Esports – Big Events 2021 | All You Need to Know
2021 is already underway, and with the new year comes the excitement of more esports events.
Below, we go through some of the big events coming up this year and what to expect.
Due to the ongoing restrictions still imposed across the world because of the coronavirus, esports events will not have fans attending.
The fact that supporters won’t be attending the biggest showpieces of the gaming calendar is a tough one for teams, fans, and organizers.
But, just because you can’t attend in person doesn’t mean you can’t watch it. Eurogamer has provided a list of upcoming esports events, so you don’t miss a thing.
E-Sport Events 2021
- FIFA – Global Series and FIFA eWorld Cup 2021
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – Intel Extreme Masters
- Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War – CDL Championship
- Fortnite – Fortnite Champion Series
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – Global Invitationals
- Street Fighter – Capcom Cup 2020
- Overwatch – Grand Finals
- Valorant – Champions Tour 2021
- League of Legends – Worlds
- Dota 2 – The International 10
2021 e-Sports Games
FIFA – Global Series and FIFA eWorld Cup 2021
2020 saw many football tournaments be canceled, including the Euro 2020 tournament.
Fortunately, this year fans can get behind their favorite clubs and esports players in official online FIFA tournaments, including the FIFA eWorld Cup 2021.
The qualifying stages are already underway on Xbox and PlayStation platforms through the Global Series.
The Global Series will see regional champions compete for qualification through a series of events, and eventually, the lucky few will compete for the FIFA eWorld Cup in July.
During the year, EA has announced a prize pool of $500,000 which will be paid out to participants of the FIFA eClub World Cup, eNations Cup, and eWorld Cup.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – Intel Extreme Masters Katowice
One of the most anticipated events of the esports calendar, the Intel Extreme Masters, is set to occur between February 16 and February 28 in Katowice.
It’s great news for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players and fans.
The venue will be empty of supporters, but the tournament will still be available online as 24 teams battle it out for a $1 million prize pool.
Later in the year, we will still see other CSGO events, such as the Dreamhack Masters in June and the ESL One Cologne in July.
Unfortunately, Valve themselves have canceled their event, the CSGO 2021 Spring Major in May, due to concerns over the ongoing pandemic.
IEM_Katowice_2020
Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War – CDL Championship
Throughout the year, 12 teams from Canada, Europe, and the USA will compete across several majors as they look to earn enough points to be one of the teams to qualify for the 2021 Call of Duty League Playoffs.
Points will be awarded to teams based on their performance across majors, with eight teams progressing to the playoffs towards the end of the year.
The matches will be played on PC and will be best-of-5 in 4-versus-4 battles.
The prize money this year is set to be $1.5 million.
Fortnite – Fortnite Champion Series
Thankfully, Epic Games announced that the Fortnite Champion Series would continue this year, beginning on February 4.
Unfortunately, the Fortnite World Cup 2021 has been canceled, with the safety of fans, staff, and the participants in mind.
Fortnite fans don’t have to worry, though, as Epic has promised weekly online tournaments to make up for the loss of offline events.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – Global Invitationals
The PUBG Global Invitational.S 2021 will take place this year, starting February 2 and ending March 28.
Teams will compete in weekly events, with winners progressing to the weekly finals.
The team with the most prize money will be declared the Global Champion of the 2020-2021 season.
Street Fighter – Capcom Cup 2020
The Capcom Cup 2020 will unfortunately no longer take place February 19-21.
The event would have seen the Street Fighter League and Capcom Pro Tour finals conclude at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana.
The Street Fighter League World Championship would have featured the two best U.S. teams and two best Japanese teams to decide the world title.
Instead, Capcom has highlighted the risks of COVID-19 and announced that they would be inviting players to an online-only Season Final.
The format is yet to be decided and will be revealed on capcomprotour.com in the next couple of weeks.
Overwatch – Grand Finals
Blizzard has announced that the Overwatch League will remain online-only for the time being.
Jon Spector, from the Overwatch League team, revealed in an online post that the season would kick off in April.
The season will see eight teams from China and South Korea and twelve teams from Europe and North America compete for the September Playoffs Finals.
The hope is that the circumstances with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will improve so that fans can attend the live events by the end of the year.
There will be more details on the event closer to the time.
If you find yourself needing some Overwatch action in the meantime, make sure to check out the Shock vs. World event on February 19-20.
The event will feature multiple matches, tasks, and mini-games.
Valorant – Champions Tour 2021
Riot Games are taking the next step to make VALORANT a global esport powerhouse by hosting the VALORANTChampions Tour 2021.
Throughout the year, teams across the world will compete in regional competitions, called the VALORANT Challengers.
Winners will then face-off in the Valorant Masters, where the winners will compete in the VALORANT Champions,
The Valorant Champions is a two-week tournament in which the top 16 teams from the year will face-off for a chance to be crowned the first VALORANT global champion.
League of Legends – Worlds
The 2021 League of Legends World Championship will occur in China for the second straight year, Riot Games recently announced.
The League of Legends year has already begun for teams in China and Korea, with the European Championship set for January 22 and North America’s League Championship Series taking place on February 5.
Of course, the world is an unpredictable place, and Riot has promised transparency regarding events and schedules throughout 2021.
Dota 2 – The International 10
2021 will feature two Dota 2 pro circuit seasons and two majors before The International 10 in August.
The first Pro Circuit season takes place January 18 – February 28. The major then happens March 25 – April 4.
The second season begins April 13 and runs until May 23, with the second major happening June 2 – June 13.
The big Dota 2 event is The International, with it set for August in Stockholm, Sweden.
Last year saw The International’s postponement, and Valve hopes this year the event can go ahead if travel restrictions allow it.
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Ingo Ingo is fast! Studied e-commerce and has his roots for now in lively Germany. At the same time, as an ambitious influencer consultant, he is close to gaming communities & game developers. He often knows what trends are currently going on. Ingo has a special fascination as game review editor. |
Personally I’m not such a big fan of the whole eSports thing (I guess that’s probably because I don’t like watching regular sports in general). I think I’d participate in it myself rather than watching, but unfortunately I don’t think my level of skill is anywhere near good enough in ANY game at all 😀
That being said, the size and scale of some eSports are really amazing, even if I’m not a fan! It’s crazy how many millions of people watch it. Of all the eSports scenes, the one(s) I find most fascinating is probably IEM Katowice and the CSGO scene in general, the teamwork and coordination some of the teams display is insane 🙂
ESports events are very good competitions to show ur skills to the world; i remember watching PUBG on AKS at twitch and it was very comptetive and a fairly game. very great tournament and definetly worth to participate or just to watch ^^
Still counterstrike is very popular and Toms of boxes, weapons there. you can play it with normal PC platform
You know, one day I would love to enter the E-Sports competition by myself or ofcourse in a team. Since I was young I have probably looekd up so many times to see if there was a way to earn money by gaming, and there actually is. Unfortuantely I kidna suck at competitive games atm, but it’s never too late for me to quit. I sometimes watch E-Sports streams for fun and some are still fascinating. Who knows, maybe we’ll get more e-sport games in the future. For now I am a big fan of the Overwatch E-Sport competiton since I play that game the most. I dhope to sit there myself one day. 😀
I wish i could follow street fighter exhibition in JAPAN. Fifa 21 also cool form me.