48 Fun Facts About Esports

The earliest known video game competition, held at Stanford in October 1972, was played on which game?

Spacewar!, the 1962 PDP-1 game, was the contest at the 'Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics' at Stanford's AI lab; Bruce Baumgart won the five-player free-for-all.

What was the grand prize at the 1972 Stanford video game tournament?

A Rolling Stone subscription, for a year; the magazine's Stewart Brand covered the event, one of the first mainstream articles on gaming culture.

Which 1980 Atari event, with over 10,000 entrants, was the first big video game competition?

The Space Invaders Championship drew more than 10,000 players to regional finals across the US; its winner, Rebecca Heineman, later co-founded the developer Interplay.

Which high-score record-keeping organization did Iowa arcade owner Walter Day found?

Twin Galaxies began as Day's Ottumwa, Iowa arcade, whose scoreboard became the official high-score registry; it supplied records to Guinness and formed the U.S. National Video Game Team in 1983.

Which 1991 game popularized head-to-head tournament play over high-score chasing?

Street Fighter II's one-on-one format made beating an opponent, not a high score, the goal; the fighting-game series Evo began in 1996 around its sequels.

What did Dennis 'Thresh' Fong win at the 1997 Quake tournament Red Annihilation?

John Carmack's Ferrari 328: the id Software co-founder put up his own car as the prize, and Fong beat Tom 'Entropy' Kimzey in the final at E3 in Atlanta.

Which former Dallas stockbroker founded the Cyberathlete Professional League in June 1997?

Angel Munoz founded the CPL in Dallas in June 1997; it ran twice-yearly hotel tournaments and spawned the Cyberathlete Amateur League, built around Counter-Strike.

Which country first licensed professional gamers, in 2000?

South Korea: the Korea e-Sports Association was formed in 2000 under the Ministry of Culture, and pro leagues were televised on channels like Ongamenet and MBCGame.

Which company backed the World Cyber Games, dubbed the 'Olympics of esports,' launched in 2000?

Samsung bankrolled the World Cyber Games from the 2000 WCG Challenge onward; the Korean-run event copied the Olympics with opening ceremonies and gold, silver and bronze medals.

Which country's LAN-party company Ligarena founded the Electronic Sports World Cup in 2003?

France: Ligarena, organiser of the LAN Arena events, launched the ESWC in 2003, holding its early finals at the Futuroscope park near Poitiers.

Twitch launched in June 2011 as a gaming spin-off of which general-interest streaming site, later shut down by its parent?

Justin.tv's parent rebranded as Twitch Interactive and shut the old site in August 2014, by which time Twitch ranked fourth for peak U.S. internet traffic.

How much did Amazon pay for Twitch in August 2014?

The all-cash deal was Amazon's third recent gaming acquisition; Google had been widely reported as the front-runner.

What is the name of the trophy awarded to League of Legends world champions?

The Summoner's Cup, first crafted by Thomas Lyte for the 2012 final, was redesigned by Tiffany & Co. in 2022; Dota 2's International trophy is the Aegis of Champions.

Which team won the League of Legends World Championship in 2013, 2015 and 2016?

T1, then named SK Telecom T1, won in 2013, 2015 and 2016 with Faker in mid lane, and the organisation added further titles in 2023 and 2024.

Where was the first League of Legends World Championship held, in June 2011?

DreamHack Summer 2011 in Jönköping, Sweden hosted the Season 1 final, where Fnatic beat Against All Authority for a share of a $100,000 prize pool.

Which Taiwanese team won the 2012 League of Legends World Championship and its $1 million first prize?

Taipei Assassins beat Korea's Azubu Frost 3–1 in Los Angeles; the $2 million pool was the largest in esports history at the time.

What is the real name of Faker, the League of Legends mid-laner?

Lee Sang-hyeok, born in Seoul in 1996, debuted for SK Telecom T1 in April 2013 with a solo kill on Ambition and became a part-owner of T1 in 2020.

Which company runs League of Legends and its World Championship?

Riot also runs the Valorant Champions Tour; Valve runs Dota 2's International, Blizzard ran the Overwatch League and Epic staged the Fortnite World Cup.

Where and when was the first Dota 2 International held?

Gamescom in Cologne, August 2011: Valve announced the $1.6 million tournament only two weeks before it began, and a Ukrainian team beat China's EHOME 3–1 for the $1 million top prize.

How was The International's record $40 million prize pool of 2021 mostly funded?

Crowdfunded via in-game Battle Passes: a quarter of Battle Pass revenue went to the pool, pushing 2021's to just over $40 million before Valve abandoned the model in 2023.

Which team won back-to-back Internationals in 2018 and 2019, the first repeat champion?

OG had to fight through the 2018 open qualifiers after last-minute roster changes, then beat PSG.LGD 3–2 in the final and Team Liquid 3–1 in 2019.

Which Ukrainian team won the very first International in 2011?

Na'Vi beat EHOME 3–1, then lost the 2012 final to China's Invictus Gaming.

The Evolution Championship Series (Evo) began in 1996 under what name?

Battle by the Bay was a 40-player Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 event at Sunnyvale Golfland in California; it was renamed Evolution in 2002.

'Evo Moment #37,' the famous full parry, was performed by Daigo Umehara against whom at Evo 2004?

Justin Wong's super was parried hit for hit by Daigo in the 3rd Strike semifinal; Daigo won that set but lost the grand final to Kenji 'KO' Obata.

Which characters were used in Evo Moment #37?

