139-572: Team Curse , also known as Curse eSports , was a North American esports organization sponsored by Curse, Inc. and based in Los Angeles . Formed as a League of Legends team in 2010 by Steve "LiQuiD112" Arhancet , it was acquired by Curse Inc. in August 2011, and the team renamed to Team Curse. On April 15, 2014, Arhancet announced that he had purchased the esports arm of the Curse Inc., which from then on
278-423: 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
417-459: A substitute for Curse Academy against Exertus Zeal. She remained with the team until early August. Jason "Tsatsulow" Hawes filled the vacant spot on October 2, and IWillDominate moved to Team Curse five days later. In the next two months Curse Academy would attempt to secure a seed for the NA LCS Season 4 Promotion Tournament, which the entire team were now eligible to compete in, taking part in
556-484: A "better opportunity" at IPL 5 . Curse attended IPL 5 in late November. The team took third in their group, and were knocked to the losers bracket. Team Curse would be forced to eliminate Curse EU, before losing in the next round to reigning world champions Taipei Assassins . Having failed to secure a top three placing at the North American Regional Finals, Team Curse did not automatically qualify for
695-667: 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,
834-424: 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
973-723: A larger more casual audience. During 2012, MLG has also partnered with KeSPA (Korean Esports Association) in a multi-year agreement. This agreement allows MLG exclusive access to KeSPA's Starcraft: Brood War players. The partnership will see KeSPA Brood War pros come to the US to compete in MLG events throughout the year. The participants will not be allowed to compete at any other foreign tournaments without MLG's approval. The deal took effect in June, when KeSPA Brood War pros participated in an exhibition event at MLG Anaheim. Beginning on November 2, 2012, with
1112-595: 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
1251-457: 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
1390-559: 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
1529-656: A new streaming player design that integrates live data and statistic displays. MLG, which lost large profits during the COVID-19 pandemic , was announced to be acquired by Microsoft in January 2022, through its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Journalists for Dot Esports speculate that the buyout will enable Microsoft to revitalize MLG and ramp up sponsorships. MLG.tv is Major League Gaming's streaming media service. Several professional Call of Duty players including Matt "Nadeshot" Haag have signed exclusivity contracts with
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#17330853074411668-565: 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
1807-529: 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
1946-604: A seed into the Spring Playoffs, and Nyjacky was replaced by Devon "Hoodstomp" Mark two days later. In the first half of the NACS Summer Season, the team qualified once again, and progressed to the final before they were beaten by Team Coast at Wembley Arena on June 22. This second-place finish meant that Team LoLPro automatically qualified for the second half of the Summer Season. Neither Hoodstomp nor Lohpally played in
2085-496: A substitute position. The team beat Denial eSports in the quarterfinals before losing to Curse Academy and Team Coast respectively in the semifinals and the third-place match on August 23. As a result, LoLPro did not qualify for the Spring Promotion Tournament, and on September 27, 2014, Curse eSports announced that it would be rebuilding Team LoLPro with new talent. On September 16, 2014, Riot Games released details of
2224-430: A team pass to compete. These passes normally go on sale several weeks in advance of the next Pro Circuit event. Passes are limited, so participants are encouraged to purchase a pass as soon as they go on sale. The MLG Pro League was a Call of Duty league that ran in 2014 and 2015 for Ghosts and Advanced Warfare respectively. There were three seasons per year, and 16 teams competing per season. The regular season
2363-505: 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
2502-604: Is a professional esports organization. MLG is headquartered in New York City , New York and was founded in 2002 by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso. MLG has held official video game tournaments throughout the United States and Canada . The Boost Mobile MLG Pro Circuit was a television broadcast of Halo 2 MLG tournaments in 2006 and 2007, ESPN.com , and other broadband sites. The company has also been involved in television production, and game development. MLG's aim
