eSports Teams

Esports is a term that you might not have heard in the 2000s but in the past decade, it has become a full-fledged billion-dollar industry with millions of gamers all over the world. Moreover, the industry has also been boosted with the help of coverage provided to it by mainstream and social media. This is why you can see a lot of gaming channels on analog and digital cable, YouTube, Twitch, and other streaming platforms.

If you don’t have a lot of knowledge about esports, let us put your mind at ease by telling you that it is another term for professional gaming. It involves games where players compete in tournaments, battles, and competitions to win money. It also involves live streaming gameplay and getting sponsorship offers from brands, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

What is Professional Gaming?

Professional gaming, or pro gaming, is like a sport, only it involves video games played by professionals, who are involved part-time or full-time into this industry.

One of the most exciting and inspiring trends in the past decade is eSports, which is closely tied in with the video game industry. They have been greatly facilitated with the help of innovation in hardware and cutting-edge graphics. Moreover, streaming technology has also played a major role in taking this industry forward. All these things strongly suggest that eSports will only continue to go up from here, and this article highlights the top eSports trends that you should look out for.

Competitive Console Gaming

When it comes to competitive gaming, your mind might instantly go to PC gaming. However, the past few years have proved that console gaming is also coming up to speed. This has become possible thanks to new gaming consoles like the PlayStation 4 and 5, as well as the Xbox Series X. These consoles feature next-gen and advanced hardware that are leaps and bounds over previous consoles. Thanks to their streaming and Wi-Fi capabilities, console gamers have also jumped

American eSports team eUnited has come out as the big winners at the Call of Duty World League Championship 2019 in Los Angeles this past weekend.

The victory saw the team taking home the top prize of $800,000 after they managed to get the best of the team 100 Thieves, winning 3-2 in the final round. There were 32 teams invited to the tournament, featuring some of the best players in the world.

The big win is the second consecutive eSports victory for eUnited, as they won the Pro League Finals in Miami in July. The team is made up of James Eubanks, Alec Sanderson, Preston Sanderson, and Tyler Pharris. The group was founded in 2016 and is organized as eSports Entertainment, LLC. There are multiple sub-teams under the eUnited umbrella that participate in eSports, with a PUBG, Smash, and Smite team all competing in events.

If you’re looking for an eSports controller that makes you play like a pro, then you should check out our slate

A number of teams have now been chosen to participate in the Overwatch League. More details are provided in the article.

When the Overwatch League was first announced, it had high ambitions to turn their eSports league into a league similar in proportion and style to the NFL or the NHL. Blizzard had hoped to allow cities and popular locations across the world to host their own teams, just like in the NHL and NFL.

Some of the first teams in part of this new formula have now been announced, with some of the teams being backed by some very well-known (and wealthy) individuals.

To begin with, Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, recently purchased an Overwatch team for the Boston area.

Jeff Wilpon, the COO of the New York Mets, is looking to build a team for the New York area.

It's not just traditional sports names getting involved with the Overwatch League, either. Noah Whinston, CEO of Immortals, has confirmed that he's building a team for the

OpTic gaming has managed to hit their second consecutive Halo World Championship win this month after they faced up against EnVyUs in the grand finals.

OpTic has been dominating the Halo scene recently. Unfortunately, they didn't quite perform as well as they may have liked to throughout the majority of the Halo World Championship. EnVyUs, on the other hand, looked as if they had the entire championship in the bag.

Even though they had performed incredibly well during the tournament, we weren't ruling out the nV grand final win. In fact, to begin with, EnVyUs had won 12 games in a row. By the time EnVyUs had reached the finals, they had only lost a total of two games. With the two teams facing off in the finals, it looked as if EnVyUs could have easily taken the game from OpTic's grasp after the incredible performance from EnVyUs earlier in the tournament.

Things took a turn for the worst

eSports is going to be huge in 2017. NRG eSports has just picked up a sponsorship deal that hits the six-figure mark.

