Esports is growing fast and steady over the past few years. Esports events have grown large in both number and scale. Many tournaments have offered hundreds of thousand dollar or even millions. With that, the earnings of many organizations skyrocketed.
2019 is a competitive year with the introduction of the $30 million Fornite Wolrd Cup 2019. After the event, many Esports players became overnight millionaires. With that much money, how have things changed for the earning standings? Let’s take a look at the top 5 organization.
#5 Newbee – $13,255,153.74 – 164 tournaments
The Chinese organization has been impressive when making it to the top 5 Esports earners in the world. The Chinese giant concentrates the most on Dota 2 rosters. They currently have 5 Dota 2 rosters: Newbee, Newbee young, Mr Game Boy, Newbee.M, and Newbee Boss. Newbee was once among the most established names in the Chinese Dota 2 scene.
The organization fielded the TI winner roster in 2014 where they won the $10,923,977 event with a convincing 3-1 victory over Vici Gaming. The organization made $5,025,029 out of the tournament, becoming the most successful earner in 2014. Vici Gaming finished second with more than $2 million.
In The International 2017, Newbee once again made it to the grand final against Team Liquid. This time, they fielded a completely different roster which eventually fell to Team Liquid 0-3. However, the $24,687,919 tournament rewarded the grand finalist well, giving out $3,950,067 to the runner-up.
The steep downfall
Early 2018 saw a significant drop in Newbee’s performance. From the Ti 2017 finalist to a completely irrelevant team, Newbee made concussive losses against other Chinese teams to miss out most important events.
Since the downfall of the Newbee’s main roster, the organization turned to other upcoming names as a solution yet unsuccessful. Most recently, Newbee agreed to sign the ex-Forward Gaming as their own new roster. The deal is only effective in The International 2019. The clauses of the contract remain unclear.
Newbee also invested in Fornite, Hearthstone, and Starcraft 2. Each game yielded around $100,000, contributing no much to their total earnings.
#4 Fnatic – $13,468,880.33 – 839 Tournaments
Fnatic is a professional gaming organization with registered offices in England, Australia, and the Netherlands. The organization field many rosters over multiple games. Fnatic is among one of the longest standing Esports organizations in the world.
Fnatic is most famous for their legendary Counter-Strike rosters, both in CS 1.6 and CS:GO. Their League of Legend roster also made headlines with the runner-up title following the loss against Invictus Gaming in the 2018 World Championship. Fnatic Dota 2 has also contributed millions of dollar for the organization.
Fnatic CS:GO was among the top earners in the world. Their most successful year was 2018 with $1,366,250.00 From 30 Tournaments. This came mostly from their victory in World Electronic Sports Games 2017 with $800,00.
The earlier years from 2015 to 2017 were consistent for the CS:GO rosters with multiple victories. They amounted up to around $2 million. However, 2019 has been a rough year for the Sweden CS:GO roster. They failed to qualify for the Berlin Major 2019.
Mushi powered roster
Dota 2 Fnatic is a completely different story. The roster fields a lineup in the SEA region. Fnatic Dota 2 is unimpressive with not many achievements earlier. However, with the 4th finish in The International 2016, the SEA Fnatic Dota 2 squad contributed $1,453,932 to the total earnings of Fnatic.
Fnatic Dota 2 would later go through multiple roster changes. However, they still retained the top position in the SEA region and managed to get a decent finish in many tournaments. 2018 was decent for the Fnatic Dota 2 with $524,661 From 11 Tournaments. Fnatic has made it to The International 2019, the $31+ million tournament. Let’s see how much will they earn this time.
The earnings from other divisions are unimpressive with the only honorable mentions are Heroes of the Storm with $931,148 and Counter-Strike 1.6 with $902,891.