2641-583: 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
2780-511: 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,
2919-500: Is to elevate computer and console game tournaments to viable competitive and spectator events. In January 2016, video game publisher Activision Blizzard announced its acquisition of Major League Gaming. The company, whose own esports division is led by MLG co-founder Mike Sepso, stated that it intended to leverage the purchase as part of its plans to build an esports-focused television network . The MLG Pro Circuit roster currently includes Starcraft II and League of Legends for
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#17330853074413058-525: The 2013 MLG Winter Championship in Dallas . There, they failed to qualify after losing to Velocity eSports. After Pixel was replaced by Dylan "AtomicN" Newton later that month, the team attended the IPL Summer Promotion Qualifier in early April, taking second after losing to Quantic Gaming . Curse Academy's Promotion Tournament seed passed down to the next eligible team. On April 20, Rhux left
3197-636: 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
3336-533: 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
3475-506: 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,
3614-680: 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
3753-532: 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
3892-632: 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. Major League Gaming Major League Gaming Corp. ( MLG )
4031-654: 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
4170-441: 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
4309-548: 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
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4448-465: 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
4587-625: 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
4726-560: 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
4865-544: 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,
5004-515: 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
5143-732: 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
5282-685: The Curse brand. LoL Pro is a League of Legends community site and part of the Curse Network . Competing at the Season 2 European Regional Finals had given the team a seed directly into the Offline Qualifiers for the inaugural season of the European League of Legends Championship Series (EU LCS), but only on the condition that three out of the five members who competed at the former event also competed at
5421-594: 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
5560-628: 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,
5699-513: 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
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5838-672: 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
5977-506: 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,
6116-513: 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
6255-652: The MLG Arena on Hengqin Island in China , near Macau . The arena, which is scheduled to be completed in 2017, is part of the "Creative Culture City" development planned on Hengqin. In October 2014, MLG opened the 14,000 square feet (1,300 m ) MLG.tv Arena in Columbus , Ohio . It is located near the Easton Town Center . The first event held at the arena was the Season 3 Call of Duty playoffs. On December 31, 2015, it
6394-400: The MLG community about changing the format for the 2009 pro circuit. Semi-pro teams now have the opportunity to gain pro status. The rolling rank points system and the championship bracket were also modified. On August 18, 2009, Major League Gaming acquired Agora Games ; CEO Matthew Bromberg explained that "we already operate the largest online competitive gaming property in the world. Agora is
6533-485: 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,
6672-508: 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
6811-572: The PC. Mortal Kombat , Soul Calibur V , and King of Fighters XIII for the PlayStation 3 , and Super Smash Bros. Melee for GameCube are the only console games. Fighting games are commentated by Juicebox Abel, Tom Brady (not to be confused with the NFL quarterback ), and Bibulus. No League of Legends casters have been announced yet. Major League Gaming also hosts a series of online qualifier ladders for
6950-545: The Pro Circuit. It made its official debut at MLG Raleigh. The 2011 Circuit featured four titles: Halo: Reach , Starcraft 2 , Call of Duty: Black Ops and the mid-season addition of League of Legends . Also returning, something that the MLG Pro Circuit hasn't seen since the 2005, is Pool Play. The top 16 teams were seeded in 4 pools of 5 teams, where the 5th team would play an undefeated amateur team. The team with
