In 2018 almost $149 million dollars were paid in esports tournaments. We take a look at the biggest esports tournaments this year.
For the fourth year running, leadership in the most rewarding tournaments is held by The International for Dota 2. If in 2014 the prize fund was $11,000,000, in 2018 $25,500,000 were played in the main tournament of the year (although the prize fund compared to 2017 increased only by 1 million).
Following DOTA 2 is the League of Legends world finals with $6,450,000 in prize money. At the WESG 2017 finals in Dota 2 and CS: GO, a total of $ 3,000,000 was awarded.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive had a total of $22,000,000 awarded in prize money this year.
In 2018, Denmark’s Astralis dominated the pro scene. The Danish five for the year won the seventh and eighth season of the ESL Pro League, the fifth and sixth season of the Esports Championship Series, ELEAGUE CS: GO Premier, FaceIT Major London 2018 and took one million dollars in the Intel Grand Slam. Each player has earned approximately $730,000 (prize money only) in the tournament year.
The second place was occupied by the Swedes from fnatic (250 – 280 thousand dollars), who did not have their best year, but won World Electronic Sports Games 2017 and Intel Extreme Masters XII.
Following them are Stewie2k and tarik (273 and 250 thousand), who, as part of Cloud9, won a major in Boston, and then won several prizes for mibr. However, in the near future, players plan to leave the Brazilian organization. Stewie2k plans to join Team Liquid, and Tarik will be sent to the transfer market.
