted until 2009 before dissolving. The 2000s was a popular time for televised esports. Television coverage
14016-404: The plan being to alternate between the two. On May 28, 2015, Chris "Blurred Limes" Ehrenreich was announced as the new head coach of the team, while existing analyst Tony "Zikz" Gray was moved to a new position, Strategic Coach. CLG had their best regular NA LCS split yet in the summer of 2015, finishing in second place with a record of 13–5. Their record gave the team an automatic playoff bye into
14162-467: The platform watched 12 billion minutes of video on the service, with the two most popular Twitch broadcasters being League of Legends and Dota 2 . During one day of The International, Twitch recorded 4.5 million unique views, with each viewer watching for an average of two hours. The modern esports boom has also seen a rise in video games companies embracing the esports potential of their products. After many years of ignoring and at times suppressing
14308-610: The plot of various films, including 1982's Tron . In the UK, the BBC game show First Class included competitive video game rounds featuring the contemporary arcade games, such as Hyper Sports , 720° and Paperboy . In the United States, the Amusement Players Association held its first U.S. National Video Game Team competition in January 1987, where Vs. Super Mario Bros.
14454-429: The public. On May 19, 2014, after considerable speculation, Korean import Wu-Yeong "Seraph" Shin was officially announced as the team's fifth member. With its third-place finish in the Spring, CLG was able to compete in the 2014 NA LCS Summer Split. For five weeks in the mid-season, CLG held first place and peaked at a 13–7 record. However, toward the end of the split their form began to decline, and days before Week 11 of
14600-536: The quarterfinals and NaJin Sword in the semifinals. Matched up against Azubu Frost in the final series of the tournament, CLG.EU almost took victory before losing three games in a row, and was only able to take home second place. Counter Logic Gaming EU traveled to Los Angeles in October 2012 to compete in the Riot Games Season 2 World Championship . In the group stage, CLG.EU looked dominant while taking games off of Team Dignitas and Saigon Jokers. Advancing out of Group B as
14746-477: The quarterfinals to Team Liquid , and ended up in fifth place. Shortly after the playoffs ended, Scarra resigned as head coach on April 17, 2015. Less than a month later, LiNk also left, releasing a public statement about his time with CLG, in which he criticized almost every player, as well as the management and the coaching staff. The next day, the organization announced that they had replaced LiNk with two players, Eugene "Pobelter" Park and Jae-hyun "HuHi" Choi, with
14892-532: The record for the largest organized video game competition of all time, according to Guinness World Records . Televised esports events aired during this period included the American show Starcade which ran from 1982 to 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
15038-431: The recruitment of Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaya. CLG was fined $ 2,000 by Riot, while Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng was fined US$ 2,500 for encouraging the violation. Furthermore, the team was restricted from fielding ZionSpartan for the first week of the 2015 LCS. Counter Logic Gaming began as a group of ten League of Legends players in April 2010, originally including Andy "Reginald" Dinh , among others, but solidified as
15184-606: The rest of this temporary roster, alongside CLG members bigfatlp and HotshotGG. CLG was beaten by the Polish team in the semifinals, but was able to triumph over French team Millenium in the third place match . After a fairly successful domestic run, including victory in Season 2 of the National ESL Premier League , CLG participated in the IEM Season VI World Championship in March 2012. Placing second in
15330-544: The revamped CLG roster, who ended the regular season in sixth place with a record of 13–15, scraping into playoffs. A loss in their first series against long-time rivals Team SoloMid meant they could no longer qualify for the Season 3 World Championship . The team claimed fifth/sixth place in the playoffs by beating Team Curse, and secured requalification for the next season of the NA LCS. On October 23, Chauster announced his retirement from competitive play, while bigfatlp moved back to
