2023 was a big year for esports. A new peak viewership record was set with 6.4M concurrent viewers for Worlds, thanks to community casters driving viewership up and growing popularity. Between new world champions, and organisations joining and leaving, the esports community changes drastically every year.
For this piece, we want to step aside from the statistically most-watched or most popular teams, and instead look at some of the newcomers, breakthroughs, and changes that made this year of esports great. Esports is not monolithic, and we wanted to reflect this by celebrating not only tournament viewership, but some of the greatest teams, players, and broadcasters that are changing the esports landscape. From around the world, and from all kinds of esports disciplines in the industry, here are our top picks for the esports newcomers of 2023.
VCS becoming a driving force in League of Legends viewership
Despite the modest beginnings of League of Legends esports in Vietnam, the country has quickly become one of the most important regions for League of Legends viewership. Originally, the VCS was not an official part of Riot Games’ League of Legends circuit but was instead organised by Garena.
Garena and Riot Games had a 12-year-long partnership, with Garena publishing Teamfight Tactics and League of Legends in Southeast Asia for Riot and running esports events for the disciplines in the region. In 2018, Riot Games began participating more directly with the VCS, and eventually, the league separated from the Garena Premier League, as the growing Vietnamese scene was beginning to become the dominant force of the region.
Cut forward to late 2022, and Riot Games announces they will be ending their partnership with Garena. Not only did this affect the publishing of Riot’s titles in the region, but the VCS was now going to be officially organised and operated by Riot Games directly.
The first year of the VCS entirely under Riot Games was hugely successful. Viewership for the VCS Spring and Summer Splits rose significantly, and the 2023 VCS events achieved a 30.4% higher peak viewership than their 2022 counterparts. Riot Games introduced a new official broadcaster for the Vietnamese scene, the Vietnam Championship Series - LMHT YouTube Live channel. This channel would be extremely important for Vietnamese viewership, not only locally, but internationally.
Worlds 2023 is where the new official VCS broadcaster showed its true potential. Compared to last year’s World Championship, where Vietnamese was the 6th best language by watch time, Vietnamese-language broadcasts became the third-largest contributor to the event’s watch time, behind only English and Korean. The Vietnam Championship Series - LMHT was the third-most-popular channel of Worlds 2023, and more than 800K concurrent Vietnamese-speaking fans watched the Grand Finals.
Read also: How did Worlds 2023 reach the highest peak viewership in esports history?
Vietnamese support of League of Legends has been growing in recent years, but Riot Games taking over the VCS and supplying the region with an official broadcaster has been a game-changer. Average concurrent viewers rose by over 214% in a single year at this year’s World Championship, and the regional VCS league is showing strong dynamics. Vietnamese attention for League of Legends is growing, and with the VCS in Riot Games’ hands, the region is in a strong position to continue to develop its viewership.
Team Lilgun of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
Team Lilgun is an esports organisation based out of Mongolia, and unless you’re an avid fan of the Dota Pro Circuit’s SEA divisions, you have likely not heard the name before this year. However, fans of mobile gaming esports disciple Mobile Legends: Bang Bang now know the name, thanks to Team Lilgun’s performance at the M5 World Championship.
Team Lilgun qualified for the Wildcard stage of the M5, as they conquered the ENC Mongolia event in September this year. They proceeded through the Wildcard stage undefeated and qualified for the main event. Every single team member of Team Lilgun was given an MVP award during the Wildcard, and Bebex was given the Wild Card Day 1 Star of the Day award.
Team Lilgun finished the Group Stage at the M5 last in their group, with a 1-2 score. This might seem anticlimactic, but consider that their opponent teams in the group have been names in ML:BB esports for four or five years, yet the M5 was Team Lilgun’s 6th-ever tournament in ML:BB.
Team Lilgun previously fronted a Dota 2 roster which competed in the DPC, but they sold their spot in early 2023 and eventually moved into Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. They picked up Aizn, Zxaura, Forbid, Bebex, and Ethan; excluding Zxaura, all of these players had previously competed together under the Team Positive organisation in 2021. The team was announced in April, leaving only 7 months only the M5 World Championship began.
The team competed in 5 events before the M5 began, beginning at the World Cyber Games 2023. They only finished 9-12th at this event, but it was the beginning of their journey to the World Championship. After the disappointing result of missing out on the top 8, they finished 1st at the four next events they competed in.
The key tournament for Team Lilgun was the ESN National Championship 2023. Organised by ESN in Mongolia, the tournament is the biggest annual Mongolian esports event, and the winner qualifies directly to the M5 Wildcard. Team Lilgun showed strong potential at the event, winning all of their games 2-0, excluding the Grand Final where they took a 4-2 victory over rival team Last Chance.
Although Team Lilgun were unable to proceed to the Knockout Stage of the M5 World Championship, they’ve shown true potential as a roster and managed to compete at the world’s most prestigious ML:BB event, after only a handful of tournaments together. The Mongolian team may become one of the world’s best teams with more time, so fans of ML:BB keep an eye out for Team Lilgun.
Shopify Rebellion wins the Game Changers Championship 2023
Valorant began the Game Changers competition in 2021, a separate league for women and marginalised genders to compete in. 2023 was to host the second-ever Championship event for the league, and teams were shuffling players and rosters around as the league found its feet. At the beginning of 2023, Version1 signed five players to their organisation to compete in the Valorant Game Changers Championship.
