2021 Much Awaited Top Esports Game Updates

The COVID-19 caused a lot of disruption to the world. The entertainment industry in general was heavily shaken by the lockdowns and distancing protocols. Movie releases were delayed, live shows were canceled, sporting events were postponed, and many other entertainment and gaming activities were put to a stop. 

For avid gamers and e-sports fans like us, this meant that most of the competitions we were waiting for last year got delayed, or downright canceled. Game releases were also postponed. Although many events pushed through at the latter part of the year, they weren’t as exciting because fans weren’t allowed to watch and most teams were playing at home. 

With the discovery of vaccines, restrictions are slowly being lifted and our beloved e-sporting games are about to come back. 

Here are the much-awaited updates from our favorite e-sport games. 

 

League of Legends 

• The League of Legends World Championships 2021 will happen in Shenzhen China in the latter part of this year. There are no official announcements yet, but it will most likely happen around October or November. 
• The Mid-Season Invitational which was canceled last year due to the pandemic will be making a return this year and will be happening on May 6 until 22. There are no official seedings yet as most leagues are still in the middle of their spring season. 

 

CS:GO

• After getting most of their events canceled last year, the ESL Pro League just kicked its 13th season off with a total prize pool of $750,000. There will be 24 teams participating in the tournament. These teams will be divided into 4 groups. Everyone’s eyes will be on Group D where Astralis would try to keep their world #1 spot, despite facing a cold streak entering the competition. 
• Other top events coming back this year will be: ESL Pro League Season 14 ($750,000), ESL One Cologne ($1,000,000), BLAST Premier Global Final ($1,000,000), and PGL Major Stockholm ($2,000,000).

 

Fortnite

• Epic games pledged $20,000,000 for Fortnite’s 2021 Championship Series. This is a $3,000,000 improvement from last year’s prize pool, but still lower than 2019’s $30,000,000.00. There will be 4 seasons for the Fortnite Championship Series with a $3,000,000 prize pool for each. There will also be other smaller tournaments throughout the year, details of which are still to be determined.
• There are several rule changes for the FNCS that aims to make the tournament more competitive. One of the rule changes includes changing the schedule of the qualifiers and succeeding stages to reduce player fatigue. 
• Fortnite is also increasing the number of Trios Cash Cups, making it a weekly event instead of every other week. 

 

Dota 2

• One Esports Dota 2 Singapore Major will be the first flagship event of the 2021 Dota 2 Pro Circuit. It will start on March 27 until April 4 in Singapore. This sets up the stage for the much-awaited TI tournament this year. There will be a total of 18 teams competing in this tournament including Alliance, Evil Geniuses, and Team Nigma. 
• After being cancelled last year, The International 10 will happen this August at Stockholm. But before that, there will be 2 seasons of the Dota 2 Pro Circuit that would determine all the qualified teams to compete in the prestigious TI10 event. The prize pool for this event is $40,000,000. 

 

Hearthstone

• The Masters Qualifiers will be getting a couple of new rules. This is to open up the tournament to more players. This new season, there will be 120 Individual Qualifiers events to be held. Moreover, they are lowering the required number of top-8 finishes for players to gain an invite (from 5 to 4). Finally, all the top 32 players who aren’t qualified yet would be getting an invite to the next qualifier event. 
• This year, there will be 6 Masters Tour events. All will be held online because of the ongoing pandemic. Each event will have a $250,000 prize pool to be divided amongst the top 200 players based on their final rankings. 
• The Grand Master’s tour will have 2 more seasons this year. Although the details aren’t revealed yet. 

 

Call of Duty 

• Call of Duty fans will be treated to more tournaments this year. The 2021 CDL season format will feature 5 majors throughout the year on top of the home series tournaments. 
• The 2021 CDL season will play its matches on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War – the latest installment of the franchise. 
• All of the games will still be played online until further notice. 

 

Rainbow 6 Siege 

• The Six Invitational 2021 will be happening this May. There are already 20 teams qualified to battle it out for the $3,000,000 prize pool. 
• To make games more exciting, Ubisoft is putting an overtime feature for games that end up in a tie. The overtime will be decided with a best-of-3 matchup. Overtimes will also give the loser 1 point, instead of 0. 

 

Overwatch

• The Overwatch League will kick off this April 16. It will have a $4,250,000 prize pool. Participating teams will be divided into 2 divisions: East & West. 
• The tournament will be retaining the format it used last year. The regular season will see 4 tournaments across namely, May Melee, June Joust, Summer Showdown, and Countdown Cup. Teams will be playing 2 games every weekend for a total of 16 games. 
• To increase the thrill of the games, the Hero Pools System will be reinstated for June Joust and Countdown Cup. However, unlike the 2020 Hero Pools System which rotated heroes on a weekly basis, this year’s feature will only rotate heroes on a monthly basis.  

 

Rocket League 

• The RLCS Spring Split will present a new format that’ll make the game more challenging and fun to watch. This will feature 20 teams who will undergo a round-robin in groups, then a double-elimination bracket, which will all finish in a single-elimination bracket to win the regional event. 
• The games will still be played online, but will only be a regional event. This means that each region will have its own champions. 
• Car manufacturer, Ford will be hosting a tournament in partnership with Psyonix studio. This is after they sponsored the RLCS Winter Majors. The winner of the Freestyle Championship will receive a Ford F-150 pick-up truck. 

 

Now that we’ve shared the latest news on the biggest e-sport titles in the world, here are some of the things to watch out for this year! 

 

Valorant

One of the hottest FPS games in the world right now will launch its esports tournament during League of Legends’ Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) on May 6. This pilot tournament will be titled The Valorant Champions Tour Masters Reykjavík. Teams participating in this event will be fighting for a qualifying ticket for the Champion’s competition late this year. 

 

Wild Rift

Although there’s no clear date of launch yet, teams are starting to form their Wild Rift rosters to prepare for an inevitable esports launch. Hopefully, this tournament would open its doors this year, so fans like us would have something new to watch. 

 

There are a lot more things to watch out for in the esports world. So tune in to our blog, so you can stay updated with the latest news about your favorite games.