15476-414: The roster. CLG announced Jacob "FugLy" Medina as their new fifth player and Faruk "pita" Pita as their head coach on January 20, 2016. FugLy left the team on March 13, 2016. Kenneth "koosta" Suen replaced jdm64 on June 13, 2016. After ELeague Season 1 on July 14, 2016, Tarik "tarik" Celik and Faruk "pita" Pita departed from the team's active roster. Ethan "nahtE" Arnold and Yassine "Subroza" Taoufik joined
15622-419: The school. Colleges such as Columbia College , Robert Morris University , and Indiana Institute of Technology have taken part in this. In 2018, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology began a tuition scholarship program for esports players. In 2014, the largest independent esports league, Electronic Sports League , partnered with the local brand Japan Competitive Gaming to try and grow esports in
15768-629: The second seed, the team faced World Elite in the round of eight. This match was marred by technical issues and had to be postponed due to power failures and connection problems. In the deciding third game, CLG.EU were finally able to secure victory. The team maintained their form through the first game of their semifinal against Azubu Frost, but were outmatched in games two and three, losing out overall. They finished in third/fourth place and were awarded prize money of $ 150,000. On November 29, 2012, Counter Logic Gaming EU attended IPL 5 in Las Vegas , and began
15914-451: The semifinals, where they were able to sweep Team Impulse , matching CLG against rivals Team SoloMid in their first NA LCS final. In the final, Counter Logic Gaming swept their long-term rivals, and became NA LCS champions for the first time, while Doublelift won the first LAN event of his five-year career. The team also secured the first North American seed to the 2015 League of Legends World Championship . Although they were drawn into what
16060-402: The signings of Vivienne "BiBiAhn" Quach, Coline "Kaoday" Le Floc'h and Marissa "madss" Dasta, playing alongside GooseBreeder and uhKelsie. The replacements marked the departures of di^, Emy and Juli. On April 6, 2023, Counter Logic Gaming disbanded the roster, with the players of CLG Red announcing that they had been released by the organization and had become free agents. On June 14, 2015,
16206-429: The split began, coach MonteCristo announced that the team would spend a number of weeks " bootcamping " in Korea to prepare for playoffs and a prospective World Championship spot. In the 2014 NA LCS Summer Playoffs, CLG entered with considerable expectations after their stint in South Korea. The team was heavily favored to take their initial series from Team Curse , but was cleanly beaten, and eliminated from contention for
16352-543: The start of the split, and was replaced by Samson "Lourlo" Jackson. After placing last in Spring, CLG Black was forced to participate in the qualifier for the Summer Split. William "Scarra" Li replaced Easy in the off-season , playing his first official match on June 3, 2015. After winning the first game of the qualifier, "Stixxay" was banned by Riot Games for two weeks due to his in-game behavior. Counter Logic Gaming Black lost both subsequent games, using Parsa "Frost" Baghai as
16498-614: The starting roster. As one of the top three teams from the North American region, CLG auto-qualified for the newly created Riot Games NA League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS), the Spring Split of which began February 27, 2013. Following a regular season placement of fourth with a record of 13–15, the team was knocked into the Summer Promotion Tournament following defeat in the playoffs. CLG won their promotion match against bigfatlp's challenger team, Azure Cats, and
16644-427: The team May 27, 2020. On July 9, 2020, CLG Red announced the signing of Juliana "Juli" Tosic, following the departure of bENITA in May. Viktor "flashie" Tamás Bea became the roster's final head coach on December 20, 2020. On November 1, 2021, refinnej left the roster, followed by the addition of Kelsie "uhKelsie" Click on December 13, 2021. The final iteration of the roster would be completed on August 12, 2022, with
16790-409: The team a month prior. She would leave two months later, being replaced by missharvey on May 15. CLG Red announced the signing of Mounira "GooseBreeder" Dobie on July 12, 2018, utilizing a six-woman roster. CAth would return to the roster as a trial, replacing bENITA on the starting roster, on May 29, 2019. Head coach Stephan "vEz" Vezina, who had joined in July 2018 to replace cubed, parted ways with