7089-481: The Season 4 Spring Promotion tournament. After this disappointing end to Season 3, the organization announced tryouts for all five positions on September 21, 2013. On October 7, the organization announced that Cop and Nyjacky would be moving to the newly formed Team LoLPro, being replaced by Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black and Eugene "Pobelter" Park. Edward and Saintvicious also left the team, to be replaced by George "Zekent" Liu and Christian "IWDominate" Rivera. This new lineup
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#17330853074417228-497: 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
7367-633: The acquisition was MLG's streaming operation MLG.tv. Kotick explained to The New York Times that their eventual goal was to "build the ESPN of video games"—a television cable channel that would be devoted to esports coverage and analysis with "premium" in-house productions that could attract more major advertisers, either produced by Activision's staff or by outside producers. Despite the acquisition, MLG will continue to host events relating to games that are not published by Activision Blizzard's subsidiaries. In May 2016, MLG announced "Enhanced Viewing Experience",
7506-475: The best record throughout pool play advanced to the winner's bracket semi-finals, securing themselves a Top 6 finish. The 2012 MLG competitions saw many title changes in the Pro Circuit. Starcraft II was brought on as the league's main title. Fighting games for the PS3 and League of Legends were announced as additional titles. Halo: Reach is no longer on the Pro Circuit, nor is Call of Duty: Black Ops . Call of Duty
7645-522: The commencement of the MLG Fall Championship in Dallas , Texas , Halo was reintroduced to the pro circuit. Halo 4 , which was publicly released on November 6, was one of the five games scheduled for competitive play at MLG Dallas. In January 2013, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was introduced into the Pro Circuit. In 2013 MLG signed Carbon and Str8 Rippin to a collective $ 1.75 million contract. On August 14, 2013, Call of Duty: Ghosts
7784-465: 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
7923-505: 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
8062-479: The corresponding management staff, and Arhancet himself. Curse eSports had also previously fielded Call of Duty , Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , Guild Wars 2 , Heroes of the Storm , Infinite Crisis , and Hearthstone teams. On August 25, 2011, an unsigned League of Legends roster formally under unRestricted eSports was given a sponsorship by Curse Inc., and became Team Curse. The team's initial roster
8201-544: 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
8340-727: 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
8479-771: 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
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#17330853074418618-554: The deal was their manager Tomislav "Flyy" Mihailov. The team was branded as Curse EU. Curse EU's first event was the Reign of Gaming International Invitational, having qualified for the event under Absolute Legends. The team would lose all their group stage matches and the third place match, going out in last place on June 4. After the event, on June 13, Curse EU replaced player Youngbuck with Aurimas "Angush" Gedvilas. Six days later, after beating Fnatic and Millenium in their group at Dreamhack Summer 2012 , Curse EU fell to Moscow Five in
8757-417: The defunct IGN Pro League . Activision Blizzard owns the Call of Duty and Starcraft franchises—which have been popular as esports. Reports indicated that MLG was to be shuttered, and that the majority of the purchase price would go towards paying off the company's debt. Activision Blizzard confirmed the purchase on January 4, 2016. therefore Activision CEO Bobby Kotick explained that the main target of
8896-399: 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
9035-448: 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
9174-412: The end of the qualifying period. The team lost to Team Coast in the second round of the online stage on November 23, 2014, and disbanded shortly afterwards. As of the merger between Team Curse and Team Liquid on January 6, 2015. Esports Esports ( / ˈ iː s p ɔːr t s / ), short for electronic sports , is a form of competition using video games . Esports often takes
9313-498: 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
9452-430: 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
