The prestigious Forbes publication, specializing in the business world and which regularly publishes lists such as the richest people in the world, yesterday launched its ranking of the world’s most important electronic sports companies. Many times, reports about the money in eSports are inflated figures that do not correspond to reality, or to a skewed part of it. However, Forbes affirms that they have spoken directly with the owners of the clubs and trusted sources very close to them to make a detailed and, above all, updated report. And, at the risk of falling into the spoiler, there are three teams that have no rival in the universe of electronic sports. Cloud9 , Team SoloMid and Team Liquid are the clubs that have a value greater than 200 million dollars and, in addition, an estimated income above 15 million dollars for this year.
The first place is for Cloud9, an American electronic sports organization owned by Jack and Paullie Etienne that, according to Forbes, is valued at $ 310 million.
The 2018 sporting achievements are still spectacular for them, since in addition to winning the Boston ELEAGUE Major – the first tournament of this category this year at CS:GO, champions of the first season of the Overwatch League with London were proclaimed Spitfire and will play this weekend the semifinals of the League of Legends World Cup, something that no American team had achieved since 2011, when the tournament was little more than a confrontation between Europeans and Americans.
The second position of the table is for Team SoloMid, another American organization. Valued at $ 250 million, the club owned by Andy Dinh – a former League of Legends professional player, where he competed under the alias Reginald – is especially known for his achievements at LoL, a game in which he has won the American LCS six times.
The first European organization is Team Liquid, which occupies third place. Founded in the Netherlands in 2000 as a Brood War clan, it was acquired in 2016 by aXiomatic. Now it has its teams distributed between Europe and America, having achieved great achievements throughout its history, such as The International in 2017, DOTA 2 tournament for which more than 10 million dollars were pocketed. For Forbes, it is valued at 200 million.
The table also shows an organization of Spanish origin, G2 eSports. Valued at 105 million dollars, the club founded by Carlos ‘ocelote’ Rodríguez – owner along with Jens Hilger – occupies the eighth position.
Like Team Liquid, G2 eSports currently has teams distributed on both sides of the Atlantic, although its large flagship, the League of Legends section, competes in the European LCS, being one of the teams whose presence in the new franchise system of the competition seems more than likely.