Esports is a form of competition using video games. Most commonly, esports takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although organized online and offline competitions have long been a part of video game culture, these were largely between amateurs until the late 2000s, when participation by professional gamers and spectatorship in these events through live streaming saw a large surge in popularity. By the 2010s, esports was a significant factor in the video game industry, with many game developers actively designing toward a professional esports subculture.
SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in Counter-Strike (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian CS team won the ESL One Cologne 2016 Major. SK currently has players and teams competing in League of Legends and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. SK Gaming was founded in 1997 by a small group of Quake players in Oberhausen.
Paul "Redeye" Chaloner is a professional esports and video game broadcast host from Shoreham-by-Sea, England.
Dignitas is a professional esports team based in the United Kingdom, founded by Michael "ODEE" O'Dell on 9 September 2003 when Battlefield 1942 clans Legion Condor and Sweden Kompanix merged. Team Dignitas was acquired by the Philadelphia 76ers in September 2016. The team has a rich history across many different esports, but is best known for its former League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squads.
ESPN Brasil is a group of cable television network, launched in March 1989. ESPN Brasil was the first country-specific version of ESPN outside the United States, launched in June 1995. The channel has covered major sporting events, like the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics; the 1998 and 2006 FIFA World Cup and the 1999, 2003 and 2007 Pan-American Games. High ratings and prestige in the segment have been marks of the channel; it also won the APCA award twice, in 1995 for "Best Sports Programming" and in 1998 for "Best Coverage of the 1998 FIFA World Cup".
Astro SuperSport is an in-house satellite television network in Malaysia dedicated to broadcasting sports-related content 24 hours a day. It is available on the Astro via Channels 810 & 831 (HD) to subscribers of the Sports package only. Launched in 1996 as one of Astro's original channels, Astro SuperSport offers a variety of international sporting events such as football, badminton, motorsport, rugby, volleyball, golf and WWE shows. Astro SuperSport broadcasts in HD on Channel 831. The network has been broadcasting studio shows around major football in HD like the Premier League and FIFA World Cup since 2010 and magazine shows like FourFourTwo since 2011.
Alliance is a professional gaming and esports organization based in Sweden that was formed in April 2013. They have teams in Dota 2, Hearthstone, the Super Smash Bros. series and Fortnite, and previously had teams in League of Legends and StarCraft II.
Gambit Esports, also known by its former name Gambit Gaming, is a Russian esports organisation based in the United Kingdom. It was established in January 2013 after the acquisition of the former League of Legends roster of Moscow Five. The team previously had a team competing in the European League of Legends Championship Series.
Team Secret is a global eSports team formed in 2014, best known for their Dota 2 team.
Syed Sumail Hassan, better known as simply Sumail, is a Pakistani professional Dota 2 player for Evil Geniuses. Sumail was a member of the team that won The International 2015, alongside Fear, Aui_2000, UNiVeRsE, and ppd. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, he currently lives in Rosemont, Illinois as a resident of the United States.
Astralis is a Danish organization owned by players of the former Danish Team SoloMid/Questionmark lineup, with the help of their manager, Frederik "realition" Byskov. The rights to the Astralis name were obtained from the original founders of the Finnish Counter-Strike team.
Peter Rasmussen, known under the moniker dupreeh, is a Danish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who currently plays the role of entry for Astralis together with his teammates dev1ce, Magisk, Xyp9x and gla1ve. He also used to play for Team Dignitas and Team SoloMid. He was sidelined during ESL One Cologne 2016 after developing appendicitis on July 6, 2016. Dupreeh's father died on February 18th, 2019.
Flipside Tactics is an American eSports organization, with teams competing in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Halo, CrossFire ,fighting games, StarCraft II, Rocket League. The organization formerly had a team competing in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege and Dota 2. Former professional football player Ricky Lumpkin is a co-owner of the team.
Every Good Game Network or eGG Network, is a 24-hour satellite television network dedicated to eSports and professional video gaming. It was launched in July 2016 and is produced by Astro Malaysia which currently broadcasts esports programming on Channel 808. It is the first dedicated 24/7 HD eSports television channel in Southeast Asia. In December 2016 it launched in Australia.
ELEAGUE, shortened as EL, is an esports league and American television show that aired on TBS. It was announced in September 2015 as a partnership between Turner Broadcasting and talent agency WME/IMG. The name "ELEAGUE" was officially unveiled later that year.
Hajime Taniguchi, better known as Tokido, is a Japanese fighting game player. Active in the King of Fighters and Street Fighter franchises, Tokido has a unique play style. Tokido is renowned for playing multiple fighting games on a competitive level in addition to Street Fighter, including Tekken, Marvel vs Capcom 3, BlazBlue, and more. Tokido is a three-time EVO champion, having won Capcom vs. SNK 2 in 2002 as well as winning Super Street Fighter II Turbo in 2007 and Street Fighter V ten years later. Tokido has had 19+ Evolution top 8 finishes in 9 different games across 15 years, a feat surpassed only by Justin Wong.
PSG Esports is a French professional esports organization founded in 2016, and based in the city of Paris in France. The club is the esports department of Paris Saint-Germain Football Club. PSG Esports was officially formed on 20 October 2016 by Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi during a press conference held at the Parc des Princes in Paris.
Jordan Gilbert, better known as n0thing, is an American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He previously played as a rifler/lurker for Cloud9, before going inactive. n0thing is one of the most experienced North American players. Before playing Global Offensive, n0thing was a professional Counter Strike 1.6 player.
List of events in 2018 in esports.