9591-416: The first televised video game console gaming league in the United States , with their Halo 2 Pro Series being broadcast by USA Network on Boost Mobile MLG Pro Circuit . It moved into the 3 Park Avenue sometime after its founding. In February 2009, it was announced that MLG got $ 10 Million in financing from Ritchie Capital Management . On February 6, 2009, MLG Commissioner John Nelson addressed
9730-432: 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 a surge in participation by professional gamers and spectators. By
9869-635: The formation of a League of Legends B-team , called Curse Academy. The announced roster was Keenan "Rhux" Santos, Christian "IWillDominate" Rivera, Eugene "Pobelter" Park , Johnny "Altec" Ru, and Orie "YoDa" Guo. In the first month after the team's inception, YoDa was replaced by David "Pixel" Zarinski This roster was not eligible to compete in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS), given IWillDominate's then-ongoing ban, and Altec and Pobelter being ineligible due to their age. In mid-March, despite their ineligibility, Curse Academy participated in an NA LCS Summer Promotion Qualifier at
10008-410: 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
10147-689: 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
10286-524: 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
10425-453: The knockout stage of the tournament to Counter Logic Gaming and sister team Team Curse, and so were eliminated in ninth-twelfth place. On December 9, Creaton and Angush left the team to join Eclypsia, and on December 12 the organization announced that Curse EU would be restructured in the coming month. Some time before January 22, 2013, the team were rebranded as Team LoLPro, but remained under
10564-656: 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
10703-409: 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
10842-645: The latter. To satisfy this condition, Sleper was announced as rejoining the team on January 3, 2013. At some point before the qualifiers began on January 25, Titus "LeDuck" Hafner and Pavel "Mozilla" Klaban also joined the team. On January 25, 2013, ex-Curse EU, now Team LoLPro, took part in the EU LCS Offline Qualifiers in Poland . The team were quickly knocked out of the tournament after losing consecutive games to DragonBorns and Team Acer , and disbanded shortly afterwards. On January 24, 2013, Team Curse announced
10981-536: The leading developer of multi-player communities in the world. Coming together with Agora allows us to double-down on our biggest strength." In March 2010, it was announced that fighting games would return to the pro circuit, with Tekken 6 exclusively on the PlayStation 3 , and the return of the Smash Bros. competition with Super Smash Bros. Brawl . These two games appeared in the season opener in Orlando, along with
11120-562: The league's flagship, Halo 3 , which entered its third season with the league. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 made its debut on the Online Pro Circuit on MLG's GameBattles website for PlayStation 3. Originally, the game was on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Due to excessive hacking on the Xbox 360 console via JTAG hacks , it was stripped of its "Pro Circuit" branding. Prize payouts remain
11259-515: The main League of Legends Championship Series team, and was briefly replaced by Jonathan "Demunlul" McCulloch, before he too left. On November 1, Cruzerthebruzer and TrickZ also left Team LoLPro, the latter to join Counter Logic Gaming , and the team's vacant spots were then filled by Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell , Simon "heavenTime" Jeon, Ben "LOD" deMunck, and Leon "Apexy" Tang. On December 6, Apexy
11398-515: 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
11537-741: 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
11676-421: 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
11815-481: The newly created Riot Games NA League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS), and were forced to attempt qualification through the Offline Qualifiers, with several of the team saying they would consider retirement should they failed to qualify. Team Curse progressed through each stage without losing a single game, and so secured a spot in the inaugural Spring Split of the NA LCS, beginning February 27, 2013. Team Curse ended
11954-454: The next few events, but the team's full roster eventually stabilized as Cristian "Cris" Rosales, Brandon "Saintvicious" DiMarco, Zachary "mancloud" Allan Hoschar, Joshua "Impactful" Mabrey, and Bunny FuFuu . In June, the new 'rebuilt' Curse Academy competed in the first half of the NACS Summer Season. The team were beaten in the semifinals by Team Coast , before claiming third against Frank Fang Gaming on June 19. Lae-Young "Keane" Jang had joined
