The pop-culturization of Esports has helped it become a multi-billion dollar industry over the past decade. With growing viewership and investment Year on Year, the field of Esports is more popular than it’s ever been. Players and Esports organizations enjoy hundreds of millions invested into them by brands, to help the ecosystem grow.
This means Esports tournaments are bigger than ever with top of the line production quality, crazy salaries, and prize pools that each team vies for.
We will talk about some of these tournaments today. Specifically, in the FPS scene.
CSGO: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive holds some of the most prestigious Esports tournaments around the world throughout the year.
Significant teams:
CIS Region:
Na’Vi (Natus Vincere)
Virtus.Pro
North American region:
Team Liquid
100 Thieves
Evil Geniuses
Mibr
Cloud9
European region:
Astralis
FaZa Clan
Team Vitality
G2 Esports
ENCE
Ninjas in Pyjamas
North
Fnatic
Mousesports
Asian region:
Tyloo
Oceania region:
Renegades
Tournaments:
- Blast Premier Series: The Blast Premier Series is a successor to the Blast Pro Series. They are a professional CSGO Esports league based primarily in 2 regions: North America and Europe. They structure it around 2 seasons, the Spring and Fall season. Where the winner of those season finals will participate in the Global Finals at the end of the year. The prize pools range from USD $300,000 to USD $1,500,000 for the Global Finals.
FaZe Clan was the winner of Blast Premier Spring Regular Season held earlier this year, with NaVi as the runner-up.
Schedule:
Spring 2020 American Finals: 2020-06-16 to 2020-06-21
Spring 2020 European Finals: 2020-06-15 to 2020-06-21
Fall 2020 Regular Season: 2020-10-15 to 2020-10-31
Fall 2020 Finals: 2020-12-08 to 2020-12-13
Global Finals 2020: 2021-01-18 to 2021-01-24
- Dreamhack Masters: Dreamhack Masters is a series of CSGO tournaments held twice a year by Dreamhack, ending with a LAN event where the teams meet each other in Sweden.
Schedule:
Spring: Oceania 2020-06-03 to 2020-06-07
Spring: Asia 2020-06-02 to 2020-06-07
Spring: Europe 2020-05-19 to 2020-06-14
Spring: North America 2020-05-19 to 2020-06-14
(LAN events for the year 2020 are canceled as of now due to the COVID-19
pandemic.)
- Intel Extreme Masters: Intel Extreme Masters is the longest-running global pro gaming tour in the world since launching in 2007. They have held tournaments for a wide range of games including CSGO and have a big presence in Asia, NA, and European regions. Their Counter-Strike circuit will kick-start it’s 15th season in 2020.
Schedule:
IEM Melbourne was to be the first stop in the 15th season of IEM but has been
postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns.
- ESL One Series:
These are CSGO tournaments organized by Electronic Sports League and are one of the most well funded and organized tournaments for any Esports out there. ESL also holds Major events with Valve and other organizations. 32 teams compete in a single-elimination bracket, with the top 4 teams proceeding to ESEA’s Main division.
Schedule:
ESL One Cologne
Group Stage: August 23rd – 27th, 2020
Playoffs: August 28th – 30th, 2020
ESL One Rio
November 9th – 22nd November 2020
- CSGO Majors:
These are Valve sponsored CSGO tournaments where Valve puts up a prize pool of $1,000,000. The top eight teams from every Major gain “Legend” status and are automatically qualified to the next Major’s New Legends Stage as The Current Legends.
Schedule:
ESL One Rio is the next CSGO Major that will be Valve sponsored. It is slated to run from 9th November to 22nd November 2020.
Overwatch:
Overwatch is a six-versus-six team-based first-person shooter video game.The team that wins the most rounds in a map wins the match. The official Overwatch tournament structure revolves around The Overwatch League (OWL). It is a professional Esports league produced by the game’s developer, Blizzard Entertainment.
The Overwatch League is the major tournament league currently featuring twenty teams split between two conferences, which are subdivided into two divisions each. All teams in the OWL play scheduled games against other teams to vie for a position in the season’s playoffs.
Significant teams in the Overwatch League
Atlantic Teams:
Atlanta Reign
Boston Uprising
Florida Mayhem
Houston Outlaws
London Spitfire
New York Excelsior
Paris Eternal
Philadelphia Fusion
Toronto Defiant
Washington Justice
Pacific Teams:
Chengdu Hunters
Dallas Fuel
Guangzhou Charge
Hangzhou Spark
Los Angeles Gladiators
Los Angeles Valiant
San Francisco Shock
Seoul Dynasty
Shanghai Dragons
Vancouver Titans
Open Division and Contenders League
Professional teams in the league are given the opportunity to scout for new players through two additional competitive leagues run by Blizzard. The “Overwatch Open” division allows amateur teams pulled from the best players in the game’s normal competitive mode to compete in a structured season and postseason format with intra-regional matches.The Open division is played across seven different regions: North America, South America, Europe, Oceania, Southeast Asia, South Korea, and China.