16936-475: The team made it to the semifinals of the tournament, before being knocked out by Cloud9 . The team qualified for ESL One Cologne 2015 on August 2, 2015, as one of only two North American teams attending. CLG.CS performed surprisingly well at the event, but close losses against European powerhouses Ninjas in Pyjamas and Natus Vincere sent them out in the group stages. A string of mediocre domestic results bridged
17082-610: The team on August 17, 2016. On November 30, 2017, CLG announced that the organization would be parting with the CS:GO team. On July 5, 2015, Counter Logic Gaming announced that they had signed the ex-Ubinited roster of Christine "potter" Chi, Diane "di^" Tran, Benita "bENITA" Novshadian, Catherine "CAth" Leroux-Racette, Stephanie "missharvey" Harvey as a second, all-female, Counter -Strike: Global Offensive team, called CLG Red. Six days later, CLG.CS Red placed first at Electronic Sports World Cup 2015 CSGO Women , beating out Games4u.se Female in
17228-455: The team on March 9, 2023. On December 2, 2015, Counter Logic Gaming announced that they had expanded into Call of Duty, after buying the roster of Anthony "Methodz" Zinni, Michael "Blfire" Glushenok, Aaron "CMPLX" Vetelino, and Tyler "FeLony" Johnson from Denial eSports . The team's primary goal was participation in Stage 1 of the 2016 Call of Duty World League (CWL), to which end they attended
17374-405: The team were cited as the main motivators. Doublelift was announced as the newest member of Team SoloMid shortly afterwards. On November 11, 2015, former analyst and strategic coach Zikz was announced as CLG's new head coach, and on November 20, 2015, the organization announced that Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes , formerly of CLG Black, would be the fifth player for the team at IEM San Jose , although he
17520-537: The team's head coach, while also announcing that tryouts had begun for all positions. Eight days later, Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaya was announced as the newest addition to the lineup, replacing Seraph, whose contract the organization had decided not to renew. A month later, in December, it was announced that LiNk would return to the starting lineup for the forthcoming split, alongside Jake "Xmithie" Puchero , formerly of Team Vulcun . On December 19 CLG attended IEM IX Cologne with their new roster, aside from Xmithie, who
17666-603: The team. Shortly afterwards, bigfatjiji was forced to change his name to bigfatlp by Riot Games . In June 2011, CLG attended the Riot Games Season 1 World Championship in Sweden. Despite a loss to Team SoloMid , they advanced from the group stage , but were knocked out of championship contention by FnaticMSI , and forced to fight for an eventual fifth-place finish. In August 2011, after a string of domestic victories, CLG participated in their second international LAN tournament , IEM Season VI Cologne . The team defeated Team SoloMid in
17812-423: The third place match, CLG Prime became the last North American team to qualify for the Riot Games Season 2 World Championship . At October's Riot Games Season 2 World Championship, CLG Prime was knocked out in the group stage, taking home a ninth/tenth-place finish and US$ 50,000. Following their disappointing World Championship performance, Voyboy left the team, and former MiG Frost player Yoon-sub "Locodoco" Choi
17958-500: The tournament "proved to be the biggest event ever" in the arcade game industry, and was attended by members from leading Japanese newspapers and leisure industry companies. Sega stressed "the importance of such tournaments to foster better business relationships between the maker-location-customer and create an atmosphere of competition on TV amusement games". In 1977, Gremlin Industries (a year before being acquired by Sega) held
18104-474: The tournament with a winning streak against North American teams CLG Prime, Team FeaR, and Team SoloMid . The eventual winners of the tournament, World Elite, pushed CLG.EU into the Losers Bracket, where they faced Season 2 World Champions, Taipei Assassins , who beat the Europeans and eliminated them from the tournament, leaving them with a disappointing final placement of fifth/sixth. In December 2012, just before
18250-551: The ways in which [they] may collaborate to the mutual benefit of all of sport in the years ahead". The IOC has tested the potential for esports through exhibition games. With support from the IOC, Intel sponsored exhibition esports events for StarCraft II and Steep prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , and five South Korean esports players were part of the Olympic Torch relay. A similar exhibition showcase,
