Esports, or electronic sports, are organised competitive video gaming events that can attract large audiences and huge prize pools. They often feature professional players, and can be contested between teams or individually. They can also be played online.

There are several major esports tournaments each year, with the likes of the League of Legends World Championship and Counter-Strike’s Global Invitational among the most popular. Many of these events feature a large prize pool, and are held in locations across the globe.

Much like in traditional sport, esports tournaments have a regular season where teams compete against each other to earn points or rankings based on their performance. These are often followed by playoffs, where the top teams compete for a championship title. Tournaments can have a variety of formats, from group stages to round-robin formats where each team or player plays every other. There are also hybrid formats that combine elements of different forms of esports tournaments.

Most people recognize the names of world-class athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but a growing number of individuals are becoming superstars in another kind of arena: video games. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and Luka “Perkz” Perkovic are just two of a growing group of players who have earned the spotlight by competing in esports tournaments for some of the world’s most popular games.

As the 2025 esports calendar gets underway, we’ll be keeping an eye on key events. PUBG Mobile’s upcoming Asian Games event and the 2025 CDL Champs are both big draws, while IEM Katowice, BLAST Rivals Spring 2025 and RLCS Birmingham are all standouts for the month of April. G2 Esports are defending Cologne Major champions, while OG and FaZe Clan have shown impressive form too.