It is expected that e-sports will have a larger global audience than all other American sports (outside the NFL) within the next year or two. Everyone in the sector is doing well as venture capital profits and streaming revenues are getting close to Netflix and professional esports teams, respectively. There are multi-billion dollar teams that are supported by athletes, businesses, and more, which only serves to highlight the growth of Esports and its established position as a significant player in the sports industry.
Polar Ace
CEO Derek Dobosz founded Polar Ace E-sports in December 2016. Angel Snipe Gaming was the original name of the group, which was founded with the sole purpose of dominating the Challenger Series and establishing a NALCS Franchise. Angel Snipe Gaming changed its name to Tempus Sol during the 2017 Spring Split and registered for the LCS qualifiers, although they were eliminated in the quarterfinals. After this loss, the group disbanded, and several of the players signed with other professional esports teams. Among them were Dylaran at MSU, Teesum at Harrisburg University, and PieCakeLord, who are currently rated #258 in the country.
Team Dignitas
Michael O’Dell began funding Team Dignitas, an international E-sports team with a UK base, on September 9, 2003. After being purchased by the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers in September 2016, the team underwent a rebranding in October 2018, replacing its previous logo with an owl logo.
Team Dignitas has received praise from all over the world and was nominated in 2007 for “Esport Team of the Year.” Dignitas’ top-ranked FIFA player in 2008 was named the best French Fifa 07 player by a number of FIFA community websites. Their CS:GO team received Cadred.org’s “best overall CS:GO team” honor that same year.
Battlefield 3, CS:GO, FIFA, Quake Live, fighting games, Rocket League, and StarCraft II are one of Dignitas’ specialties. They have several top players, including Snitch, JayPL, MSL, Zaelia, and K0nfig, who are all top earners in the Rocket Legue and CS:GO, respectively. Squad Dignitas, who are presently placed fifth in the LCS Summer split, have sold their League of Legends team to Splyce for $1 million. Alienware, Razer, Dell, Asus, and Digital Storm are among their partners.
Counter Logic Gaming
George Georgallidis established Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) in Los Angeles in 2010, making it the oldest League of Legends squad still playing today. The squad played at the World Cyber Games and won $1,000, and they played a major role in creating the first League of Legends tournament. The LCS Summer 2015 Championship triumph at Madison Square Garden and the LCS Spring 2016 Championship win at Mandalay Bay are two of CLG’s most significant victories. The controlling share in CLG was acquired by the Madison Square Garden Company in 2017, increasing their value to $50 million and allowing them to establish a cutting-edge practice facility for their athletes.
With the creation of a subsidiary scouting team named CLG Black, which directs prospects to their academy and eventually their professional team, CLG recently moved to Europe under the name CLG EU. Twitch, Newegg, Omen, Game Fuel, SquareSpace, Spectrum, GTOmega, and Flexfit are a few of their famous partners. They now have teams in the video games Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Halo, Smite, CS:GO, Overwatch, Call of Duty, Fortnite, and DOTA 2, and they are continually branching out into new gaming genres. Their best players include the Korean tank Ruin, the jungler Wiggily, and the ADC Stixxay.
Clutch Gaming
The NBA’s Houston Rockets are the owners of the American esports team Clutch Gaming. Clutch Gaming was one of the first four esports teams to enter the NALCS in 2018, when it began as a franchise team. On June 6, 2019, Clutch Gaming stated that, as a result of Harris Blitzer, owner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, purchasing a majority ownership in the company, they will be merging with Team Dignitas and playing under the Dignitas association brand in 2020.
Their Spring Split during their debut NALCS season of competition saw full dominance of every team listed below them and utter lack of composure or competition versus any team rated above them. They were a disappointing team last year, finishing in sixth place, ranked as a mediocre LCS club.
Team Liquid
Team Liquid is owned by aXiomatic, a sports management firm with investors that include Magic Johnson, Tony Robbins, Peter Guber, Eric Lefkofsky, Kain from the Dodgers, Welts and Lacob from the Warriors, the Washington Nationals Ownership company, Crane Kenney from the Chicago Cubs, and Dhani Jones, a former NFL player.
In the Netherlands, Team Liquid was established in 2010 as a multi-gaming team with a focus on StarCraft: Brood War. Roster Liquid made their initial foray into multi-gaming platforms in 2012 when they hired their first DOTA 2 team. To create professional teams for League of Legends, Street Fighter, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Team Liquid and Team Curse combined in January 2015.
The team has earned over $33 million in prize money, making them the highest-earning Esports team in history. Their most renowned players are all DOTA 2 players, and they include MinD ContRoL, KuroKy (ranked #2 globally), GH (ranked #8 globally), Miracle- (ranked #3 globally), and Matumbaman (ranked #6 globally), all of whom have amassed prize money totaling more than $4 million to date. Alienware, Monster Energy, SAP, Honda, Twitch, Jersey Mike’s HYPERX, MaxNomic, and Huya are some of the companies that Team Liquid is currently partnered with.
ANEW Esports
Anew Esports is a small Esports organization with a complete Challenger squad that primarily plays in CS:GO and League of Legends. Anew often restricts its tournament to just the biggest online leagues and LAN tournaments with substantial prize pools that are held in North America. They became the first organization to have mixed female/male Esports teams compete at the same level when they created an all-female CS:Go team.
They recently earned a spot in the 2019 North American Scouting Grounds Qualifier, where they’ll participate in the NALCS competition circuit. The CS:GO squad from Anew won the ESL Tournament in 2018, earning $200,000 at the Barclays Center in New York.
