Is eSport the future of international competition? If a few years ago someone had told me that six and seven-digit cash amounts would be invested into eSport in the near future, the only thing that would come to my mind would be: “LOL, what is he talking about?”. And you know what? “LoL” would be a pretty good answer. Let’s take a look at some interesting facts about LEC and LCS, the major leagues for League of Legends in Europe, and North America, both offered in our STATSCORE’s ScoreFrame product.

OKAY, SO… WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT?

League of Legends is a multiplayer, online, battle arena video game which popularity has exploded over the past few years. Each player takes on the role of a unique hero with a special set of skills that if used in the right way, can bring victory to a team.

Yes! LoL is a team game. Each team consists of five players who have specific tasks in the team and so we can see characters responsible for eliminating opponents or saving and supporting their allies in trouble.

The main goal of the game is to destroy the main enemy’s structure – Nexus. Is that simple? Not necessarily. On the other side, there are five other players who want to do it faster. In this way, we receive about forty minutes full of tactics and emotions.

INCREASING POPULARITY OF E-SPORTS

The growth of LoL’s popularity over the last ten years is almost unimaginable. Just look at the numbers – the final of the last World Championship was watched by over 200,000,000 viewers… at the same time! For a game created in 2009 – that’s an amazing result.

The potential of eSport is increasingly recognized by organizations that on a daily basis are associated with more traditional sports. A great example here may be Paris Saint-Germain or German Schalke 04, both are remarkable football clubs. PS S04 has one of the best formations in the League of Legends European Championship (LEC).

Despite the fact that the majority of eSports viewers live in Asia, traditional TV stations from France, Spain, Italy, German and even from Poland are also interested in League of Legends.

Experience more: Follow e-sports results in the new version of ScoreFrame!

HUGE MONEY BEHIND E-SPORTS

A few years ago, Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez Santiago, a former professional player and current founder of G2 Esports – one of the best eSport organizations around at the moment said that today, with money he earned thanks to eSport, he can buy a car, but maybe in a few more years, he will be able to buy a house or a yacht.

Looking at the current earnings of professional players, we can say that “Ocelote” was not wrong. An interesting fact is that the average earnings of players in LCS (North America) are similar to the athletes in the MLS football league and overall can’t be less than 60,000 EUR per year!

It is also worth mentioning that every team wishing to appear in LEC or LCS has to pay about 10,000,000 EUR franchise to the competition’s owner – Riot gaming. Compared to the prize pool, which is 200,000 EUR, it is a huge amount of money to invest.

The functioning of the teams is much easier thanks to the huge help they get from sponsors and investors. The major competitions in Europe and North America are sponsored by well-known companies such as Shell, Kia Motors and Alienware. Single teams also receive a substantial subsidy.

At the end of February 2019, the aforementioned G2 Esports received 15,000,000 EUR from investors, among them was Dan Gilbert, the owner of the basketball club – Cleveland Cavaliers. Keeping in mind the dynamics of its development, is it unrealistic to ask the questions: Will eSport be able to match the most popular traditional sporting disciplines or… even become an Olympic discipline in the next few years?

Read more: STATSCORE on IEM Katowice 2019.

Read more: The future of sports with the letter “E”

If you want to get in touch to find out more, please contact our Customer Success Team at cst@statscore.com, so we can schedule a call and discuss how our LeagueCenter can help your organization!