Introduction

There are a number of titles that have a professional gaming scene. The top players can make a living playing the games on the marketing value they gain as a result. Hundreds, thousands and even millions of dollars in prize money are turned out each year for competitors in these titles.

The most popular tournaments are those run by the , the World Cyber Games, the World e-Sports Games, and the Electronic Sports World Cup. The prize money for these events is mostly provided by the large technology corporations who sponsor the events; these companies also tend to sponsor eSports teams. A team sponsorship usually includes travel expenses and sometimes free hardware specific to that company.


StarCraft

* StarCraft: Brood War – Real-Time Strategy (1vs1, 2vs2, PC)

This game has found a home in South Korea, where many play it professionally as a spectator sport. It is the most popular professionally played game due to its immense popularity in South Korea, where the best pro-gamers are seen as celebrities.

In Korea, Starcraft has leagues such as Ongamenet Starleague, MBC Starleague, and Proleague. Finals for these league attract tens of thousands of fans and are viewed on cable TV with great popularity.

StarCraft is the very first game to have been accepted into the World Cyber Games tournament and has a tournament at their events since inception. It also enjoys significant competitive popularity in the west as well.



Counter-Strike

* Counter-Strike – Tactical Team FPS (5vs5, PC)

Played all around the world with hot spots in the North America and Europe, there are a few dozen professional teams that gather at just as many tournaments all around the world every year. Without a uniting body in competitive gaming many of these claim to be the game's "World Championship" tournament.

While none of them stand out enough to justify this claim, six tournament finals are generally identified as being the "biggest". The six "Major tournaments" are listed below and are led by WCG (World Cyber Games) and the CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League).

Teams can be observed playing professionally in leagues such as, CEVO, ESEA League, ESL, and others.

The defunct league Championship Gaming Series franchised teams with contracted players who played Counter-Strike: Source

Warcraft III

* Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne – Real-Time Strategy (1vs1, PC)

Played professionally all around the world with hot spots in South Korea, China , France and Germany, there are a few dozen "professional" teams. The game lacks a uniting body and has no definable world championship.

Some of the biggest Warcraft III tournaments include the six "Major tournaments" listed below as well as events organised by Blizzard Entertainment, televised Korean leagues, several tournaments held in China.

Warcraft III is seen as the competitive game with the second biggest playerbase, with the number players online at Battle.net ranging between 70,000 and 100,000 at any given moment. It must also be noted that the Chinese scene, which has over three million players, uses their own clients for online competition due to a poor connection to the outside world.

In Korea, Warcraft III has significantly less popularity than Starcraft, which is the most popular.

Wiki articles about Warcraft III competitions include a historical overview of "world championships" as well as a ranking based on them and a number of player biographies such as: Xiaofeng "Sky" Li, Dae Hui "FoV" Cho, Jang "Moon" Jae Ho, Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson and Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen.

FIFA

* FIFA Football – Sports (PC)

FIFA Football is a part of the World Cyber Games since its beginning in 2000 and also at every regional WCG Tourney like the SEC or the Pan-American WCG. In 2003 a FIFA tournament was also held at the CPL Europe and is therefore the only sports game that has ever been part of a Cyberathlete Professional League competition.
World League eSport Bundesliga Kick-Off Event

Germany has the biggest FIFA Football community with two professional leagues (Electronic Sports League EPS and the World League eSport Bundesliga which is aired on the national TV-broadcaster Deutsches Sportfernsehen). Besides Germany, South Korea is a strong FIFA Football nation with 3 World Cyber Games titles. There are also leagues in South Korea like the Ongamenet FifaLeague that are televised. In 2006 prizes with a value of over a quarter million US-Dollar were handed out to professional FIFA gamers.