Last week, we wrote about the big topics in esports in 2016. Now, we want to cover all of them. Think you followed the full story? Think again.

2016 was the year of esports on TV

Traditional sports teams entered the fray

Traditional sports were everywhere

Esports gambling saw some serious regulation

How big is esports gambling? Narus estimates $1 billion betting handle, which we put in perspective.

The UK Gambling Commission looked at esports, then issued first charges against video game gambling.

South Australia banned esports bettings.

Organizations to ensure games are free of match-fixing were built, like the Esports Integrity Coalition and RTSmunity.

AlphaDraft ended up shutting down its real money gambling.

The CS:GO gambling scandal was one of the biggest stories

Despite all that, sports betting and esports are converging

Regulations were also passed regarding esports itself

We saw a rise in player and team representation

And it wasn’t always pretty

Transparency issues were a problem

Most notably, with ESForce Holding (who own Virtus.pro) gaining the media rights to Natus Vincere. ESForce was later determined to also own a majority of SK Gaming and esports gambling site CSGOLounge, among others.

Jens Hilgers (who funds this site), co-owner of G2 Esports, gave Fnatic a loan that would have given him ownership of Fnatic if it defaulted.

Esports grew up, both in buyouts…

… investments…

…and partnerships

Some things, nobody predicted

But the biggest story? A “Great Debate” about monetization in League of Legends

There were some overall low spots

The StarCraft 2 Proleague was finally shut down.

Basically all YouTube did was make a scripted show.

All we have left are questions for the future