12093-573: The next three, narrowly missing out on a spot in the Spring Split of the 2015 NA LCS. On September 16, 2014, Riot Games released details of the upcoming Expansion Tournament, which would add two additional teams to the NA LCS, expanding it to a ten team league. Curse Academy were given an automatic seed into the tournament and a first round bye as a result of their participation in the Promotion Tournament. On September 24, Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell
12232-673: The online group stages in late October, the team attended the Tales of the Lane offline finals on November 11, 2012, in Paris . Curse EU were to win the tournament, beating Moscow Five and Eclypsia in the final two rounds. On November 27, days before IGN ProLeague 5 was due to begin, SuperAZE left the team, forcing them to use Jordan "Patoy" Blackburn of Team Dignitas as a substitute for the event. There, despite placing first in their group above North America's Team SoloMid , Curse EU lost their first two series in
12371-437: The online-only pro circuit titles leading to the national championship. In the past, MLG hosted Super Smash Bros. Melee tournaments during the 2004 through 2006 MLG Circuit and other games such as Halo: Combat Evolved , Halo 2 , Tekken 5 , Gears of War , Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas , Shadowrun , Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 , Call of Duty 4 , and Gears of War 2 . Each team/player must purchase
12510-550: The only route to secure promotion into the NA LCS. On February 1, 2014, after qualifying through an online group stage, the team were knocked out of the first half of the season after losing to Determined Gaming in the first round of the knockout stage. Only Jaximus announced that he had left Curse Academy on February 10, while fabbbyyy announced that he had been removed from the team the following day. The two were replaced by Julian "Duocek" LeGard and Brandon "DontMashMe" Phan that same day. Two weeks later, on February 25, 2014, Sheep left
12649-478: The organization announced that they had acquired former Gambit Gaming member Edward "Edward" Abgaryan to replace him. This move made Curse the first team to import a player from Europe to play in the NA LCS. Despite the move, Team Curse struggled in the Season 3 Summer Split, ending the regular season in fourth place with a record of 13–15. In the playoffs, the team would lose consecutive series to Team Dignitas and Counter Logic Gaming, and so would be forced to play in
12788-453: 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
12927-630: The ownership of two teams, it was announced that the Curse Academy roster and NA LCS spot had been sold to Gravity. On October 7, 2013, Team Curse announced the formation of a second League of Legends B-team , called Team LoLPro, alongside changes to the main team's roster. LoL Pro is a League of Legends community site and part of the Curse Network . The team initially consisted of Chenglong "Nyjacky" Wang, David "Cop" Roberson, Cruz "Cruzerthebruzer" Odgen, and Brian "TrickZ" Ahn, with no fifth player announced. However, by October 14 Cop had moved back to
13066-467: 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
13205-560: 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.
13344-532: 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
13483-414: The regular season and playoffs, beating Counter Logic Gaming in the quarterfinals before losing to both Cloud9 and LMQ , disqualifying them once again from World Championship contention. On September 17, 2014, Cop was released from Team Curse, and later joined Curse Academy. His replacement was announced on October 22, when Team Curse brought in former SK Telecom T1 K member Gwang-jin "Piglet" Chae to
13622-483: The regular season in second place with a record of 19–9, behind Team SoloMid, and so secured a bye into the semifinals of the Spring Split Playoffs. Despite this, they lost both their semifinal match and the third place match, to Good Game University and Team Vulcun respectively, and so ended the season in fourth. On April 20, 2013, Elementz announced that he had stepped down from the team, and on June 7, 2013,
13761-515: The same on both consoles. PlayStation 3 players are eligible to accumulate Pro Points. Those who have enough Pro Points at the end of the 3rd season of the Online Pro Circuit are eligible to compete live at the MLG Nationals held in Dallas. Those competing on the Xbox 360 do not earn pro points and will have championships held online. On July 30, 2010, it was announced that StarCraft II was to be added to
13900-419: 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
