If the introduction of lockdowns to our day-to-day lives has taught us one thing in the world of sports and entertainment, it’s that Esports are definitely in the driving seat for these industries going forward.
Not only is it one of the most heavily invested forms of sports with lucrative sponsorship partnerships via companies such as Intel or Mountain Dew, but it’s really shown off its ability to adapt to the issues of accessibility in these times thanks to its digital nature. Whilst the likes of the NFL and NBA continue to battle it out in a race to get things back to normal before they lose out too much, Esports have made the transition Online just another exciting opportunity for expansion, and have managed to keep the action going and the fans entertained.
In truth though, this was a revolution that was going on long before any lockdown. 250 million people around the world now claim to watch Esports, investing over 3 billion hours worth of time into just watching their favourite games, and the numbers already suggest that the industry is now ahead of the likes of the MLB, NBA and MLS, and just a few months away from surpassing even the NFL.
Whilst they continually get grouped in together and mistaken for one big event, it’s much easier to think of Esports as an umbrella term for a collection of titles and games that people play. League of Legends is nothing like Fifa, for example, but they’re both competitive enough to host a plethora of tournaments around the world and draw in thousands of fans. Think of it like calling football, soccer, the MLS and the NFL basically the same thing.
The most popular Esport in the world right now is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The Valve first person shooter has made the jump onto the Online stage better than anyone else, has smashed its viewership records in the past couple of months and recently broke past its record of concurrent players online.
And North America is pretty good at Counter-Strike.
According to the latest worldwide rankings on HLTV, the best North American side is Team Liquid, who are ranked fifth right now but were no.1 from June to September last year. They are regular favourites at leading esports wagering sites such as Unikrn, and still possess the fastest Intel Grand Slam in CS:GO’s history.
Evil Geniuses come in as the next highest rated NA team at 7th but were placed as high as first back in November, whilst 100 Thieves, the Esports organisation that Drake most famously invested in, bring the total number of North American sides in the world’s top ten to three with their 10th place position. These stats of course don’t even begin to explain the North American players who are playing in foreign-based sides either, with the likes of oBo and Rush currently playing with Complexity Gaming in Europe.
It’s clear that Esports is an exciting industry that will only continue to rise in the months and years ahead, and there’s every chance that North American Counter-Strike could be at the forefront of that rise. The likes of Elige, Tarik and Stewie2k are quickly becoming as much of a collection of household names as Durant and Rice are, and it should be fascinating to see what the increasing popularity of competitive video gaming does for the landscape of North American sports.
