E-sports are trending, especially in the Corona year of 2021. We look at the 10 biggest teams in the Western world when it comes to presence on social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Teams dominate, known from CS:GO, League of Legends or Call of Duty. And you can see: It’s not always just about sporting success.

How was the list created? We go by the data from InvenGlobal. The “biggest” teams by social media are the sum of a team’s followers on the Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch platforms.

It is noticeable that Twitch does not play a major role for any team: The live streaming platform is more for individual streamers, not for organizations where multiple players share a channel.

Moreover, only “Western” teams are represented on the list. One team from Ukraine is there, otherwise only teams from Europe and North America. This is certainly due to the fact that the big Asian e-sports teams like T1 or Gen G. use other social media platforms.

Number 10: OpTic Gaming – experts in Call of Duty

The US team was founded in 2006 and is best known for its success in Call of Duty. The creator behind the team is Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez, who led the team’s fortunes from 2007. In 2016, a book was published, “OpTic Gaming: The Making of eSports Champion,” which made it to the bestseller lists.

The organization has had a wild history, being sold and rebranded several times, but Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez is now back at the helm.

Their star players are currently Abner “Scump” Seth (25) and Piper “FormaL” Matthew (26) – 2 US-Americans who are successful influencers on Twitch and are considered to be real experts.

At a Call of Duty event, Scump once had fun chasing down and shooting Twitch streamer TimTheTatman until he was completely at the end of his tether.

The team’s legend is Matt “NaDeSHoT” Haag (28), who now runs his own e-sports team, the 100 Thieves, and in this role tries desperately to teach his young players what H3CZ once taught him: Don’t fill up the gaming house with fast food!

OpTic Gaming works primarily through YouTube, where they have 1.3 million followers.

The number 9: Ninjas in pajamas – Traditional Sweden

The team with the unusual name comes from Sweden and is represented in many major e-sports titles, they are especially known for CS:GO. The team has been around since 2000, and the ninjas in pajamas were able to make a name for themselves early on when they won their first tournaments. Then in 2012, the team repositioned itself.

Today, the team is present in many “e-sports” games, providing teams in CS:GO, DOTA 2, FIFA or a group of players in Rainbow Six Siege made up exclusively of Brazilians.

The “Ninjas in Pyjamas” are mainly present on Facebook. There they have 1.5 million subscribers and share clips from their adventures in games like CS:GO.

On Twitter, they modestly say about themselves: “From local heroes to global athletes. Legendary in name, legendary in game. 37x champions across multiple esports titles”.

Number 8: Cloud 9 – Diversity as a core value

The e-sports organization Cloud 9 is still relatively young compared to the ninjas in pajamas. Cloud 9 was founded in 2013 and made a name for itself in League of Legends right from the start.

In 2021, they want to do it right in LoL and have spent a lot of money to sign the European star player Perkz. They reportedly had to put down a $5 million transfer fee to pry him away from G2. Perkz, along with the botlane of talented players Sven and Vulcan, is now expected to drive Cloud 9 to the top of the league. The dream duo has already made a splash in 2020, but Cloud 9 inexplicably totally folded after a top start in LoL. Perkz is probably supposed to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

For years, LoL player “Sneaky” was Cloud 9’s poster boy, who has since joined the team as a consultant. Sneaky slipped into a cross-dressing cosplay every now and then and shaped the image of a modern, somewhat different organization over the years.

Because you probably won’t find that many LoL pros who cut such a good figure as a pizza delivery girl as the former bot laner from Cloud 9.

Cloud 9 has emphasized diversity throughout the franchise’s history. In 2020, for example, they put together a Valorant stream that consisted entirely of women.

The e-sports organization is most successful on Twitter and Instagram, communicating with fans through these typical “picture” platforms.

On page 2, we continue with the next top teams.