MOBA Monday: A Glance at eSports in 2016

Although 2015 proved to be a very rough year for many new MOBAs entering the battlefield, there was still plenty of support for the genre in the eSports scene. Games like League of Legends and Dota 2 are some of the top viewed games in the world and others are continuing to game traction. With 2016 just around the corner, let’s take a look at the most popular MOBAs and the major tournaments taking place early in the new year.

League of Legends

The first major League of Legends tournament in 2016 is going to be the Spring Split, which will consists of nine weeks of round robin play that culminates in a playoff series. Last year it was South Korea that dominated the League of Legends World Championship, but North America and Europe are both looking to repair their reputations.

In North America, the NA LCS Spring Split will begin on Saturday, January 16, 2016 and Week 9 will conclude on Sunday, March 20. The 10 teams competing this year will be: Team SoloMid, Counter Logic Gaming, Cloud9, Immortals, Team Dignitas, NRG, Renegades, Liquid, Echo Fox, and Team Impulse.

On the European side of things, the EU LCS Spring Split begins on Thursday, January 14, 2016 and will finish Friday, March 18. The European contenders this year consist of: Fnatic, Origen, Elements, G2 Esports, H2K, Giants, Splyce, Unicorns of Love, Team Vitality, and Roccat.

While the LCS Spring Split will be going on, IEM Katowice is also scheduled to take place from March 4-6. Currently, no information has been released regarding the team qualifications for this event, however, IEM Katowice is the final destination for the Intel Extreme Masters season and has a reputation for being one of the most popular eSports events in the world.

Dota 2

Dota 2 is one of the most popular eSports in the world and only second to League of Legends in the MOBA category, however, it doesn’t have a lot going on in early 2016. It’s likely that most teams are getting set for the next Major tournament, and the only other large event in the first half of the year is going to be ESL One.

Open qualifiers for Dota 2’s next major event will take place from January 3-6 with regional qualifiers beginning directly after. Although Dota 2 is one of the most popular and lucrative eSports on the planet, very little information has been revealed about the Shanghai Major event. With a $3,000,000 prize pool, the Shanghai Major is the second event in the Valve Dota Major Championships. The championship event will be held at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China, from March 2-6, 2016.

In addition to the Shanghai Major, ESL One Frankfurt will be the other large-scale Dota 2 tournament in early 2016. It will take place at the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt, Germany, from June 18-19. Tickets are currently on sale, but the rosters have not been finalized. Qualifications and invitations will take place in early 2016.

SMITE

Even though SMITE might not have as many major events as the other popular MOBAs, the World Championship is still quite a big deal. Beginning on Friday, January 8, 2016 the top 10 teams from around the world will compete for a $1 million prize pool. The event will be held at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, Georgia, which can hold 2,750 fans and is already sold out. Competing for the $500,000 grand prize will be teams from all over the world including: Paradigm, Epsilon eSports, Cloud9, Enemy, Pain Gaming, Isurus Gaming, Avant Garde, OMG B, QG, and Fnatic.

Heroes of the Storm

Things will be changing up dramatically next year for Heroes of the Storm. In 2015, the only major tournament for the MOBA was the World Championship. While it did have a sizable prize pool, the game is still very young and hasn’t caught a lot of traction due to minimal big-money events. The open qualifiers only paid out $12,000 to the winning team and the regional championships increased that to $40,000, however, this pales in comparison to payouts in League of Legends and Dota 2. Furthermore, non-Blizzard sponsored events have had very limited prize pools, which hasn’t provided incentive for many popular gaming organizations to jump on board.

The new system for Heroes of the Storm will be similar to what League of Legends currently has in place. Instead of one large prize pool at the end of the year, there will be three Global Championships throughout 2016. These championships will feature the top teams from each region and will take place in the spring, summer and fall. According to Blizzard, the first will begin in January, however, there has been no confirmation on an exact timeline yet. The prize pool for the spring tournament was announced to be $500,000.

Paladins

While Hi-Rez has been reluctant to classify Paladins as a MOBA, it’s hard to deny in its current form it that does appear to fit the genre. Paladins is currently in an early beta stage, but that hasn’t stopped Hi-Rez from promoting the hell out of it. The first major tournament has already been announced and the game doesn’t even have its core gameplay solidified yet. Starting in early spring, the first Paladins Founder’s Tournament will take place with a prize pool of at least $100,000.

Currently, there isn’t a ton of information on the Founder’s Tournament and it’s unlikely that formats will be locked in until the game is further along. However, Hi-Rez representatives said that more information will be available by early January, which doesn’t give them much time. Despite this short timeline, things have been moving along rather quickly for the game as it has had more than 10 updates in little over a month. As of now, two North American and two European teams are going to be invited to the big event.

With the events currently revealed, 2016 is already looking to be an exciting year for eSports with many new faces and veterans of old. As the year progresses, the competition will only get more heated as the world championships begin to take form. If trends continue as they have for the past few years, eSports will continue to grow and so will benefits for players, fans, and sponsors. I know I’m looking forward to all the upcoming eSports events and I hope you are as well.

Related: Dota 2, eSports, Heroes of the Storm, League of Legends, MOBA, Paladins, SMITE