Not so long ago, it was nearly impossible to make a living from playing games. Gamers of all types had to hold down full-time jobs and be content with gaming for fun as an after-hours hobby. Scoring the biggest bingo jackpot is something you can only do when you’re off the clock. Winning a game tournament was something you could do on the weekend, and while you might get bragging rights, you would not have received much else as a reward. These days eSports are an entirely different beast. Not only can the best of the best win some huge cash prizes, but people who might not necessarily be competition-level gamers can also make money in the gaming sector by streaming and working with brands.
If being the best of the best at playing eSports games is the way you want to go, you’ll have to log a lot of hours of practice and perfection. If you do make it to the upper echelons of gaming royalty, you and your team could be in line to win cash prizes of up to 6 million US dollars. Let’s check out what the best paying eSports tournaments are now.
StarCraft: Blood War
Since 1998, Activision Blizzard has been hosting prize money events for this behemoth of a game. There have been 117 tournaments so far and a grand total of $5,246,860 to the winning players. The very first cash prize ever awarded was $16,200 in November of 1998. This was taken home by Jason Severson. The biggest total cash prize that has been awarded in all the tournaments so far is $126,451, which was handed out in 2007; $54,500, which Kim Taek Young won.
DOTA 2
Defense of the Ancients is one of the most beloved MMO games in the history of gaming. In total, DOTA 2 tournaments have awarded over $9.1 million in cash prizes: that’s an incredible amount of money to hand out for playing a computer game really, really well! We know, of course, that it’s much more than being good at a game: it’s a lifestyle. The DOTA 2 International Tournament has the highest prize pool of any tournament in the history of eSports. Even before the game was officially released, the tournament took place and made a lot of waves in the scene.
Counter-Strike
Though DOTA 2 has the record for the biggest prize given out at one time, Counter-Strike tournaments have been doling out a small fortune in prizes since they first started popping up. If you’re a professional Counter-Strike player, for the last fifteen years, you’ve been in line to win a portion of a total of $9,809,841. The peak of their lavish generosity was in the summer of 2003 when they gave out $200,000 in prize money.
StarCraft 2
Activision Blizzard knows a good thing when they see it, and they never miss an opportunity. With the success of the first StarCraft, they knew that the market was ripe for a sequel, and the professionals were ready to take on the challenge of StarCraft 2. Since the game was released in 2010, the gaming gods have offered up a total of $11,941,954 in cold hard cash to the best players in the world. The largest single prize pool at any tournament was a total of $250,000 in 2012.
League of Legends
In terms of total prize money, League of Legends certainly takes the cake. In 2010, the World Cyber Games LOL prize pot was $10,000, and Counter-Logie swooped in to snatch it. It was the Season 3 World Champs prize pool that really blew the minds of all the players: $2,050,000 in total. The first prize at that event was taken by SK Telecom T1, who are no strangers to winning: they did it again recently at an All-Stars event in France. At worlds, they took home a whopping $1 million to divide amongst themselves.
Wrap Up
It’s true; the chances of the average games making it to the big leagues are pretty slim. But isn’t it nice to dream? With prize pots like that, those professional tournaments will be the stuff of dreams till the world ends.