Team SoloMid
In 2009, Andy Dinh created Team SoloMid. The business began as a LoL community website and guide on solomid.net, but it soon began to branch out into professional LoL tournaments. The Team Dignitas CS:GO lineup was acquired by TSM in 2015, making it the highest-paid CS:GO roster in the world at the time. A few months later, their League of Legends squad won the inaugural IEM Katowice title and expanded to fighting games by recruiting Leffen from Super Smash Bros. Melee.
TSM has so far made about $4 million in revenue, with the largest revenues going to Fortnite expert Vinny and League of Legends player Bjergsen (Rank 504 in the world). They presently have major esports teams, including League of Legends, Fortnite, and Apex Legends, and are building a $13 million Esports complex in Los Angeles featuring a training centre, fitness arena, personal cafeteria, lounge, and more.
100 Thieves
Matthew Hang, a former X Games gold winner, former captain of OpTic Gaming, and 2014 Esports athlete of the year, created 100 Thieves in 2017. After placing second in the NALCS during its first season in 2018, 100 Thieves released five drops for apparel manufacturers, all of which sold out in under twenty minutes.
Hang made the decision to establish an Esports teams business centred around the gaming lifestyle, merchandise, and entertainment after leaving the competitive gaming scene. On streaming sites like YouTube and Twitch, Hang established a number of incredibly well-liked gaming channels before starting this business. Due to the support of NBA team owner Dan Gilbert, of the Cleveland Cavaliers, 100 Thieves saw a growth surge in 2017. A franchise in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NALCS), one of the most prominent e-sport gaming competitions, was approved for 100 Thieves later that year in the world.
Cloud9
Following their split and eventual breakup, the former roster of Quantic Gaming established Cloud9 Gaming. Quantic Gaming’s League of Legends team was left without funding in 2013 when the company broke down due to financial difficulties. The remnants of the former Quantum Gaming team competed under the name “Team NomNom,” securing their place in the North American Offline Qualifier for the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). The team changed their name to “Cloud9,” and at the start of Season 3 they utterly destroyed the opposition, setting records for the longest winning streak in LCS history (13 games), the most wins in a single season (25 games), and dominating the NA LCS playoffs.
PUMA, Microsoft, Red Bull, Omen by HP, AT&T, BMW, HyperX, and even Twitch are just a few of Cloud9’s very well-known partners. With divisions for DOTA II, COD, Super Smash Bros., CS:GO, Vainglory, Hearthstone, and Overwatch, Cloud9 has grown to be one of the most formidable international Esports powerhouses. Last year, Cloud9 won the “Esports Organization of the Year” award at the 2018 Esports Awards. With an estimated $350 million market worth, they are now the most valuable professional esports organization in the world.
OpTic Gaming
OpTic Gaming was established in 2006 by Ryan Musselman and OpTic as a Call of Duty sniper team. However, Hector Rodriguez took over the squad from Musselman in 2007, and it debuted in the competitive arena in 2010 by taking part in CoD: MW2.
The team partnered with Esports commentator Ryan Wyatt in 2016 to publish OpTic Gaming: The Making of eSports Champions, a book that became a New York Times best seller. The book only summarised and extrapolated the accomplishments of certain players in the Call of Duty (CoD) scene and their contributions to Team OpTic’s success, as the team had won over $3 million in prize money at that point.
Having acquired a majority ownership in OpTic in 2017, Texas Rangers MLB co-owner Neil Leibman and co-investor Chris Chaney established Infinite Esports & Entertainment, a holding company that houses OpTic Gaming and the Houston Outlaws Overwatch Organization.
FlyQuest
Wesley Edens, a co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, and the New York City-based management company Fortress Investment Group formed the professional Esports team FlyQuest. After purchasing Cloud9 Challenger, a sister squad of Cloud9, the organization was established. In that year, Cloud9 Challenger changed their name to FlyQuest and qualified for the NALCS.
FlyQuest is partnered with Woman for Women International and Tea Riot in Venice Beach, and it presently has players in Fortnite, Apex Legends, LoL, and Rocket League. Even boasting well-known Korean players like Flame, Keane, and Kwon, all of whom are big tournament winners and LoL champions, they are the only NALCS team that has never spent money on import transfers.
Golden Guardians
The Golden Guardians were a part of the newly franchised LCS, which has now expanded to ten teams, along with 100 Thieves, Clutch Gaming, and OpTic Gaming. They are worth about $40 million and are owned by the NBA team Golden State Warriors.
The Guardians, who finished in 10th place and made LCS history by being the first team to come last in consecutive splits last year, experienced a dismal 2018 Summer Split (the 2017 Spring Split they finished last). Following this disappointing result, the Guardians made a number of acquisitions during the 2019 Spring Split, including Froggen from Europe, who at one point was ranked number 9 all-time on the Korean servers and is regarded as one of the best mid-laners of all time. They also acquired Hauntzer and Olleh from Team SoloMid/Team Liquid.
Dramatik Gaming
Andrew Fiori formed Esports Boston, the organization that houses Dramatik Gaming, in 2017. He is in charge of the management, hiring, and business development of the group. They are a multifaceted esports organization situated in the Greater Boston area that competes in a number of games like Overwatch, Fortnite, LoL, and CS:GO. 40 players are currently under contract with Dramatik Gaming through Esports Boston on multiple platforms. Dramatik is a company that is expanding, but as they bring on more eminent people and gain notoriety, anticipate them to expand significantly very soon.
Conclusion
There are multi-billion dollar teams that are supported by athletes, businesses, and more, which only serves to highlight the growth of e-sports and its established position as a significant player in the sports industry.
There are many other Esports teams that have joined forces and failed, but that is part of the sport’s appeal. As you can see, the majority of these franchises were simply created from scratch. Everyone wants to be a part of the multi-billion dollar industry since it is expanding.
