01. This event was viewed by spectators in person and online and received news coverage from newspapers and television networks. "To me it feels like we've broken a barrier that we've never attained before in esports."Aside from the star-studded line of investors, 2018 saw a new rush of brands into the space. It also helped establish Super Smash Brothers for Wii as one of the most popular esports games of its time.Each passing decade has seen esports reach new milestones and the future continues to look brighter. The FPS title shipped with six multiplayer maps – a revolutionary idea at the time – , which made use of advancements in 3D technology to create maps with multiple levels, resulting in far more compelling action. Likewise, $2 million in annual prize money in 2009 became $10 million in 2012. This tournament lasted over a month and garnered over 400,000 participants. The lack of quality control and the waning interest in consoles compared to PC, caused a large-scale recession from 1983 to 1985, predominately in North America. Similarly to non-digital sports, the majority of popular eSports are team-based games played in leagues or tournaments. Estimates from Newzoo project that the global esports market will exceed $1.6 billion by 2021.Using Riot's "League of Legends" competitive scene as an example, she recently told CNBC that "the scale that we've achieved globally by operating 13 leagues has created the perfect ecosystem for brands to get involved."Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. This event was viewed by spectators in person and online and received news coverage from newspapers and television networks. This gradually changed too, as home computers kept becoming more powerful and less expensive.With broadcasting now more affordable and centralized through Twitch, tournaments were more viable. Nintendo held another world championship in 1994 to promote the SNES. As a result, global revenue for video games took a massive hit. Dennis “Thresh” Fong earned the win, etching his place into history and earning the tournament’s grand prize; a Ferarri 328 GTS previously owned by Quake programmer John D. Carmack.While the Atari had its share of popularity during the 1980’s, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) took the controls, graphics, gameplay and accessibility of video games to a new level. This tournament lasted over a month and garnered over 400,000 participants. He was also featured in Rolling Stone magazine and went on to be inducted into the ESL Hall of Fame. Competitive gaming had already started to make its way into popular culture in the 1980s through arcades and home consoles, but the wider distribution of the internet in the early 1990s would change the face of it completely.