Teams wear brand logos on their jersey, use products/equipment where applicable and produce social media content around their sponsors. The streaming platforms can allocate screen space, influencers or even entire channels to a single brand. Event organizers can provide name placement, showcase them in highlight reels or, for hardware companies, literally build the events on the back of their latest product lines. In fact, market research has demonstrated that the sales for gaming hardware and peripherals increases significantly with esports viewers, who want to buy better gear to maximize their own competitive performance. This has resulted in an entirely unique consumer group within the gaming industry.

With the esports industry surging into the new decade, there will be much more action this year than last. At its core, the scene thrives around competitive video gaming and competitive gaming peaks at offline, or lan, tournaments. Esports encompasses many events but only the biggest esports tournaments truly highlight the industry’s reach.

10 Biggest eSports Tournaments in 2020

1. League of Legends World Championship.

2. Fortnite World Cup

3. The International 10

4. FLASHPOINT Season 1 Championship

5. League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational

6. Call of Duty League Championship.

7. ESL One: Rio 2020

8. Overwatch World Cup

9. EVO 2020

10. Hearthstone World Championship

Intel has announced it will host an esports tournament in Tokyo during the lead-up to the 2020 Olympics. Players will compete in Street Fighter V and Rocket League for a price of $250,000 for each game. Online qualifiers will kick-off early next year, with a live qualifier event in Poland in June. Due to COVID-19 the big debate now is whether eSports will be part of the Olympic games in 2024. The case is made via the TED Talk.