Five Biggest Esports Tournaments in 2022

Esports tournaments have been getting bigger and better every year. And 2022 was the best one yet. We saw some of the world’s finest gamers battle it out in explosive tournaments, competing for multi-million-dollar prize pools.

LoL Worlds (League of Legends Worlds Championship)

On November 5, over 5.1 million concurrent viewers watched TI go head-to-head with DRX in a colorful LoL Worlds 2022 finals ceremony. The finals marked the culmination of a series of action-packed league of legends competitions where both longtime and new Rioters put their best gaming talents on display.

We must appreciate the impressive job the game producers did building stories for this year’s Worlds. Given that this tournament has happened annually for the last decade, we can’t help but marvel at how in-depth, efficient, refreshing, and alive this year’s championship was.

Even though the DRX took home the Summoner’s Cup, almost every team that took part did their best to persevere and triumph. The nail-biting gameplays on display were so entertaining that this year’s finals broke a bunch of League of Legends viewership records.

The International 2022

The 11th iteration of the Dota 2 eSport world championships (The International) happened in various spots in Singapore. Valve, the game’s developer, hosted the tournament following the Dota Pro Circuit.

This year’s tournament drew a diverse audience of eSport enthusiasts, influencers, hardcore gamers, and aficionados from all corners of the world.

Twenty teams started in the group stages on October 15. After a series of bloody tournament fights, only Tundra eSports and Team Secret made it to the finals. However, with Tundra’s unbroken winning streak in the bracket stages, it didn’t come as a surprise that the team won the Aegis of Champions, walking away with a cool $8.5 million grand prize.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship

As most people in various parts of the world were getting excited over the start of Halloween this year, most CS: GO fans were busting with anticipation for the game’s biggest tournament, the Intel Extreme Masters Season XVII (codenamed the Rio Major 2022.)

The eighteenth CS: GO Major Championship happened in Rio de Janeiro between October 31 and November 13. This highly anticipated tournament should have taken place way back in 2020. However, due to COVID-19, Valve, and ESL, the tournaments’ official sponsors, decided to delay the championship.

A special event within the tournament will be the “Legends Clash,” where legendary players from Sweden will face off against legendary players from Brazil at the Jeunesse Arena just before the finals.

2022 Valorant Champions

In early September this year, millions of Valorant eSport fans watched as Brazilians, LOUD team, won the 2022 Valorant Championship tournament in Istanbul’s Volkswagen Arena.

Valorant is one of those games whose success can be partially attributed to the pandemic. Riot released this title just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning. Since most people had to remain indoors, their interest in video games like Valorant naturally increased.

Today, over 15 million people play the game monthly. This clear popularity of Volarant was further demonstrated by the long line of spectators who queued at the entrance as well as the fully packed seats at arena where the 2022 Valorant Championships went down.

Honor of Kings Champion Cup

Honor of Kings, a popular MOBA for iOS and Android devices, is one of the world’s highest-grossing titles. However, if you haven’t heard about it, it’s probably because it hasn’t been advertised much outside Taiwan and China. Globally, it is better known by its other name, the Arena of Valor.

The developers claim that over 100 million gamers play Honor of Kings daily. Tencent, therefore hopes that the Honor of Kings International Championship 2022 will be the perfect end-of-year gift to its fans.

With a $10 million prize pool being put up for grabs, many teams will be doing their best to get a shot at the glory. Hence, we expect that this will be a high-stakes, adrenaline-filled tournament. And what better way to end the year?

Most details about this world championship remain unclear. However, we know for a fact that it will be held in December 2022.