Best 7 Cities For Global Gamers
The popularity and revenues of video games and gaming sports are breaking all records in terms of revenues. Last year alone, the industry exceeded $40 billion. As a consequence, games have a huge impact not only on the economy but also on the culture of cybersports. However, for a lot of gamers computer games are not just an entertainment and a hobby, but it is like a vacation and a way of life. An impressive perk of these games is that they can be played anywhere and anytime. However, many gamers are attracted to and become gamers favorite places not only because of their infrastructure but also because of their close-knit teams and gaming communities. A major plus in this is that you can live not in the most expensive city to find like-minded people and a great opportunity to work in the eSports industry. In order to understand which cities are the most popular, many locations have been analyzed to determine and give a summary of how the gaming industry is developed in them.
So this is a rating of the best cities:
New York. The city couldn't do without another trendy pastime - such as cybersports. Since 2014, it has been hosting ESL One tournaments in the most popular disciplines, including Dota2 and CS: GO. The risk from Europe's biggest league has proved justified, with the Big Apple eagerly awaiting the next tournament to buy up all tickets in minutes and book tables in all neighboring bars. New York cybersports received a new round of popularity a year ago when the Over Watch League saw the arrival of a team from that city. Now Excelsior looks to be one of the most popular teams in the League - New York City prepares for blue-and-white games just as well as the NBA or football championships.
Seoul. However, even New York City does not love cybersports as much as the South Korean capital. Although the Seoul-based team is doing far worse in OWL, the Korean players have dominated Over Watch - the team has won the World Cup title twice in a row and the OWL London Spitfire champions are made up entirely of Koreans. How could it be otherwise in a tech-park city with dozens of computer clubs on every street? Seoul is a true eSports city: TV series and pop stars sometimes get less attention than the next super-gamer. Street photos, participation in TV shows, hundreds of groupies - it's a computer entertainment paradise.
Bucharest. It is even curious why the Romanian capital has become one of the centres of European eSports. As in any Balkan country, there is no shortage of champions - only doter Olivi "w33" Omar (winning the Shanghai Major) and LoL player Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu (WC-2016 semi-final) have achieved fleeting success.
London. The UK entertainment market is fairly saturated, but it's been a long time coming for the UK's younger crowd. And while the ESL One Dota 2 major decided to test it in less spoilt Birmingham, the CS: GO tournament organisers have been keen on London. After all, the United Kingdom's main city is the 2018 World Cup, and just before that, the final of the fifth season of the Esports Championship Series league.
Shanghai. Shanghai is a city that hosts world-class competitions more often than any other Chinese city. In 2016, for example, the Mercedes-Benz Arena hosted a major tournament in one of the most popular cyber disciplines - Dota2. The event was accompanied by scandals, but the Dota2 developers seem to have taken a fancy to the arena - next year the stadium will host the world championship, The International.
Moscow. Recently, the Russian capital has become the center of eSports development. It should be noted that Moscow has always tried to compete with Kyiv - even the famous ASUS Cup was alternately held in one city and another. But after the emergence of Cyber Arena and Star Ladder on the world level, it became very difficult to maintain competition - it was the capital of Ukraine that hosted the main events in one way or another.
Katowice. In Europe, the Polish city is called the birthplace of Counter-Strike; it is the home of the best shooters of the early 2010s, and the home of the world's most formidable teams. In early 2014, one of those teams, AGAiN, was signed by the major Russian organization Virtus.pro. Two months later, the boys won the world championship.
