Conquering virtual arenas: European Esports Companies 2023

British Esports, the UK’s national esports body, has revealed the Great Britain Team representatives for the 3rd European Games Championships and inaugural European Games Esports Championships, which took place on June 30th to July 2nd, 2023 in Katowice, Poland.

Following the enormous success of the pilot Commonwealth Esports Championships in August 2022, the Global Esports Federation (GEF) has developed an esports pilot for the upcoming European Games Championships in collaboration with the European Olympic Committee (EOC).

The inaugural event featured European esports talent playing in Open and Women’s divisions for eFootball PES and Rocket League.

Here are the European Esports players who conquered the virtual arena:

G2 Esports

The team is fresh off a huge Counter-Strike victory over ENCE at IEM Cologne 2023, in which they won $400,000 in prize money. In 2023, G2 won nine major gaming events, including IEM Katowice gold, the LEC Winter and Summer Splits, and the Six Invitational.

All of this has happened since G2 Esports’ new three-person leadership was unveiled in January. Following the chaotic departure of Carlos ‘ocelote’ Rodrguez, CEO Alban Dechelotte, chief operating officer Sabrina Ratih, and chief financial officer Philippe Adam had enormous shoes to fill, but things appear to be going well so far, despite the fact that the company lost one of the most charismatic figureheads in esports.

Chiliz

With an estimated value of US$13 billion, games such as League of Legends, Fortnite, and Overwatch not only offer more prize money than most traditional sports, but also attract a larger audience.

ChiliZ is an esports crowd engagement tool that aims to provide the audience a real-time and significant influence on tournament play. Teams can crowdsource crucial management decisions using the chiliZ platform.

Fans buy chiliZ, which serve as voting tokens. When a team goes to the crowd for aid making a choice, fans use this chiliZ token to vote. These votes provide an accurate indication of audience opinion because data recording on the blockchain is public and protected against hacking.

Fnatic

Fnatic is a professional esports organisation based in the United Kingdom. The organisation, which was created on July 23, 2004, has been a stalwart in the Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Source, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scenes, predominantly showcasing Swedish lineups. They were notable for being the first organisation to win three Majors, having won DreamHack Winter 2013, ESL One: Katowice 2015, and ESL One: Cologne 2015.

Rivalry

Rivalry is a gaming betting platform designed by players for gamers. 

Rivalry Esports is a familiar name for Rivalry Limited’s publicly traded betting business. The firm is a major esports betting site with a strong presence in global gaming markets.

The company has an Isle of Man licence and is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). As of 2021, the company is led by CEO Steven Salz, who is also a Rivalry co-founder. Rivalry has been swiftly growing into various sectors of the online gambling experience since 2021, with sports and casinos being two of its key verticals

ESL

The ESL Gaming (previously known as Electronic Sports League) is a German esports organiser and production firm that organises and produces video game events across the world. In 2015, ESL was the world’s largest esports corporation and the oldest still in operation. ESL is headquartered in Cologne, Germany, and has eleven offices and various international TV studios throughout the world. ESL is the most popular esports company on Twitch.

ESL and the esports platform FACEIT were acquired by Savvy Games Group (SGG), a holding company backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, in 2022. The two companies combined as part of the transaction to establish the ESL FACEIT Group.

Cloud9 (C9)

Cloud 9 was founded in 2013 by Jack Etienne, who was still a teenager at the time. As an ardent gamer, he began selling computer gear and software via his website, which quickly grew to become one of the major eSports platforms.

He started Cloud 9, an organisation aimed at assisting professional teams as well as recreational gamers by providing coaching and training programs, as well as other services such as trip accommodations and equipment rentals.

Cloud 9 is now one of the most well-known names in eSports, with over 20 million followers across social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, not to mention their website.

Activision Blizzard (ATVI)

Activision Blizzard is the world’s largest video game publisher, and also owns numerous significant esports teams, including Team Liquid and Cloud9. In 2015, the firm joined the esports market by acquiring Major League Gaming (MLG). 

MLG had been hosting events for nearly a decade at the time, although it was still regarded as a newcomer in comparison to competitors such as ESL or MLG Pro. MLG was subsequently renamed Activision Blizzard Media Networks (ABMN), and it operates under its umbrella. 

ATVI’s esports initiatives, including the Overwatch League and the Call of Duty World League (CWL), are currently overseen by ABMN.e.

Twitch

Twitch was launched in 2011 as a video game live streaming network. Amazon paid $970 million bought the company in 2014, and it now employs over 1,000 people. 

Twitch had over 2 million active streamers streaming over 15 billion minutes of content in 2017. Twitch is highly praised by BetUs users for its ease of use.

Riot Games

Riot Games is a game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 2006 by passionate gamers who believe that a great game is defined by the player experience. Riot’s League of Legends was widely praised upon its release. 

Over 100 million people play the game on a monthly basis, making it the most well-known PC game in the world. Players are the backbone of our community, and it is for them that League of Legends gameplay expands and improves.

Valve Corporation

This is a video game publishing, development, and distribution company. The company’s best-selling game series include Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Team Fortress. Valve also develops video games (such as Source Filmmaker) and hardware devices (such as Steam Machines).

Valve is most known for creating Half-Life 2 (2004), a science fiction first-person shooter featuring an award-winning plot and gameplay. Half-Life received nearly 50 Game of the Year awards from prominent gaming publications between 1998 and 2004.