18396-433: Was allowed to remain in the 2013 NA LCS for the Summer Split. Following this unsatisfactory split, HotshotGG decided to step down, and Aphromoo left. Bigfatlp rejoined the active roster, and Zachary "Nientonsoh" Malhas was acquired to fill the other vacant position. CLG also announced, on July 24, 2013, that OGN caster Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles would be joining CLG as a coach. The Summer Split proved no better for
18542-472: Was also one of the first in North America to implement a multi-team gaming house, and the current residence is able to house all their major divisions and the management staff on a permanent basis. On July 31, 2017, Madison Square Garden Sports acquired a controlling stake in CLG. On April 6, 2023, NRG Esports acquired CLG. The terms of the sale included only CLG's flagship League of Legends team, with all other players and staff being laid off. The CLG brand
18688-519: Was announced as their starting support player, while Austin "LiNk" Shin, formerly of CLG Black, joined as a substitute player. The team also dropped the Prime suffix from their name, due to the departure of Counter Logic Gaming Europe and disbanding of Counter Logic Gaming Black. On January 15, 2013, bigfatlp announced that he would be stepping down from the starting roster to a substitute position, citing lack of confidence in his own play, while LiNk stepped up to
18834-480: Was best established in South Korea, with StarCraft and Warcraft III competitions 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 United Kingdom satellite television channel XLEAGUE.TV broadcast esports competitions from 2007 to 2009. The online esports only channel ESL TV briefly attempted
18980-407: Was considered to be the easiest group, CLG finished below Flash Wolves and KOO Tigers , and so failed to progress to the tournament's knockout stage. Despite having their most successful NA LCS season, the organization made large changes to the championship winning roster. On October 23, 2015, it was announced that HuHi would be stepping up to the active roster, having fulfilled the role of a sub for
19126-486: Was disqualified from the MLG Providence 2011 Qualifiers. Having won their qualification match against RFLXGaming, it transpired that the team had fielded Luis "Lapaka" Perez in place of Ho-jin "Lilac" Jeon. Lapaka was registered as the team leader for AbsoluteLegends, another team in the tournament, and had played in a match between AbsoluteLegends and Team SoloMid . MLG ruled that CLG's decision to illegally use Lapaka as
19272-403: Was fined US$ 10,000 by Riot, after being found guilty of soliciting Team Dignitas ' William " Scarra " Li without acquiring his current team's approval. Additionally, Scarra was prohibited from serving as CLG's head coach on stage for the first three weeks of the 2015 NA LCS Spring Split. On January 6, 2015, after this first ruling, CLG's management voluntarily revealed a similar violation regarding
19418-620: Was held by Sega in 1974, the All Japan TV Game Championships, a nationwide arcade video game tournament in Japan. The tournament was intended by Sega to promote the play and sales of video games in the country. There were local tournaments held in 300 locations across Japan, and then sixteen finalists from across the country competed in the final elimination rounds at Tokyo 's Hotel Pacific. Prizes awarded included television sets ( color and black-and-white ), cassette tape recorders and transistor radios . According to Sega,
19564-462: Was heralded by Taito 's Space Invaders in 1978, which popularized the use of a persistent high score for all players. Several video games in the next several years followed suit, adding other means of tracking high scores such with high score tables that included the players' initials in games like Asteroids in 1979. High score-chasing became a popular activity and a means of competition. The Space Invaders Championship held by Atari in 1980
19710-542: Was ninth to twelfth, and the team returned home with nothing. On October 15, 2012, the organization announced that MiSeRy and Pajkatt were leaving to join LGD.int . No replacements were announced. Later that month, on October 29, Akke also left the team to join No Tidehunter , and Counter Logic Gaming Dota officially disbanded. Esports Esports ( / ˈ iː s p ɔːr t s / ), short for electronic sports ,
