We were all surprised with how quickly the gaming community embraced Overwatch as the next big game ripe for competitive esports. Because of the hype surrounding the game even before its release, many potential players were already doing their research, trying to figure out how best to capitalise on this soon-to-be major league-level esport. When the fans collectively deem a game worthy of being part of the esports major league, it makes it all the more likely that said game will become popular enough to make the list.

MOBAs like Starcraft, League of Legends, and Dota currently seem to dominate the spotlight when it comes to high-stakes esports. It’s for this reason that other games have to step it up to gain a following big enough to host large-scale tournaments.



Clash Royale

Mobile gaming has long been overlooked by hardcore gamers. And for good reason. When the top-played mobile games were Farmville and Candy Crush, it was hard for us true gamers to believe that a mobile game could ever be good enough, and fair enough, to be played competitively. Especially now, in the age of pay-to-win games where anyone who is willing to spend money can be severely overpowered. But that craze seems to be waning, as more games are losing popularity due to the actual gameplay taking a backseat to the cool stuff you can buy for extra money.

Clash Royale is one of the first mobile games that seems to be tailored just for competitive play. Even its predecessor, Clash of Clans, had the right idea. The battles are fun, balanced, and as entertaining to watch as they are to play. But the time and patience it takes just to level up in Clash of Clans made it impossible to be played in the esports arena.

When the game launched at the beginning of 2016, in already had a massive following. To be fair, this was only because of the huge player base that Clash of Clans had. But Supercell had eyes on something bigger. After only a few months, they implemented an in-game tournament feature, to make the game even more easily translated to the esports arena.

And the events have already begun. Earlier this year, the ESL tournament in Helsinki brought in more than 2.5 million views, and offered a surprising €10,000 to the winner of the tournament. ESL Gaming has tournaments lined up all through the rest of the year, and has hosted dozens and dozens of events since April 2016.

A ten thousand Euro prize for what was essentially a mobile game originally? Clash Royale will definitely be going into 2017 as the dark horse winner of the new scene of competitive esports.



Splatoon

With incredibly inventive gameplay that is something akin to a kid-friendly mix of cartoon hijinks and Team Fortress, Splatoon has surprised many with how quick a competitive scene has popped up around this unique title.

Nintendo isn’t often thought of as an esport developer, but they have released some of the most loved games since forever. Even now, Super Smash Bros is hugely popular, and played competitively. Nintendo is already part of the esports scene. It’s weird to compare Smash to League or Dota, but there you have it.

Splatoon was released back in 2015, but it was an instant classic. It brought a new touch to 4v4 shooter games, revolving around covering your enemies… and everything… in ink. While the game is much loved, it didn’t quite make it to the level that CS:GO, League, or Smash did. But with the release of the Nintendo Switch creeping closer, Nintendo has been promoting Splatoon esports tournaments.

When Nintendo puts their full attention to something, it’s usually amazing. No one was expecting we’d be going into 2017 still talking about Splatoon.



Pokemon Sun and Moon

Gamers have been playing the franchise for well over a decade, and have gotten to see the gameplay evolve (no pun intended) along the way. And the key to any good esport is seeing what works, and what doesn’t, and adjusting accordingly. Pokemon has been doing that for almost twenty years.

One major advantage that this game has is that Pokemon Go was released a few months before, giving the Pokemon name the breath of life that it needed. Twitch playing Pokemon had a similar effect, but nothing near what Pokemon Go did for the brand.

Not much has been revealed about how well this game would do as an esport, but after the Pokemon Go epidemic, many of us can easily see a World Champion Pokemon Battle type situation happening in the near future. It would be like Pokemon Stadium… in real life. And hey, why not throw in some of that Pokemon Go AR while you’re at it? Or even better, that shiny new VR.

We shall have to wait and see, but much like Splatoon, Pokemon’s stock is much more valuable in consumers’ minds than we would have expected it to be this time last year with many lifelong fans burnt out on the series, feeling it had drifted into the absurd, as many memes pointed out. I thought having Pokemon that were literally living ice cream cones and sets of keys would end the franchise, but fans can’t get enough, and competitive Pokemon gaming is likely to evolve into what the competitive Pokemon card game once was. Everywhere and intense.



Heroes of the Storm

While it’s unlikely that Blizzard will divide their attention equally between Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm is a beautiful MOBA that features popular characters from all of Blizzard’s most successful games, including World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Overwatch. It’s a fun MOBA with a TON of characters to choose from, decent gameplay, and cool features such as quests you can complete during matches that give you access to new spells and abilities, extra damage, and other cool boons to your gameplay.

The only way this game could be a great esport title is if Blizzard gave it the attention it needs. With Overwatch having its own league, and the newest expansion of World of Warcraft still being pretty new, it seems unlikely that Blizzard will be making any big changes to Heroes of the Storm anytime soon. But if they wanted, I think this game could be pretty big. It does already have regular competitive events, scheduled all through December.