14039-417: The semifinals of the event, before falling to compLexity.Black in the third place match, narrowing missing out on a Summer Promotion Tournament seed. On 4 May, Michael "Bunny FuFuu" Kurylo was removed from Team Curse's starting roster, and in his announcement post, LiQuiD112 claimed that he had given Bunny FuFuu the option of rebuilding Curse Academy's roster. Curse Academy used various substitute players for
14178-478: The semifinals, and placed third at the event after beating Fnatic once more in the third place match. On August 16, 2012, Curse EU competed at the Season 2 European Regional Finals at Gamescom , where they lost to Fnatic in the quarterfinals, failing to secure a League of Legends World Championship seed. Sleper and xinec were kicked from the team on September 25, 2012, and were replaced by Jakub "Creaton" Grzegorzewski and Piotr "SuperAZE" Prokop. Having competed in
14317-512: The sponsorship of more than one team. On January 6, 2015, Team Curse merged with Team Liquid , taking the latter's name; the League of Legends roster was included in the merger. On June 1, 2012, Team Curse purchased the Absolute Legends' League of Legends team, consisting of Vytautas "extinkt" Melinauskas, Algirdas "Sleper" Saliamonas, Tobias "Malunoo" Magnusson, Andreas "xinec" Krogsbøll, and Joey "YoungBuck" Steltenpool; also included in
14456-472: The starting roster. Later that month, the team beat LoLPro in the semifinals of the Summer Playoffs, securing themselves a spot in the 2015 NA LCS Spring Promotion Tournament, before losing to Team 8 in the finals. Counter Logic Gaming picked Curse Academy as their opponent in the Promotion Tournament, and the two teams faced on September 9, 2014. Despite winning the first two games, Curse Academy would lose
14595-460: The team finished the event in fourth place. They attended their second North American LAN , IGN Proleague 3 (IPL 3), in October 2011, where they fell to Team Dignitas in the first round. Later that month, Team Curse was one of five American invitees to IEM VI New York , their first international event, where they were knocked out in the group stage, losing to SK Gaming among others, and on October 19, 2011, both Jsura and Lapaka decided to leave
14734-488: The team from Team Curse OCE on June 16, but did not play in either match. Keane was no more active in August, and did not take part in Curse Academy's matches in the second half of the NACS Summer Season. Despite being beaten by Team Coast in the finals, the team progressed to the NACS Summer Season Playoffs with a bye to the semifinals. Mancloud left Curse Academy on August 16, while Keane finally stepped up to
14873-526: The team to join XDG Gaming , and was replaced by George "Zekent" Liu, who had been kicked from Team Curse. In March 2014, having previously failed to place in the top four, Curse Academy were forced to requalify for the second half of the NACS Spring Season. The team managed this, and were matched against Cloud9 Tempest in the semifinals, where they lost. Zekent did not play in this match, and his position
15012-587: The team to join Team Curse, and was replaced by Aaron "Swain Gretzky" Bean. Rhux rejoined the team on June 7. In late June, Curse Academy participated in an NA LCS Spring 2014 Promotion Qualifier at the 2013 MLG Spring Championship in Anaheim , failing to qualify after losing to FXOpen e-Sports. On July 6, 2013, IWillDominate stepped down to become an analyst for the team, and was replaced by CloudTidus. However, CloudTidus
15151-556: The team's semifinal defeat against Curse Academy, and were instead replaced by Jordan "Patoy" Blackburn and Peter "Heartbeat" Lim. Hoodstomp announced his retirement that same day. The team was then beaten by Team 8 in the third-place-match on August 1, 2014, with Lohpally playing again in place of Heartbeat, giving Team LoLPro the third seed into the NACS Summer Playoffs. At the Summer Playoffs, Team LoLPro played with Derek "Zignature" Shao in place of Lohpally, who had been moved to
15290-539: The team. Although March's IEM World Championship in Hanover was to prove the last event SYDTKO attended, his position on the team was still unclear as of an interview he gave on July 13, before his retirement from professional play some time afterwards. On May 19, 2012, Crumbzz left Curse and joined Team Dignitas, while Counter Logic Gaming's Brandon "Saintvicious" DiMarco joined Team Curse as Crumbzz' replacement. In June 2012, Curse picked up Jonathan "Westrice" Nguyen, as Pobelter
15429-469: The team. Despite the departure of some of their key players, Curse was still able to play in the second season of the National ESL Premier League , placing second behind Counter Logic Gaming. Having been benched from Counter Logic Gaming, Cody "Elementz" Sigfusson joined Team Curse on December 19, 2011, while LiQuiD112 stepped down to a managing role. The next day, David "Cop" Roberson joined
