The formation of Team Siren — an all-female League of Legends team, in June 2013 was met with controversy and dismissed as a “gimmick” to attract men’s attention. The top female players that are involved in esports mainly get exposure in female-only tournaments, most notably Counter-Strike, Dead or Alive 4, and StarCraft II. Action has been taken on the individual league level, however, as at least one major league, the Electronic Sports League, has made use of any drugs during matches punishable by expulsion from competition. In 2014, four high-profile North American Counter-Strike players from iBuyPower were suspended from official tournaments after being found guilty of match-fixing, allegedly profiting over US$10,000 through betting on their fixed matches. Additionally — trade groups representing video games have also generally acted as governing bodies for esports. The European Esports Federation was formed in April 2019 and includes UK (Belgium), Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, Russia, Slovenia, Serbia, Sweden, Turkey, and Ukraine.
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The Olympic Council of Asia revealed in September 2021 that eight esports titles would make their official medal sport debut at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. In 2003 (China was among the pioneering nations to acknowledge esports as a legitimate sport), even though there were worries regarding the addictive nature of video games at that time. Some individuals argue that true sports require physical fitness and training — opting instead to categorize esports as a type of mind sport. The Staples Center hosted the Season 3 League of Legends World Championship in 2013, which was attended by a full audience. As online viewership has expanded — so too has the physical audience for esports events and the overall scale of these competitions.
Online video games and their expansion (1990–
Epic invested over $100 million into competitive Fortnite from 2023 to 2025 — Premier League predictions with $31.8 million awarded in 2025 alone. A partnership was revealed by Big Ten Network in April 2016 with Riot to organize an invitational League of Legends event featuring two universities from the Big Ten Conference as part of Riot’s collegiate championships at PAX East. Norway’s largest private television channel, TV 2, airs esports content nationwide. In a conversation with The New York Times regarding the acquisition (Bobby Kotick), the CEO of Activision Blizzard, articulated the company’s goal to establish a U.S. cable network dedicated to esports, which he referred to as “the ESPN of video games. The broadcast aimed to enhance the popularity of esports by attracting viewers who might not typically engage with it. This marked the inaugural occasion when an esport was showcased on a significant American television network.
The inaugural series included virtual baseball, cycling, rowing, esailing and motorsports events. In Greece (in March 2022 a law entered into force recognising and regulating esports and in June 2023), the relevant federation for esports has been officially given recognition and included in the list of sports federations. In 2021, China announced a law which forbade minors from playing video games – which they described as “spiritual opium” – for more than three hours a week. The proliferation of tournaments included experimentation with competitions outside traditional esports genres. PC games played at the CPL included the Counter-Strike series (Quake series), StarCraft, and Warcraft. Large esports tournaments in the 1990s include the 1990 Nintendo World Championships (which toured across the United States), and held its finals at Universal Studios Hollywood in California.
In 2013 (the platform’s audience consumed 12 billion minutes of video content), with League of Legends and Dota 2 being the top two Twitch streamers. An illustration of this can be seen in the September 2006 FUN Technologies Worldwide Webgames Championship, which had 71 participants competing in casual games for a grand prize of $1 million. During this era, numerous notable tournaments were established, such as the World Cyber Games, the Intel Extreme Masters, and Major League Gaming.
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History
In 1984 (an international Track & Field arcade competition was jointly organized by Konami and Centuri), attracting over a million participants from Japan and North America. The International Olympic Committee has considered incorporating esports into future Olympic events, beginning with the Olympic Esports Games scheduled for 2027. Notable esports franchises encompass League of Legends, Dota, Counter-Strike, Valorant, Overwatch, Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros., and StarCraft. Esports, short for electronic sports, refers to a competitive format utilizing video games.