Developing Czech esports scene — MČR 2022 sets league's viewership record

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The esports scene is geographically diverse, but some countries remain almost inconspicuous compared to such giants as the United States, China, Germany or Sweden. One of these countries is the Czech Republic, which also has its own tournament series, esports organizations and professional players. The Esports Charts article covers this topic in more detail.

The Czech Republic is a relatively small European country that does not have many star esports players. Nevertheless, there are some still: among them are Humanoid and Carzzy in League of Legends, Supream^ and SabeRLight in Dota 2, Oskar and NEOFRAG in CS:GO and others. As for Czech organizations and teams, we can mention nEophyte and eSuba, which are among the oldest esports clubs in Europe, founded back in 1999 and 2004, respectively. In addition there are a number of relatively young organizations like Entropiq, SINNERS Esports, Dynamo Eclot and other teams. They are not often seen at international tournaments, but these teams are an integral part of the Czech esports scene.

Vodafone PLAYzone arena / photo: playzone.cz

PLAYzone plays an important role in the development of Czech esports. It owns one of the largest esports news sites in the country, as well as a tournament venue that hosts tournaments in various disciplines. In addition to online events, PLAYzone organizes LAN tournaments for Czech players in Prague and Brno. PLAYzone also has its own esports arena with a stage, playing rooms and a spectator area.

One of PLAYzone's main game series is Mistrovství České Republiky (hereinafter MČR), which is literally the Czech championship, covering several games at once: CS:GO, FIFA, PUBG, League of Legends, etc. 

MČR 2022 viewership statistics

MČR 2022 in CS:GO took place from November 2 to 6, at the BVV Trade Fairs in Brno, which hosted eight teams competing for a prize pool of $80K. SINNERS Esports won the tournament by defeating eSuba 2:1 in the Grand Final.

MČR 2022 is remarkable because it became the most popular tournament in the history of the series. Matches of the event totaled 3.9K Average Viewers. The Grand Final became the most popular encounter at the tournament, and SINNERS Esports was ahead of all other teams by Hours Watched (107K) and Average Viewers (5.5K).

MČR 2022 saw the Peak Viewers number of 15.3K people — 5K more than at the same tournament in 2021. Considering all the tournaments by PLAYzone, MČR 2022 is in the Top 3 by PV and in second place by HW. Tipsport Cup Prague 2022 is the leader by all metrics.

Top 5 most popular PLAYzone tournaments

CS:GO championships are the most popular with viewers among all PLAYzone tournaments. At the same time, the interest in them is growing year by year, which shows the steady development of the domestic esports scene. For example, MČR championships are casted only in Czech, so the increase in the home audience here is more indicative.

PLAYzone is just one example of the way local TOs are developing national esports scenes in their countries. Relog Media and Fortuna Esports from Serbia, The One Game Agency from Croatia, KEY Events & Communication from Bulgaria and Esportmilla from Hungary are among other tournament operators in the region. In addition to tournaments for the domestic scene, they also run international online tournaments and leagues.