The new NRG sponsor is none other than the city of Washington D.C.

D.C. Events is the convention and sports authority arm of Washington D.C. and their recent sponsorship with NRG eSports has shown the world that they're serious about putting their heart (and money) into the eSports industry.

The city of Washington D.C. has sponsored many companies in the past, but this is the first venture the capital has made within the eSports industry.

You may be wondering how this deal will benefit Washington as a city. The head of the convention and sports authority arm of D.C. hopes that this new sponsorship will help bring in more tourism and open up opportunities for hosted eSports events within local stadiums. This should help to bring in interest and sell tickets to those from all over the United States, but it reaches out to an international audience

Fnatic and AS Roma are giants from the esports and soccer world, respectively, and now they have partnered up to create a brand new FIFA esports team.

Sports organizations have been stepping into the esports world a lot recently, and this recent partnership between Fnatic and AS Roma showcases that these new ventures aren't going to be slowing down anytime soon. Despite FIFA not quite reaching the global stage like CS:GO, Overwatch or League of Legends, AS Roma's passion for the world of soccer has helped Fnatic to source a team of professional FIFA players.

Aman "Aman" Seddiqi, Sam "Poacher" Carmody and Nicolo' "Insa" Mirra will now all be part of the Fnatic/AS Roma FIFA team, being lead by manager Colin Johnson. Fnatics' role will be to "manage the team and offer support for training, events and provide all esports-related logistical knowledge to nurture them," whilst AS Roma are simply looking to expand their club's reach into the esports world.

AS Roma play in the

Whether you're into Counter Strike or not, the latest ELEAGUE win from Astralis should make any eSports fan happy.

The story behind Astralis' win is a very big one. Despite being a top performing team, the Astralis players, who had previously played under other names, such as TSM and Dignatas, had never managed to break out of their 'semi-finals' curse.

It seemed as if every major CS:GO tournament that the Danish lads entered would see them with a loss in the semi-finals. This time, things were different. The Atlanta ELEAGUE major, which was televised on North American channel TBS, saw Astralis take the win in an incredibly close battle between them and the Polish team, Virtus Pro.

After a scary loss on the first map, Nuke, and an unsettlingly close half on the second map, a win for Astralis almost seemed out of the question. Fortunately for Astralis though, they managed to pull it back, taking the second and third maps, although not without hardship.

With over

The movie studio behind hits like The Hunger Games, Power Rangers, and the Expendables has announced its recent investment in esports team, The Immortals.

It seems as if we're seeing investments from all over the place when it comes to eSports, and now Lionsgate has got in on the action. Interestingly, The Immortals has already seen financial support from other popular names including Michael Milken and Steve Kaplan.

Lionsgate didn't share too many details on what their investment would involve or what they would hope to receive from their partnership, but it's clear that they see the expectation in the eSports industry to follow the footsteps of other popular sports industries, such as the NBA and NFL.

This isn't the first time Lionsgate has gotten involved with video games. In fact, they have an entirely separate wing dedicated to interactive experiences and video games.

Lionsgate President of Interactive Ventures and Games mentioned, "We're delighted to be

The Miami Heat sports organization has recently purchased a stake in Misfit eSports.

Whilst unknown to some, the Misfit eSports org includes teams for Smash Bros, Heroes of the Storm and League of Legends. Perhaps their best-known players form their Overwatch team, which has recently performed incredibly well on a global level.

Most individuals would certainly know Miami Heat on the other hand - with a valuation of over $1.3 billion, the sports company is most known for their basketball team. In January 2016 the Miami Heat team was considered the 10th largest NBA franchise.

Considering the huge scale of Miami Heat, it's clear to see that the Misfits eSports organization are going to get all of the funding and support they need to keep their teams progressing towards new levels. Currently, the ownership of Misfit eSports resides with the original owners, but with Miami Heat owning a stake, they have the ability to call some of the shots as far as sponsorship deals, promotions,