The esports industry grows every year, but something feels different about 2018.

With all the changes coming to existing games and leagues, as well as the addition of new ones, the year ahead seems bigger, more important.

Everyone can see by now that esports are here to stay, but given everything going on, 2018 could decide in what capacity.

Many games in the esports industry are undergoing changes in 2018 and the world is watching

Tournaments already sell out arenas like the Bird's Nest but they could get even bigger in 2018

Will they remain as they are now? Currently, millions watch games being played professionally online, and they sell out real life arenas like Madison Square Garden and Beijing's Bird Nest too. The money involved, and the size of the audience grows every year.

Right now, the growth is quick, with forecasters saying industry revenue will soar into the billions of dollars sooner rather than later. But if everything goes well in 2018, that growth could become exponential.

In the past few months of 2017, we've seen real life sports teams and owners start to get involved in a big way, and next year will be the first time these teams will start to see what kind of return they're getting on their investment.

Some teams, like Paris Saint-Germain, Schalke 04, and 1907 Fenerbahce, have got in on the ground floor, and found a small amount of success. But now, other teams are coming into the space, and things are getting serious.

17 NBA teams will be signing esports pros to play in the new NBA 2K League starting in May

Sports teams creating their own esports teams is big, due to the existing infrastructure and fan bases.

Team SoloMid is an esports team founded by Andy 'Reginald' Dinh when he was 17. At the time, it was merely a community website for League of Legends, which also doubled as a website for Reginald's team, before competitive League really existed.

Now, Team SoloMid is the most popular League of Legends team in North America, and they've branched out into other esports too.

If a teenager who simply wanted a website for his amateur team can turn it into a multi-million dollar organisation with sponsorship from the likes of HTC, Red Bull, and Geico, imagine what a team owned by Robert Kraft could do.

Kraft owns the New England Patriots NFL team, among many other things, and he has a net worth of $6.2 billion (£4.6 billion).

His most recent team acquisition? The newly founded Boston Uprising Overwatch League team.

Robert Kraft owns the New England Patriots and owns the Boston Uprising Overwatch team

Kraft isn't the only one to dip his finger into the esports pie either. A number of prominent American sports teams have become involved with League of Legends and Overwatch, and 17 NBA teams will be signing esports pros to take part in the upcoming NBA 2K League.

With all that power, and all that money behind these esports teams and players, is it too big to fail? In the end, it will all depend on how the audience reacts.

The pieces are all in place. The players now just need to make the right moves.

League of Legends: NA LCS

Next year, the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS) is changing in a big way.

Previously, your place in the league depended on how well you performed during the season. If you placed in the lower section of the table at the end of the season, you were probably going to be demoted into the Challenger Series.

Meanwhile, the best performers from the Challenger Series would be promoted, giving fresh faces and teams a chance to compete at the highest level.

Millions of people play and watch League of Legends, and the NA LCS will now be franchised

Starting in 2018, the NA LCS will be franchised. 10 teams have bought their spot in the LCS, and they'll be staying there, much like how the NFL works with its set 32 teams.

A spot in the NA LCS cost teams $10 million (£7.4 million), plus an extra $3 million (£2.2 million) if they hadn't previously been in the league.

The new look LCS is a mixture of old teams and new. Some of the existing, well-known teams, such as Immortals and Dignitas, have been kicked to the dirt in favour of shinier, NBA-backed organisations.

The Golden Guardians are owned by the Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets will have Clutch City Gaming, and 100 Thieves has backing from the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Echo Fox were in the league already, owned by former NBA player Rick Fox.

10 teams have secured their spot in the new look NA LCS, which cost them up to $13 million

The North American League of Legends scene isn't in much danger of dying, making this a reasonably safe investment for these sports teams.

Some fans may feel weird about the exclusion of traditional esports teams in favour of the new ones, but most of the faces in terms of the players they'll see on screen will remain the same. To the casual viewer, they might not notice much of a difference beyond seeing a few new team names.

Historically, fans have become more enamoured with players, following them as they moved from team to team, rather than locking their support to a singular organisation.

This could change as we see the teams become a permanent fixture of the league, and as the players are locked down to longer, more lucrative contracts.