19856-463: Was not announced as the starter for 2016. At the tournament, CLG would beat out both Unicorns of Love and Jin Air Green Wings 2-0, before falling to Origen in the final, marking the first time a North American team had beaten a Korean team in a series . On April 17, 2016, CLG won their second consecutive NA LCS championship, defeating longtime rivals Team Solomid 3–2 in the grand finals. With
20002-484: Was not enough for the team, and on April 29, 2015, ptr was kicked. On May 8, the organization announced it was actively looking for a new fifth member, and on June 2, Josh "jdm64" Marzano rounded out the squad. The team went on to place fourth regionally in the online stage of ESL ESEA Pro League Season I , and so qualified for the LAN stage of the tournament. After unexpectedly taking out both Fnatic and Keyd Stars in their group,
20148-475: Was officially shuttered post-acquisition. Consequently, Madison Square Garden Sports now owns a major stake in NRG. Counter Logic Gaming was founded to compete in League of Legends tournaments by George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis and Alexander "Vodoo" Beutel in April 2010. In December 2011, Counter Logic Gaming merged with the Absolute Legends organization. Although the two organizations decided to separate
20294-465: Was one of fourteen teams invited to attend the 2012 edition of The International , the roster's first and only LAN tournament . The event was run by Valve , the developer of Dota 2 , and took place at PAX Prime in Seattle , with a $ 1,600,000 prize pool. The team was knocked out of the tournament in the group stage after being beaten by teams including Evil Geniuses and LGD Gaming . CLG Dota's placing
20440-438: Was picked up. On November 29, CLG Prime entered IPL 5 . Despite surprisingly strong showings against Curse EU , FnaticRC , and Moscow Five, the team placed fifth/sixth. After the event, Locodoco expressed in an interview that "coming to America was a mistake", but added that it did not indicate he would be leaving the team. However, on December 4 CLG announced the departure of Locodoco, and on December 28, Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black
20586-498: Was popular among competitive arcade players. 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 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". The fighting game Street Fighter II (1991) popularized
20732-434: Was removed from a list of sport disciplines because it did not fit the new sport standards. On 7 July 2016, The Ministry of Sport decided to add cybersport into the sport registry and on 13 April 2017, esports become an official sport discipline once again. China was another one of the first countries to recognize esports as a real sport in 2003, despite concerns at the time that video games were addictive. Through this,
20878-507: 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. It was won by Rebecca Heineman . Walter Day , owner of an arcade in Iowa, had taken it upon himself to travel across the United States to record the high scores on various games in 1980, and on his return, founded Twin Galaxies ,
21024-668: Was the first notable multi-sport competition including esports as an official medal-winning event, alongside other traditional sports, and the later editions of the Asian Indoor Games , as well as its successor the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games , have always included esports as an official medal event or an exhibition event up to now. Moreover, the Asian Games , which is the Asian top-level multi-sport competition, also included esports as
21170-500: Was the last major tournament for this short-lived CLG Black lineup; Hoodstomp announced his retirement on October 16, and on December 28, 2012, CLG Black officially disbanded. Bloodwater, Zuna, and Sycho Sid went on to play for Team Vulcun, while LiNk was moved up to the Counter Logic Gaming Prime roster, eventually replacing Michael "bigfatlp" Tang. In January 2015, CLG formed a new secondary League of Legends team, under
21316-416: Was unable to attend due to visa issues; the team played with a substitute and finished second, behind Gambit Gaming . The new roster made a remarkably strong start to the 2015 Spring NA LCS Split , and just missed out on a playoff bye after losing a second-place regular season tiebreaker to Cloud9. Despite looking strong going into the 2015 Spring Playoffs, CLG was once again unable to perform, losing in
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