15568-483: The team. Lapaka cited both professional and personal conflict with LiQuiD112 as his main reason for leaving. Alberto "Crumbzz" Rengifo was brought into the team that same day. On November 24, 2011, after the start of Riot Games ' Season 2 Circuit, Doublelift left Team Curse to join North American rivals Counter Logic Gaming. Two days later, DontMashMe also left the team, once again citing Liquid112 as his main issue with
15707-455: The team. On September 24 the team hired former LMQ head coach Peter Zhang, and on December 13, Curse announced that Jae-hun "FeniX" Kim would replace Voyboy for the 2015 season. On December 19, 2014, Curse Inc. announced that Team Curse would move forward without bearing the name "Curse" as a title sponsor, in order to allow the organization to continue promoting Curse Voice with other LCS teams while also complying with new LCS regulations regarding
15846-411: The third place match. In September 2012, Westrice was benched from the team, and on November 1, Joedat "Voyboy" Esfahani was announced as his replacement. Additionally, for most of that month, the team played in several minor online events using Keenan "Rhux" Santos in place of Elementz. On November 21, LiQuiD112 announced that the team had benched Elementz in favor of Rhux, claiming that it would give them
15985-500: 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
16124-475: The two final Promotion Qualifiers. In the first, on November 2, 2013, Curse Academy were knocked out by Napkins in Disguise in the last round, narrowly missing out on a seed. The team would be knocked out in the group stage of the second qualifier later that month, and so failed to qualify for the Promotion Tournament. On December 31, OneBadBrad announced that he had left Curse Academy, and on January 6, 2014, Tsatsulow
16263-424: The upcoming Expansion Tournament, which would add two additional teams to the NA LCS, expanding it to a ten team league. The new Team LoLPro roster of Cuong "Flaresz" Ta, Thomas "Thinkcard" Slotkin, David "Yusui" Bloomquist, Apollo "WizFujiiN" Price, and Yuri "KEITHMCBRIEF" Jew qualified for the North American iteration of this tournament after finishing in fourth place on the League of Legends team ladder-rankings at
16402-551: 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,
16541-416: Was Steve "LiQuiD112" Arhancet , Brandon "DontMashMe" Phan, Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng, Thomas "SYDTKO" Oh, Eugene "Pobelter" Park, Luis "Lapaka" Perez, Chenglong "Nyjacky" Wang, and Justin "Jsura" Nguyen. Two days after they were sponsored, Team Curse attended their first major event, MLG Raleigh 2011 . After losing all of their group stage matches against Counter Logic Gaming , Epik Gamer, and Team SoloMid ,
16680-557: Was an organization entire separated from Curse, Inc., although they were still the title sponsor of the new Curse eSports brand. On December 19, 2014, Curse, Inc. announced that it was dropping its title sponsorship of Curse eSports, after Riot Games introduced new League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) regulations regarding sponsoring more than one team. On January 6, 2015, the organization merged with Team Liquid . Team Liquid absorbed Curse eSports' League of Legends , Street Fighter , and Super Smash Bros. Melee rosters,
16819-470: Was announced as the team's newest member and Cris' replacement. Impactful also parted ways with the team at some point before September 28, when David "Cop" Roberson joined the team in his place. On December 12, 2014, after victories against compLexity.White and Team Coast, Curse Academy beat Team Fusion to secure entry into the 2015 Spring Split of the NA LCS On January 8, 2015, due to LCS rules regarding
16958-506: Was announced to be MLG's featured first-person shooter game for the MLG Columbus and 2014 season events. Through June 8–10, 2014 MLG hosted a tournament at the X Games for Call of Duty: Ghosts with the eventual winners being OpTic Gaming including fan favorites Matt "Nadeshot" Haag and Seth "Scump" Abner. In April 2014, MLG announced that it partnering with Lai Fung Holdings Limited (Lai Fung) and eSun Holdings Limited in building
17097-480: 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
17236-868: Was dropped from the circuit due to the lack of funding MLG received from PlayStation to put the title on the circuit. The 2012 tournament format has also drastically changed, with the introduction of seasonal events. The new format features 4 quarterly seasons; within each season are 2 Arenas and a Championship. The Championship features all Pro Circuit titles, and has a free SD broadcast option. The Arenas are Pay-per-view (PPV) events and for now only feature Starcraft II , and are broadcast in high definition (HD) from MLG's Studio in New York. Also in 2012 came many new partnerships for MLG. So far, MLG has partnered with CBS Interactive (CBSi) to increase its broadcast capabilities and to integrate with CBSi's website, GameSpot.com . This new partnership hopes to increase exposure of MLG to
