2017 has been an exciting year for esports, as the field continues to grow and grow each year, producing some surprises and promising results for the future. Esports is arguably the biggest its ever been, and this has been good news both for the viewers at home who like to watch competitive gaming as well as those who want to compete, and so here we're going to take a look back at what made 2017 so great.
League of Legends is one of the biggest esports out there, and this year we found out that the North American Championship Series would be franchising. As the year went on we gradually found out what investors would be coming into the league, including NBA teams and esports organisation like OpTic Gaming, and while this meant we had to say goodbye to teams like Immortals, it also means that we can expect a totally new league in 2018, so there's plenty to be excited about moving forward.
We also got a bit of a surprise at the Worlds this year when Samsung Galaxy took home the trophy in front of a packed Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, China. A lot of people may have expected powerhouse SK Telecom T1 to lift the trophy, but Samsung Galaxy impressed throughout, defeating teams like Longzhu Gaming and Team WE to face their Korean rivals in the final. Although EU and NA disappointed again, it was a great moment for SSG, and with the stadium fully committed to hosting the finals, it showed just how popular esports has become.
Fellow MOBA Dota 2 also had a standout year, epitomised by The International, which once against broke records with its prize pool. At over $24 million USD, raised in part through sales of the Battle Pass in-game, this marked a 16% increase on last year and was even bigger that traditional sports tournaments like The Masters. Team Liquid's victory was just the icing on the cake for a great year for Dota 2 all round, and no doubt it'll be a good year next year too.
In CS:GO, there was one name that stood out among the rest, and that was SK Gaming. The Brazilian team dominated throughout the year consistently, winning trophy after trophy with the help of star players like FalleN and coldzera, whether that be the ESL Pro League Season 6 finals or IEM Sydney. Sure, other teams like Astralis and FaZe have stood out as well, but none have quite hit the heights SK have, who will no doubt be going into 2018 with a lot of confidence.
Another shooter that has caught the headlines this year is Call of Duty, which went back to its roots for WWII this year. Of course, this also had implications for esports, as the last three years have seen jetpacking take precedence, but now this is a totally different ball game, so much so that a new contender has emerged early on: Team Kaliber. This side knocked out the likes of Splyce and OpTic Gaming to claim victory at CWL Dallas, and with many more tournaments ahead, who knows what'll happen next year.
Blizzard's Overwatch also garnered some traction this year too. After having a bunch of separate competitions like Contenders and Apex, we found out this year that Blizzard were launching a unified Overwatch League, and as the months rolled on we got a sense of the huge scale of the operation. Big investors were coming in, both inside and outside of esports, and the pre-season this month gave us a little taste of the action that'll hit Blizzard Arena Los Angeles in January. It's potentially the most exciting esport event of 2018, and will no doubt determine how far the game can go as an esport.
We can't neglect the fighting game community here though, as they've also been treated to an excellent year, with Tekken 7 and Injustice 2 being just two of the great games released for this audience. What's more is that Street Fighter V has grown even bigger as well, so much so that young and exciting talent like Punk and MenaRD have emerged, the latter even taking home the Capcom Cup trophy and the largest prize in fighting game tournament history.
Props should also be given to Nintendo for making their own moves in esports. They haven't always been the most active when it comes to promoting competition in their games, but we got a few tournaments this year that tested the waters, such as those for Splatoon 2 and Arms. Both of these games went down pretty well, so we just hope we'll see more of them next year, and maybe some more Nintendo games getting competitive love too.
Last but not least there have been a number of other games that have emerged but have only dipped their toes into esports. Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, for example, proved that there was an appetitite for Battle Royale matches in the esports space, while Quake Champions was a blast from the past, despite only being out in Early Access. With extended commitment and more tournaments we can expect even more from these titles next year.
2018 is shaping up very nicely, as you can tell, with plenty of tournaments like the Overwatch League to get excited about, but there's also a lot of unknowns. Loads of competitions have yet to be announced, for example, but we have full faith that whether you're a MOBA or a shooter fan, there'll be something entertaining coming up.