There are some amazing eSports tournaments and events that take place in the competitive gaming industry around the world each year. On this page of our site, we have all the information you need on the top 10 events. These include all the popular games such as League of Legends, Dota 2, Street Fighter, FIFA, CS:GO, and more. These tournaments are available to watch live on eSports streaming sites and you can find the best eSports betting offers on our betting page too.
Top 10 eSports Tournaments
- Intel Extreme Masters: This eSports tournament was created in 2006 and is the longest-running gaming tour in the world. There are five events each year and they take place in different locations such as Poland, Sydney, South Korea, USA, and China. The event in Poland in 2017 had the biggest attendance record of any eSports competition with 173,000 people attending. It was watched by 46 million views at eSports streaming sites too. Esports fans can bet on CS:GO, StarCraft II, Overwatch, and League of Legends.
- The International: The first tournament took place in 2011 and was held by Dota 2 creators Valve. This tournament is available to watch live through streaming website Twitch and the prize pool last year was a staggering $20,770,460. For fans of Dota 2 this is the best eSports tournament.
- League of Legends Worlds: This tournaments takes place in China and involves 24 teams from 13 regions between September and November. The regions are Brazil, China, Commonwealth of Independent States, Europe, Japan, Korea, Latin America North, Latin America South, North America, Oceania, Southeast Asia, Taiwan Hong Kong Macau, and Turkey. Teams are divided into one of four groups and play against each other. The top two teams from each group go through to the next round. Teams continue to compete in a knock-out tournament until one winner emerges victorious.
- Call of Duty World League: This is a very popular eSports event that takes place in the middle of June. Teams play on PS4 consoles and fans can watch the event in game using the Live Event Viewer on their own PS4 console. The games are also available on eSports streaming sites like Twitch.
- ESL Pro League: This is run by ESL and the Pro League sees top teams from around the world compete in a nine-week CS:GO tournament for a prize of $1 million. As with most tournaments, this is available to watch on Twitch and YouTube and if you want to bet on eSports and CS:GO there are plenty of betting options available.
- Kiev Majors: This is a single elimination event that sees players visit the Ukraine for a huge prize fund of $3 million. The qualifying rounds being early in the year and the main event takes place in late April. The biggest teams from around the world attend and the event is run by Valve the makers of Dota 2.
- DreamHack Masters: This event is held at the end of August each year and sees 16 of the world's best CS:GO teams take part to win $250,000. The event happens between the 30th of August and the 3rd of September. This is a great place to start in competitive gaming thanks to the uncomplicated rules and the small number of teams.
- World Championship Series Global StarCraft II: All the best eSports betting sites offer markets on this popular game. The World Championship Series Global is organized by Blizzard Entertainment and is divided into a series of events with a total prize fund of $2 million. These are made in conjunction with AfreecaTV, ESL, and DreamHack.
- Capcom Cup: This eSports tournament is an invitational that features 32 players from around the world who battle it out to see who is the ultimate champion.
- Mid-Season Invitational: This Tournaments sees thirteen teams take part in a League of Legends tournament. Each team is from a different region of the world and players are seeded depending on their previous two-years performances. This is a very exciting LoL tournament and one not to be missed.
If you enjoy sports-themed games be sure to check out the FIFA League too.
Top Live Streaming eSports Sites
If you want to watch all the top eSports tournaments live then you need to know the eSports streaming sites you can do this one. You won't find these events on traditional cable or satellite television, but live streaming is easy and one of the biggest trends around at the moment. The sites listed below work on mobile and desktop including iPhone, iPad, and Android devices with an internet connection.
- Twitch: This eSports streaming site is the biggest of them all and has over 1.5 million broadcasters and 100 million visitors every month. There are around 174 million hours of Dota 2, Hearthstone, and League of Legends watched and you will find the majority of the largest eSports tournaments and big-name events hosted on Twitch. Twitch is also the exclusive live-streaming broadcaster for all Blizzard eSports including the Overwatch League.
- YouTube Live Gaming: This is a specialized Live Gaming section of YouTube and the place to find all major eSports tournaments for Counter Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends which are streamed by the official sponsored accounts. This includes ESL Counter-Strike, LoL esports Live, Major League Gaming, Rainbow Six Pro League, and more. It's very easy to use and there is also a mobile app.
- Smashcast.tv: This was formerly known as HitBox and is a super streamline and super fast live streaming site dedicated to gamers. It is often called the alternative to Twitch. It features in-built audience engagement tools. It is also very popular with eSports event organisers and broadcast marketing partners.
- Teamliquid.net: This site started as a StarCraft news site in 2001 and has expanded into a multi-regional professional eSports organization. They have signed professional players in CS:GO, Dota 2, StarCraft II, Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros, and more. The news side of their site still exists but they also have a dedicated live streaming section too where users will find the latest eSports tournament match streams.