17375-479: Was filled by Keiwan "K1pro" Itakura. David "Diamond" Bérubé filled the same position in the team's win against vVv Gaming in the third place match on March 29, and Zekent announced his retirement from professional play four days later on April 2. Winning this match gave Curse Academy enough circuit points to qualify for the NACS Spring Playoffs, where K1pro again filled the vacant spot. The team lost to LMQ in
17514-620: 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,
17653-462: 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
17792-441: Was played online in a round-robin tournament format over the course of two months. At the end of each season, the bottom four teams were sent to a relegation tournament and the top eight teams were invited to an offline playoff tournament. There was also a Dota 2 Pro League sponsored by joinDota. *Held as MLG Anaheim 2014 . Major League Gaming was founded in 2002 by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso. In 2006, MLG became
17931-498: 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
18070-434: 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,
18209-484: Was replaced by Derek "Lohpally" Abrams. In January 2014, Team LoLPro attempted to join Riot Games' newly created North American Challenger Series (NACS), but failed to do so after being knocked out in the first round of the online qualifier. The team successfully qualified for the second half of the NACS Spring Season, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals by vVv Gaming on March 9. This loss meant Team LoLPro missed out on
18348-538: Was replaced by Nicolas "Gleebglarbu" Haddad, and Patrick "Titours" Lefort also joined. Gleebglarbu left the team to join Cloud9 Tempest two weeks later on January 21, and at some point before the end of the month Jamie "Sheep" Gallagher replaced him. From February until the end of April, Curse Academy competed in the Spring Season of Riot Games ' newly created North American Challenger Series (NACS), which had become
18487-443: Was replaced by Saintvicious, who was then in turn replaced by Michael "Bunny FuFuu" Kurylo after the seventh week. Team Curse finished the split in fifth place with a record of 11–17, before beating Team Dignitas in the playoffs to end the season in fourth place. On May 4, 2014, it was announced that Alex "Xpecial" Chu , previously of Team SoloMid, would replace BunnyFuFuu for the upcoming Summer Split. Team Curse finished fourth in both
18626-423: Was reported that "substantially all" of MLG's assets had been acquired by Activision Blizzard for $ 46 million, and that CEO Sundance DiGiovanni would be replaced by MLG's former CFO Greg Chisholm. Activision Blizzard operates its own in-house esports division, Activision Blizzard Media Networks, led by veteran sports television executive Steve Bornstein , MLG co-founder Mike Sepso, and its acquisition of assets from
18765-507: 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 ,
18904-668: 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
19043-403: Was to last less than a week; Pobelter was released on October 13, 2013, over concerns regarding his age and availability, while Aphromoo was also released. The next day, it was announced that Diego "Quas" Ruiz and Cop had taken their spots. On December 22, 2013, this new Team Curse roster swept COGnitive Gaming to secure NA LCS requalification. After the third week of the 2014 Spring Split, Zekent
19182-538: Was too young to move into the team's new gaming house. In August, Curse won MLG Raleigh 2012 , beating Team Dignitas, but both teams were disqualified by for violating MLG 's Official Pro Circuit Conduct Rules. No prize money or circuit points were awarded to either teams. On August 20, 2012, Curse competed in the North American Regional Finals, but failed to qualify for the Riot Games Season 2 World Championship , placing fourth after losing to Counter Logic Gaming in
19321-415: Was unable to travel to Gfinity London 2013 because of issues with his passport, and Don "Cpt Tran" Tran replaced him for the event. On July 17, the entire roster aside from Rhux was replaced, leaving Curse Academy as Rhux, Brad "OneBadBrad" Watson, Philip "Only Jaximus" Carter, Jovani "fabbbyyy" Guillen, and Tyler "Vibes" Selig. Vibes left the team the next day. On July 23, 2013, Maria "Yuno" Creveling acted as
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