Esports has been growing for years and is becoming more and more professional. But not all titles have the same chance to succeed. Shooters like Fortnite are struggling, while MOBAs are getting bigger and bigger. What makes League of Legends and Dota such popular Esports games? And which one has the edge?

League of Legends and Dota 2 continue to set new records in Esports. While LoL continues to grow in viewership, Valve continues to pay out higher prize money than ever before each year at The International. All thanks to us fans!

There are also more and more tournaments and advertising deals taking place. Sales are growing, and so is the player base. But the approaches of the various Esport titles are sometimes extremely different from one another, and that doesn’t mean the gameplay.

League of Legends: Big events, lower prize money, many players

League of Legends is incredibly popular and attracts massive crowds. During Worlds 2020, more than 1 billion hours were watched live! The first LEC weekend in January brought 231,000 people in front of their screens – a new record for the European league.

LoL tournaments are, above all, bloody huge events and feature stage shows that can almost hold a candle to the Super Bowl. Even Corona couldn’t stop Riot from putting on an entertaining show via livestreams. So it’s no wonder that Riot’s World Championship keeps winning the award for best Esports event at the Game Awards.

League of Legends has not only a lot of fans, but also a lot of professional players (more than 7,000). There are many chances to compete in different leagues and make it to the World Championship. With well-known teams like Rogue, G2 Esports and Schalke 04, the mainstream audience is the main target.

But for that, LoL has less prize money than direct competitor Dota 2. Last year, there was only $2.5 million, but that can be made up for by deals with big sponsors. Still, Riot could make a bit more grow over…

Dota 2: The International, high prize money, fewer players

Dota 2 has a reputation for being less accessible, but more rewarding than LoL. This is also evident in Valve’s approach to esports. The International takes place every year, for which players have recently had to qualify in regional leagues and majors.

The event is also quite nice, but compared to LoL, it looks more like a huge Lan party. This attracts far fewer spectators, also because LoL is simply played more. It’s a shame, there’s still more to be done!

Dota 2 has about half as many professional players as League of Legends. Nevertheless, there are cool teams like Alliance, OG or Team Liquid, and they also have the chance to win a lot more cash. That’s because every year, the prize money gets more staggering than the year before. In 2019, it was almost $35 million, partly funded by the community. This year, it’s going to be even more.

In 2020, however, The International was cancelled and will be repeated this year. Still, money isn’t everything and Valve needs to prove that they can make Dota 2 interesting to a wider audience.

Shooter: CS:GO and Fortnite compared

As far as shooters go, CS:GO is by far the biggest title. With more than 13,000 professional players, the game is more popular than LoL and Dota 2 combined. But in terms of audience size and prize money, it can’t hold a candle to either. So when Fortnite hit the market in 2017, it looked like there might be some real competition. But the esports scene is simply completely broken.

Fortnite’s tournament system is simply zero organic and was more of an end in itself from the beginning to make the game more popular. There is no classic league system like in LoL, which is why any moron can qualify for the World Cup. This is how extremely young and inexperienced players get to the top without having a plan or being part of an organization.

Fornite continues to be popular with viewers, but the prize money is getting smaller with each passing year. Many players believe that they will no longer be able to make a living from esports if they stick with Fortnite. There is also a lack of income from sponsorship deals, which is totally normal for other games. Eventually, the esports scene in Fortnite will die out and make way for other titles like PUBG and Overwatch.

Conclusion: League of Legends dominates the scene

Overall, League of Legends is clearly the top dog among e-sports titles. Riot Games doesn’t pay out as much as Valve, but it’s about much more than just the money. At LoL, fans get awesome events and for professional players, it’s worth it to play LoL instead of another game. Everything looks absolutely professional and well thought out, which means that Riot is always one step ahead of the competition.

Overwatch

Overwatch is a computer game by Blizzard Entertainment (Diablo 3, World of Warcraft) and a first-person shooter with individual fantasy elements. The game was released in May 2016.

In Overwatch, the player must choose between 21 unique characters, which can be freely selected in a loosely held classification system (offensive and defensive class, support unit and tanks).

A character’s three to four different abilities can be controlled and activated through the mouse and keyboard. The game modes already vary from scoring points to cargo hauling. Team play is required in both modes, as each character takes on a specific role in the battlefield (e.g. heal teammates, provide backup, or secure defensive lines).

The name Overwatch derives itself from a fictional elite military unit that came together when robots tried to subjugate humanity in a near future. Individual characters are associated with this unit in the game, while others oppose it. It is not yet known whether the storyline will continue in multiplayer.

Brawl

Brawl is a game mode in which time-limited rule variations of the well-known modes are drawn. Sometimes completely new game modes are used in Brawls.

Rule variations include, for example, the restriction to certain heroes or classes, changes to the cool-down times or certain cards. New game modes that have been playable so far include a soccer game and a PvE mode.

Usually, Brawls are restarted as Brawl of the Week every Tuesday at 22:00 UTC and are then playable for a week. On certain occasions, such as – Season al events, Brawls may also be playable for a longer or shorter period of time.

The game mode is comparable to the card chaos from Hearthstone and was activated for the first time in the beta phase on March 22, 2016 through a patch.

Actions

• Arcade: More health, shorter skill and ultimate cooldowns, and faster resurrection after death.
• Girl Power: Female heroes only.
• Head’s Up!: McCree, Genji, Hanzo, and Widowmaker. Only head hits count.
• High Noon: High Noon on Route 66, only head hits with McCree count.
• Highly Offensive: Only offensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Junkenstein’s Revenge: Soldier, Hanzo, Ana, Mc Cree only (1 each). The first co-op PVE mode in Overwatch. Part of the – Season al event Halloween Horror.
• Justice rains from Above: Only Mercy and Pharah playable.
• Moba Watch: Only unique heroes per team. No hero switching allowed.
• Mystery Heroes: Upon death, you will be resurrected as a randomly selected Hero.
• Overly Defensive: Only defensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Show Your Support: Support Heroes only. The limit is two of the same Hero per team.
• Super Shimada Bros: Welcome to Hanamura. Only Hanzo and Genji are playable. Shorter skill cooldowns, longer ultimate cooldowns.
• Tanks A Lot: Tank heroes only. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Only McCree, Reaper and Roadhog playable.
• We’re all Soldiers now: Only Soldier: 76 playable on control cards.
• Lucioball: Lucio only: Soccer mode, 3 vs 3.
• Yeti Hunt: Five meis against a yeti that has the characteristics of Winston.

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