Players or teams can then move up from the Open Division into the Overwatch Contenders league, a minor league to the Overwatch League. The Contenders league was launched to merge existing regional tournaments into a structure to support the Overwatch League. The Contenders league consists of several global divisions with a number of teams within each, which may include both professional and amateur players. Contender teams may be affiliated with a League team, and players can be freely moved between these affiliated teams during set periods of each Overwatch League season.
Schedule:
Overwatch League(OWL) is in the 15th week of its Regular Season right now.
Overwatch League Regular Season 2020 – Feb 9 to Aug 9th 2020
Overwatch League May Tournament – May 22 – May 25 2020
The match schedule can be tracked on Overwatch league’s website through this link:
https://overwatchleague.com/en-us/schedule?stage=regular_season&week=15
Call of Duty:
Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game franchise published by Activision. Call of Duty:Modern Warfare (2019) is the latest iteration of the game.
Call of Duty games have been part of regular Esports since as far back as 2006. CoD tournaments are divided into ladders and tournaments. The ladders are further divided into sub ladders such as the singles ladder, doubles ladder or team ladder (3v3, 6v6).
Call of Duty competitive gameplay is primarily most popular in North American and European regions.
Tournaments:
Call of Duty League:
The Call of Duty League is a Professional Esports league for the video game franchise Call of Duty, produced by its publisher Activision. The Call of Duty League follows a similar structure model as that of the Overwatch League. It uses a set of permanent, city based teams backed by private ownership groups. The league plays in a tournament point system and playoffs format. Activision announced the formation of the League in 2019. The events are hosted by the teams in their home cities.
Schedule:
Florida Mutineers Home Series (Online) – May 8th to 10th
Seattle Surge Home Series (Online) – May 22-24
Minnesota ROKKR Home Series (Online) – June 5-7
Paris Legion Home Series (Online) – 19-21
New York Subliners Home Series (Online) – July 10-12
London Royal Ravens Home Series (Online) – July 17-19
Toronto Ultra Home Series (Online) – July 24-26
Call of Duty Championship Weekend – TBA
Significant teams in the Call of Duty League
As the Call of Duty League follows the model of Overwatch League,the teams are city based with 12 teams in total representing 11 cities. Nine teams are based in the United States,while the other 3 are based in Canada, France and the United Kingdom.
League Teams:
1) Atlanta FaZe
2) Chicago Huntsmen
3) Dallas Empire
4) Florida Mutineers
5) London Royal Ravens
6) Los Angeles Guerillas
7) OpTic Gaming Los Angeles
8) Minnesota ROKKR
9) New York Subliners
10) Paris Legion
11) Seattle Surge
12) Toronto Ultra
Rainbow 6 Siege:
Developed by Ubisoft, Rainbow 6: Siege is an Online Tactical First-Person Shooter with a bomb defusal Attacker/Defender scenario. The team who wins the most rounds wins the match.
Ubisoft had worked closely with ESL since the early development phase of Rainbow Six: Siege to balance the game and make it Esports ready. Soon, ESL and Ubisoft officially announced Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six ‘Pro League’, a global tournament for Windows and Xbox One players. The competition was held at the Intel Extreme Masters Esports tournament on March 4, 2016.
Significant Teams:
North American region:
DarkZero Esports
Spacestation Gaming
Team SoloMid
European region:
BDS Esports
Natus Vincere
G2 Esports
Team Empire
Team Vitality
Rogue
Asia Pacific region:
Fnatic
Cloud9
Latin American region:
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Team Liquid
FaZe Clan
mibr
Tournaments:
- The Pro League
The Pro League is a professional Esport league for Rainbow 6 Siege. It is hosted by
and organised by ESL(Electronic Sports League) in association with Ubisoft. It was
announced in January 2016 with Year 1 Season 1 kicking off on 4th March 2016.The Pro
League began with 3 seasons per year. After year 3, the structure shifted to holding 2
6-month seasons per year.
Schedule:
Season 10 of The Pro League ended on 10th November 2019, with Natus Vincere taking the
victory.
