The International's crowdfunded prize pool grew from $1.6 million in 2011 to over $40 million by 2021 — then Valve changed the model, and the pools fell back to earth.
Esports teams make money from five main streams — sponsorship deals, league revenue share, prize winnings, merchandise and ticketing, and content — and sponsorship is the…
T1's five-game win over Bilibili Gaming at the 2024 world final in London gave Faker a record fifth title and drew the largest audience in the game's history outside China.
HLTV's Rating and VLR.gg's Rating turn thousands of individual duels into a single number, and neither one works the way most fans assume.
A review of Marvel Rivals' first competitive year: a massive launch, a publisher learning competitive operations in public, and a scene still deciding what it wants to be.
A review of the biggest mobile competitive scenes in 2026: Mobile Legends, PUBG Mobile, Free Fire, and Honor of Kings run audiences Western PC titles can't match.
No more one-loss-and-you're-out heartbreak in the group stage. Here's how the Swiss format actually decides who survives, round by round.
Three wins advance, three losses go home, and a strength-of-schedule number picks your next opponent. A primer on the format that now runs esports' biggest qualifying stages.
Esports teams make money from five main streams — sponsorship deals, league revenue share, prize winnings, merchandise and ticketing, and content — and sponsorship is the…
Reaction time is only part of the story — burnout, economics, and the treadmill of annual rebuilds shorten careers that could theoretically last.
Worlds, Champions, Majors and mega-invitationals end seasons four different ways — the best finales share four design traits, and money is only one of them.
T1's five-game win over Bilibili Gaming at the 2024 world final in London gave Faker a record fifth title and drew the largest audience in the game's history outside China.
Logos, colors, and lore: how organizations manufacture loyalty in an industry where players change jerseys constantly.
Open qualifiers, closed qualifiers and regional finals are the ladder between a team's home region and the world stage — every major title runs a different version, and the details decide who gets a chance.
Valve replaced invitation politics with a published formula and a staged bracket - here is what the standings count, how they convert into Major seats, and what the regional slot table really tells you.
The International's crowdfunded prize pool grew from $1.6 million in 2011 to over $40 million by 2021 — then Valve changed the model, and the pools fell back to earth.
Esports teams make money from five main streams — sponsorship deals, league revenue share, prize winnings, merchandise and ticketing, and content — and sponsorship is the…
T1's five-game win over Bilibili Gaming at the 2024 world final in London gave Faker a record fifth title and drew the largest audience in the game's history outside China.
Three wins advance, three losses go home, and a strength-of-schedule number picks your next opponent. A primer on the format that now runs esports' biggest qualifying stages.