Overwatch League

On the other hand, the Overwatch League is potentially a much bigger risk for team owners.

Competitive Overwatch has been around since the game came out in 2016, but it's still yet to take off in a way that it will challenge the numbers of League of Legends and Dota 2.

Viewers complain that the fast paced game is hard to follow, and Blizzard has had a few issues with balancing the heroes. At the moment, a team without a Mercy in it isn't really a team at all.

The Overwatch League will start its inaugural season on January 10, 2018, with 12 teams

Despite this, 12 teams have paid the $20 million (£14.9 million) entry fee to join the League, which will kick off with its inaugural season on January 10.

Some preseason matches have already taken place. Thankfully, Blizzard has worked to improve the viewing experience, and although there are still some issues, watching Overwatch esports is much better than it was before.

Of course, for the likes of Robert Kraft, a $20 million investment down the drain if the OWL doesn't work out won't give him too many sleepless nights. Same goes for Stan Kroenke, owner of Arsenal, the LA Rams, and now the Los Angeles Gladiators Overwatch team.

The teams are representing global cities, and many having backing from big organisations

But for some of the other teams in the League from traditional esports organisations, $20 million could be a tough, very expensive, pill to swallow if it doesn't get off the ground.

With all that money on the line though, the teams will have extreme interest in making sure the League does do well in its first year.

Huge sponsors like Intel and HP are already involved too, for multiple years, so the infrastructure should already in place.

A spot in the Overwatch League cost $20 million, so teams will be pushing for it to succeed

Plus, the League and the teams have said they will be working hard to create extra content around the matches that will engage fans.

NBA 2K League

Another new addition to the esports calendar in 2018 is the NBA 2K League, and it's the one with the most direct sports team involvement.

17 NBA teams have signed on for the first season of the league, and the organisers will be hoping the remaining 13 will join up in the future.

There's not a particularly large esports scene surrounding NBA 2K at the moment, but Managing Director of the 2K League Brendan Donohue believes there's definitely an appetite for it.

The NBA 2K is a highly popular sports game, and there will soon be an esports league for it

He says a regular NBA fan should be able to make the crossover to the esport naturally, especially as the 1.6 million daily active users the game has probably watch the NBA too.

Donohue also says that '73% of 2K players are playing another game that would be considered a traditional esport.'

Starting in May, there will be regular competitive matches between teams consisting of five actual players.

The teams will be associated with their real life counterparts, and will have five real players

It could be the most accessible esport to a casual audience, because if you understand what basketball is, you'll understand 2K18.

If the new NA LCS, the Overwatch League, and the NBA 2K League do well, it'll only pave the way for more interest from sports teams in the future.

If they don't, it'll be back to the drawing board in terms of trying to make esports appeal to the mass market. That doesn't mean esports will go away, but it'll be a setback, and it will take just a little longer to get into the mainstream.

CS:GO, Hearthstone, PUBG, and more

Plenty of other games are going through overhauls next year too, and new games are coming out all the time.

Not every game is worthy of becoming an esport, and many have tried and failed to push themselves on the community.

It looks like the next big thing will be PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds though, despite still being technically unfinished.

There have been a couple of official PUBG tournaments so far, and although there are certainly some teething issues, it seems people are very interested in seeing it go further.

Counter-Strike is almost synonymous with esports, and the way its Major tournaments work is undergoing some changes in 2018 too.

Hearthstone is a competitive card game, and there will be higher prize money on offer in 2018

The year ahead for competitive card game Hearthstone is looking good, with more events, and higher prize money almost across the board.

Much like with the NBA, games based on other sports are also gaining traction in the esports industry. There are now more roads to the FIFA eWorld Cup than ever, and recently the first ever F1 Esports World Champion was crowned.

Mobile esports are taking off too, with the likes of Clash Royale and Vainglory getting bigger and bigger.

It seems as though the entire industry is shifting into a higher gear, and with the possibility of Japanese esports on the horizon, the market is going to grow even more.

No matter what happens, 2018 is going to be an exciting year for the esports industry. The world has already started to take notice, so now it's up to the teams and players to put on a show.