In brief: Despite the surging popularity of esports in the The states, there's still a sizable void in terms of competitiveness. Just put, teams in America aren't playing on the aforementioned level equally their counterparts from Asia. To help level the playing field, squad owners are spending millions to bring some of the world's all-time players to the United states.

Competitive gaming, or esports, has come a long way in a relatively short catamenia of time. Just over half a decade ago, ESPN's (onetime) president bashed the budding multiplayer gaming competitions, saying they were more similar chess and checkers and that ESPN was mostly interested in covering traditional sports.

In 2022, more than 57 meg people in North America watched at to the lowest degree ane esports effect co-ordinate to gaming analytics house Newzoo.

Since 2022 when the League of Legends World Championship was founded, no team from the US has finished in start or second place. Merely three United states of america teams have ever finished 3rd-quaternary.

The US' shortcomings are non for lack of trying. As The New York Times highlights, the average bacon for a thespian in a starting position on a team has increased from around $300,000 in 2022 to $460,000. Chris Greeley, the commissioner of League of Legends' N American region, said some of the highest-paid players in the US could await to make every bit much as half a million dollars more than counterparts in places like South korea.

In other words, teams are paying large bucks to bring some of the all-time talent to the US.

Since 2022, no less than twoscore elite players have been plucked from the global talent pool to represent Us teams. Concluding November, Hu Shuo-Chieh, 1 of the game'south superstars that goes past the handle SwordArt, signed a two-twelvemonth, $half dozen meg contract to play for N American team TSM.

Image credit: Roman Kosolapov, SSokolov