Daigo's Ken parried all 15 hits of Chun-Li's Houyoku-sen super, then finished her with a combo; the match was played at Evo 2004 at Cal Poly Pomona.

Who won the 2019 Fortnite World Cup solo final, taking home the $3 million prize?

Kyle 'Bugha' Giersdorf was a 16-year-old American; Aqua and Nyhrox split the duos prize the day before.

Where was the 2019 Fortnite World Cup held?

The tennis venue hosted the finals from July 26 to 28 after ten weeks of online qualifiers.

Which rapper joined Ninja on a March 2018 Fortnite stream that broke Twitch's record for peak viewers?

Drake was joined by Travis Scott and JuJu Smith-Schuster too; Ninja, born Tyler Blevins, had started out in competitive Halo 3.

How much did each of the 12 founding Overwatch League teams pay in franchise fees for the 2018 season?

Expansion teams paid $35–60 million a year later; by 2023 sponsors had fled and Blizzard folded the city-based league into the Overwatch Champions Series.

What made the Overwatch League's structure unusual for esports?

Permanent city-based franchises, like U.S. pro sports: the model ran from 2018 to 2023 with teams such as San Francisco Shock and London Spitfire before the league was dissolved.

Which Ukrainian Counter-Strike star was ranked the world's No. 1 player by HLTV in 2018, 2021 and 2022?

s1mple, real name Oleksandr Kostyliev, won his first Major and its MVP award with his long-time Ukrainian club at PGL Major Stockholm 2021.

In which country is the Counter-Strike powerhouse Astralis based?

Denmark: Astralis was founded in Copenhagen in 2016 by the former Team SoloMid players, and the Astralis Group later absorbed the League of Legends team Origen under one brand.

Ninjas in Pyjamas, best known for Counter-Strike, is based in which country?

Sweden: Ninjas in Pyjamas was founded there in 2000 and re-formed in 2005; its 2012 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive lineup set a record 87–0 map win streak on LAN.

Team Liquid started in 2000 as a fan site for which game before signing its first pros for its sequel?

StarCraft: Liquid began as a Brood War clan and community site run by Dutch player Victor 'Nazgul' Goossens, and signed its first professional players for StarCraft II in 2010.

FaZe Clan was founded in 2010 as a YouTube 'trickshotting' clan for which game?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: the FaZe Sniping channel began in May 2010 posting trickshot montages from that game, years before FaZe fielded pro teams.

At which 2023 event did esports appear as a full medal sport for the first time at the Asian Games?

Hangzhou 2023: seven titles including League of Legends and Street Fighter V awarded medals; esports had been a demonstration event at Jakarta 2018, and the SEA Games gave medals from 2019.

Which city hosted the IOC's first Olympic Esports Week in June 2023?

Singapore hosted the inaugural Olympic Esports Week at the Suntec Centre in June 2023, with finals in titles such as Gran Turismo 7, Just Dance and Tic Tac Bow.

Which organization won the inaugural Esports World Cup Club Championship in Riyadh?

Team Falcons, the Saudi organisation, topped the cross-game club standings at the 2024 event, which had a total prize pool of more than $60 million.

Which classic game did the Esports World Cup add to its 2025 line-up?

Chess: the 2025 edition added a chess tournament with Magnus Carlsen as global ambassador, as the Riyadh festival's total prize pool grew past $70 million.

Which country's broad anti-gambling laws long prevented prize pools for pro gaming tournaments?

Japan: its laws against gambling and excessive prizes long capped tournament winnings at about ¥100,000, a big reason esports took off in Korea and China first despite Japan's arcade heritage.

Which 1990 event toured the U.S. and held its finals at Universal Studios Hollywood?

The Nintendo World Championships toured 29 US cities in 1990 before finals at Universal Studios Hollywood; its surviving competition cartridges have sold for tens of thousands of dollars.

Which US TV show, running 133 episodes from 1982 to 1984, had contestants battle for arcade high scores?

Starcade aired on TBS from 1982 to 1984, pitting contestants against arcade cabinets for high scores; the BBC's First Class later featured similar competitive video game segments.

Which 1988 game did Wired later credit as 'the first online sports game'?

Netrek, a 16-player Star Trek-themed team game, was the first Internet game to use metaservers to find open servers and to keep persistent user records.

Which band played at the 2014 League of Legends World Championship in Seoul before 40,000 fans?

Imagine Dragons played 'Warriors', the song they wrote for the tournament, at the Seoul World Cup Stadium final, where Samsung White beat Star Horn Royal Club 3–1.

Danny 'Shiphtur' Le, in 2013 the first pro gamer granted a US P-1A athlete visa, comes from which country?

Canada's Le got a visa category reserved for 'Internationally Recognized Athletes', a milestone in esports being treated as a real sport.

Which US university created the first officially recognised varsity esports programme, in 2014?

Robert Morris University led the way; by 2019 around 125 US colleges had programmes, most of them in the National Association of Collegiate Esports.

Which spelling of competitive video gaming did the Associated Press Stylebook adopt in 2017?

esports (one word), lowercase with no hyphen, the form the AP Stylebook adopted in 2017; the following year Ninja became the first pro gamer on the cover of ESPN The Magazine.

Which multi-sport competition first included esports as an official medal event, in 2007?

The Asian Indoor Games in Macau in 2007 awarded medals in FIFA 07, NBA Live 07 and Need for Speed; the Commonwealth Games ran a pilot esports championship in 2022.