It has just been announced that the next host towards the “CS:GO” (A highly competitive FPS game) major championships will be held in London which includes a $1million prize pool.
It is obvious that over the past few years, what’s commonly known as “E-Sports” has grown exponentially due to its rising popularity and acceptance. Essentially, what E-sports are, are that they are a multiplayer video game played competitively for spectators, typically by professional gamers, a business that is currently worth $1.07 billion and considering that it is only known by relatively few, the figures are staggering.
The next major championships for “CS:GO” will be held in The SSE Arena, Wembley, starting on September the 20th to the 23rd, with tickets going on sale in April, however you will have to be quick due to the limited number of seats in The SSE Arena (circa 10,000) and considering the huge 16million+ player base of the game.
The E-sports scene is looking promising, with increasing prize pools (record prize pool being $24 million for another game named “League of Legends”) – The E-sports teams are providing a livelihood for many competitors and it is astonishing to see the growth of the scene from me, who has been an avid player of many competitive games for years, and I can confirm that 3-4 years ago, people did not even dream of the scene to become this big.
Personally, I am elated that the next major will be hosted in our city, not only will this bring us foreign direct investment, but will invite many to visit London and will almost definitely stimulate the economy further.
On the popular streaming site Twitch.Tv, I managed to ask popular CS:GO player Jason “jasonR” Ruchelski about his thoughts on the London Major, “I’ve never been to London for any competition or holiday before, it’s going to be interesting to play there.”
Written by Aksaan Arif - Bancrofts School