Season 11 was slated to run from March to May 2020. However, only the regional finals
could be conducted so far. Ubisoft has announced that the Global finals for the season will be
cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Season 11 was supposed to mark the end of the
Pro League in favour of a point-based system like Dota 2 and League of Legends.
2) The Six Invitational:
Six Invitational is an annual professional Rainbow Six Siege tournament hosted by Ubisoft, the game’s developer and publisher. The Six Invitational 2020 in February 2020, had the biggest prize pool in Rainbow 6 ever. $3,000,000 to be split among 16 teams. The North American team Spacestation Gaming were the winners of the Six Invitational 2020 and took home $1,000,000 of the total prize pool. The 2020 Invitational announced big changes to the game and the end of Pro League for a different qualifying system.
No information has been announced yet for The Six Invitational 2021.
Betting scene
As the fanbase and hype around these Esports rise to an all-time high, there is a lot of money flowing through online betting markets.
Before you start esports betting
Firstly, ask yourself…
- Do I love Esports and betting?
- Can I afford to spend $X on Esports betting?
- Can I afford to lose $X on betting?
If the answer to any of those is NO, then stop before you start.
Betting websites take a variety of forms and all offer a slightly different service. There is a huge variety of betting sites which allow you to use real money, Bitcoin or both, and the list continues to grow with more brands to choose from. They all offer slightly different odds, meaning you can maximize your winnings if you’re comparing a few different sites.
Some popular websites for Esport betting are:
sports.betway.com
egb.com
esportsbets.com
gg.bet
BUFF.bet
Most of these websites keep track of all major Esport tournaments, team stats, performance, and odds. Across all regions and genres of Esports.
How much to start betting with?
Most betting guides would recommend beginners to start small and only bet an amount they can afford to lose. The amount can vary for different people. For some it can be as little as $5 or $80 for others.
Tips on Betting
Rather than just blindly looking at the odds, it’s better to do research and look at all the parameters and stats.
- Look at past match results between the teams
See if any players or teams had better performances against certain teams that caused them to win. Look out for roster changes which can impact performance and affect historical data based predictions.
- Check the maps
In some games like CSGO, teams will likely play on different maps in different matches. Some teams will have strengths, and weaknesses depending on the map and might affect the outcome.
- Event Format
Depending on the format of the matches, the likelihood of certain outcomes can change. For example: a Best of 1 has higher chances of an upset or unexpected result. A draw is very likely in a Best of 2. A Best of 5 should favour the most consistent team than an unexpected result.
- Player Lineup
Check whether the teams perform better or worse with certain lineups. A worse player as a stand in can affect the team’s chances of victory.
- Have the teams travelled a lot?
In cases where teams have to travel for long periods of time across regions to attend events, there is a very good chance their performance will suffer due to tiredness and jet lag. Teams who have travelled less or not at all will fare much better mentally and physically in the game.
- Past match performances
Obvious one. But very important. Stay up to date with all recent historical statistics about teams and their performances. Some teams are on their peak for several months but then hit a visible decline due to burnout or any other reasons.
- Observe Community betting
Look at the highest-ranked betters and what their opinion is. Talk to veteran betters and others in the betting community. There is always some insight to be had and something to learn.
- Don’t believe people’s information blindly and make your own decisions
Some individuals might just want to throw off others’ predictions by giving out false information, to sway the odds and gain higher profit for themselves. Hence it’s better to not take everything at face value and make your own end decision through research.
Understanding Odds
Odds are of 3 distinct types. Decimal, Fractional or Implied Probability. You’ll most often come across Decimal Odds, however.
Decimal Odds
E.g. 3.44
Decimal odds give you the easiest conversion from stake to return.eg.
Bet $10 with odds at 3.44
RESULT: $10 x 3.44 = $34.4 (Your $10 stake included)
Fractional Odds
E.g. 2/1
This is mostly for horse racing so you shouldn’t see this on Esports betting.
Implied Probability
E.g. 55%
This is a more readable way to denote odds, however this can be highly inaccurate and is mostly just used as a reference to calculate risk.
It works as follows:
Decimal odds = 100 / Probability odds
E.g. 100/40 = 2.5
RESULT: A $10 stake would return $25 ($15 profit)
Final Words
The Esports competitive scenes and Esports betting create a vital ecosystem that help lift each other up. As long as Esports exist, the betting market will too and it’s important to understand the nuances of this industry.
These are just some of the most basic but also the most important factors to keep in mind before you start betting. But before you go and study all the teams, history and the odds, the most important advice is to be patient.Never go all in or be greedy.And trust the numbers, not your guts.Happy betting!
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