#3 OG – $17,788,774.05 – 61 Tournaments
OG is yet another surprising story. The organization only fields 2 squads in Dota 2 and Super Smash Bros. OG is most famous for their unimaginable underdog run at The International 2018. This very event has contributed the most to the earning of OG, securing the #3 spot in earning. The International 2018 was one of the most exciting series ever in the history of Dota 2. Against all the odds, OG turned the table and won PSG.LGD 3-2 after a nail-biting best of five series. The event yielded $11,234,158 for the organization, claiming the #1 earner spot in 2018 for OG.
Moreover, OG has been impressive with their victories earlier, earning $6.1 million throughout the period of 2015 to 2017. OG’s Super Smash Bros is unimpressive with $5,103 in earnings.
#2 Evil Geniuses – $21,601,397.11 – 787 Tournaments
“Founded in 1999, EG is known to have highly successful players in every competitive game they feature and is considered by many to be one of the most premier gaming organizations that exist today” – Liquipedia.
Obviously, EG is among the best-known names in the world of Dota 2. Though EG earns most of the money from Dota 2, their other gaming squads are pretty successful. EG’s Call of Duty roster is among the best in the world. EG’s Starcraft/ Starcraft 2 squad has been massively successful with a total of $810,927 from 2009 to 2016.
Most successful game
However, earnings from those games paled in comparison with that from the Dota 2 roster. EG has been massively successful with the title. EG’s Dota 2 makes up 84.95% of their earnings. $18,351,368.62 out of the total $21,601,397.11 is impressive.
EG since the addition of Sumail “SumaiL “ Hassan has been ranked among the top contenders in Dota 2. The young prodigy has contributed largely to their victory in The International 2015. The event was the most successful tournament for the North American powerhouse with $6,634,660.
Since then, EG has been consistently on the top with many decent placings in big tournaments. EG has earned $3,294,304 in 2016, $1,157,475 in 2017 and an impressive $3,242,879 in 2018. 2019 so far has been uneventful for EG as they failed to win anything relevant.
Their most impressive placing was in ESL One Birmingham 2019 with the runner-up prize of $65,000. EG has already secured a slot in The International 2019. The $31+ million event is the most funded Esports tournament ever. Let’s see if EG can have a good share of this enormous amount of money.
#1 Team Liquid – $29,119,095 – 1578 Tournaments
Here you go, the most successful ever Esports organization in the world – Team Liquid. Starting out as a starcraft news site, Team Liquid has grown out of just a website into one of the most well-known Esports brands.
In 2012, Team Liquid recruited a North American Dota 2 team, marking their first venture into multi-genre management. The organization would then field squads of various PC games like League of Legends, Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros.
Team Liquid made their foothold in the world of CS:GO in 2015. However, their CS:GO lineup was unimpressive in the period between 2015 and 2017. Team Liquid CS:GO only made significant improvement after signing Keith "NAF" Markovic in early 2018. The roster would then constantly compete at the top level of CS:GO.
However, Team Liquid seemed to get the “finalist curse” where they would make it to most grand-final and lose to virtually any teams. In 2019, everything changed. Team Liquid has made significant improvement and won 6 big LAN tournaments in a row and claimed the Grand Slam title. Just 8 months into this 2019, Team Liquid has earned $2,108,700 From 18 Tournaments.
Team Liquid’s Fornite and Starcraft were also successful with around $1.3 million in earnings each game. Their League of Legends and PUBG were decent with around $750,000 in earnings.
Biggest success
Yet their most successful roster is Dota 2 with the largest earner in Esports, Kuro "KuroKy" Takhasomi. The German captain has made $4,235,456.55 From 99 Tournaments, mostly with Team Liquid. Team Liquid’s Dota 2 division won The International 2017 with $10,862,683, rivalled only by OG in The International 2018. Their 2018 was partially successful with $3,230,752, finishing #4.
However, this year in 2019, Team Liquid’s Dota 2 squad has been unimpressive with shaky performance. The International 2019 is coming up with many surprises and challenges. Let’s see if Team Liquid can claim another The International title to their name.
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