Online Gaming Tournaments with Cash Prizes

The world of online gaming has gained vast popularity over the years. It’s not just about entertainment but also about competitiveness and winning the prize. Nowadays, gamers from all over the world compete in the most popular games hosted by various tournament events. The prize is the ultimate fame and glory and, of course, the prize money, which can reach substantial sums.

That said, Esports became a whole new category where players can compete in various PC, console and iGames categories. The prize pool depends on the popularity of the game, the number of players attending and the online tournaments themselves. With that in mind, here are a few online gaming tournaments with cash prizes.

RTS online gaming tournaments

RTS (Real-Time Strategy) games have always been very popular among gamers, especially among PC users. The most notable games that earned their own tournament competitions are StarCraft, StarCraft II and Warcraft III. Although players from around the world compete in these tournaments, gamers from South Korea are the most common attendees.

That said, two major gaming channels Ongamenet and MBCGame in South Korea have their “Starleague” tournament events for StarCraft games. Other notable online tournaments include World Cyber Games (WCG) and Global StarCraft II League (GSL) hosted by BlizzCon. Over $4,000,000 in prize money has been awarded to players over the years.

Fighting games

Smacking each other for fun in fighting games has reached a global scale. Fighting games were among the first to have an international tournament with prize money. This originated during the Evolution Championship Series back in 1999. The most notable games include Tekken series, Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros, Mortal Kombat, Capcom vs. Marvel and others. The prize pool varies from $10,000 to $15,000 alongside bonuses that can reach over $50,000.

FPS games

First-person shooter games are arguably the most popular forms of online games. As such, these games also host the most popular online tournaments in the world. Among the first-ever tournaments was QuakeCon back in 1997. Here, the winner took home a Ferrari 328 GTS provided as a prize by the co-creator of the Quake game.

Since then, numerous FPS games have been created and they all have their versions of international online tournaments. For example, the Counter-Strike series became one of the most popular FPS games even today. Interestingly enough, it originated as a Half-Life mod back in 2000. The most notable tournaments include WCG, CEVO, ESEA League, Electronic Sports League and many more. Moreover, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive prize pool for the BLAST Premier League has been announced and it’s $1.5 million.

iGaming online tournaments

For those who prefer not to play console or PC games but still prefer a bit of competition, there’s always the traditional iGaming online tournaments they can enjoy. Traditional gambling games, such as poker, blackjack and slots, still have their value and place among the online gamers.

These games may not be as competitive as other games in the Esports category. But they still require a good strategy if you want to win the tournament. That said, if you want to compete in a slot tournament, it’s advised that you learn more about how slot tournaments work. The prize pool varies on the number of people participating and their entry fees, as well as bonuses from tournament hosts and sponsors.

MOBA online tournaments

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games are becoming more and more popular among gamers. Games, such as Dota 2, League of Legends (LoL), Smite and others gather players from all over the globe to compete in the largest online gaming tournaments in the world. Dota 2 alone has awarded over $100 million in prize money to players as of July 2017.

Furthermore, the LoL Season 3 Championships in 2013 featured a $2 million prize pool of which $1 million went to the first-place team. As for the Smite game, the Smite World Championship Series (SWC) in 2015 featured a prize pool of over $2 million gathered by the community through purchases of electronic cosmetics and special edition items. MOBA games continue to rise in popularity and they may even dethrone FPS games in terms of online gaming tournament popularity.

Battle Royale gaming tournaments

The most popular Battle Royale game Fortnite started out as a co-op sandbox game before it became what it is today. This game quickly organized its very own Fortnite World Cup tournament due to its popularity among gamers.

The winner of the first Fortnite World Cup in 2019 held in New York was a 16-yo American who took home no less than an astounding $3,000,000 in prize money. The game creators and tournament host, Epic Games, had a $30 million prize pool for the event. Players would compete in various events and challenges for the chance to win various cash prizes.

Aside from Fortnite, PUBG (Player Unknown’s BattleGround) is also among the most popular Battle Royale games. The most notable tournaments for PUBG were the Gamers Outreach Foundation charity tournament where players managed to raise over $120,000 that was matched by game creators with additional $100,000 and the ESL International Tournament with a prize pool of $350,000.

The world of gaming tournaments is rapidly becoming very famous not just for the experience offered but also for the cash prizes players are able to win. If you ever heard parents claiming that no one will make a living playing games, it seems that they’ve been proven wrong.