The Version1 roster of alexis, fluorescent, meL, Noia, and sarah started the year strong, and only three months after signing to the organisation together they won their first event: the Astral Clash 2023. The roster combined disciplined players, unrivalled firepower, and top-level strategies from IGL meL. Their first victory at Astral Clash was a good start for the new roster, and they kept competing and improving their gameplay.
Throughout 2023, Version1 competed in various events outside of Game Changers, not content only competing in the GC league. Later in the year, they competed in the Knights Arena Monthly Gauntlet 2023: October, where they finished 3rd-4th. They were knocked out in the semi-finals by Turtle Troop, who compete in the Valorant Challengers North America league. Although they weren’t able to win the event, they put up a strong resistance against the Challengers team.
Within the Game Changers league, Version1 were dominant. They won both Series 1 and 2 of North America and did not lose a single map in these two events. They were unfortunately not able to finish the season flawlessly, finishing in 2nd place at the third and final Series of the year.
After the final Series of the North America Game Changers league, the discipline went through a mix-up. Shopify Rebellion released their GC roster, and merged their other roster with Most Moguls: creating the new Moist x Shopify Rebellion team. Version1 ended up being acquired by Shopify Rebellion, and the dominant North American GC team now competed under Shopify Rebellion.
Under a new banner, Shopify Rebellion advanced to the Game Changers Championship in Brazil, where they faced some challenges. The competition at this event was a step ahead of the North American region, but Shopify Rebellion still advanced through the event. Things became tricky for the roster when their IGL, meL, tested positive for COVID.
MeL was confident she felt well enough to give it her all, and the tournament organisers allowed her to play in an isolated room wearing a mask. Despite being separated from her team, meL led the team through the Grand Final and they took home a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Team Liquid Brazil.
Between battling COVID and proving themselves as the North American GC powerhouse, the newly-branded Shopify Rebellion roster solidified themselves as world champions. For 2024, the team will likely continue to compete in events outside of the GC, consistently challenging themselves with all sorts of competition. 2023 was only their first year together as a roster, and the potential of the team seems limitless.
Monte breaks into Counter-Strike’s top 10
At the beginning of 2023, Monte was ranked barely within the top 50 of HLTV’s world ranking. At the end of the year, they now rank 7th and are the top-ranked Ukranian organisation within CS2 after overtaking Natus Vincere. How did Monte scale the ranks so quickly is the question on everyone’s mind.
In 2022, Monte formed their Counter-Strike roster, and Woro2k is the only surviving player from that initial 5-man team. Woro2k advanced through the lower tiers of the Ukrainian Counter-Strike scene, receiving high praise from s1mple while in between teams. S1mple had played with Woro2k in FPL and praised him as a potential breakout player for 2021. Woro2k eventually got his chance with Mad Lions in 2021, but was benched just before the end of the year. Eventually signing with Monte, he evolved into the player s1mple saw in FPL.
In January of 2023, Monte signed lmbt as a coach, who had previously worked with MOUZ, and sdy, a player who had most recently competed with NaVi as a stand-in on loan. Sdy brought some top-level experience to the roster and since he became the team’s IGL they have enjoyed a renaissance.
Monte spent the first few months of 2023 developing themselves: competing in regional CIS events and smaller tier-2 events. They competed in many Qualifier events, waiting for their chance to show their potential on the big stage. After advancing through multiple Qualifier events for the BLAST.tv Paris Major, Monte had finally earned their spot at the Major.
The Ukrainian organisation surprised many with their performance, managing a top 8 finish at the Major after only five months with their new IGL sdy. This was only the beginning for the team. They made their debut in the ESL Pro League, after winning the feeder series ESL Challenger League Season 44 before the Major, and finished in the top 4: ahead of teams such as G2 Esports, Team Vitality, and FaZe Clan.
Monte continued to finish strongly in higher-tier events, being invited to events with much stronger competition after showing what they were capable of. Monte’s big moment on stage came at the ESL Challenger at DreamHack Winter 2023. Monte looked in control the entire event, and after a 2-0 Grand Final victory they took home $50K in prize money.
What’s Monte’s secret? They’re one of the hardest-working teams in esports right now. After Monte won the ESL Challenger at DreamHack Winter 2023 event, we took a look at their statistics and found that Monte had played 123 official matches throughout 2023.
Read also: Monte wins first LAN tournament, becomes the fastest growing CS team in 2023
To contextualise this number, this made Monte the team with the second-most matches played of any esports team in our database for 2023. They were also the only Counter-Strike team to rank within the top 5 of this metric. Monte spent 2023 grinding and improving throughout various local CIS events and lower-tier Counter-Strike events.
When the chance came for Monte to compete on the big stage, all their many hours of practice came to fruition and they showed the world what they could do. If Monte can keep up their work ethic throughout 2024, they will likely be competing for Major championships. Monte is why people love esports. No matter who you are, with enough hard work and effort you can become a world champion. They’re not quite there just yet, but Monte’s breakthrough into the top tier of Counter-Strike in 2023 proves they are on the right path.
Monte’s success in Counter-Strike has not only been important for the players. The players have brought the esports organisation and brand name to the forefront of the scene, and the organisation has been using this success to expand their operations. They launched a Dota 2 team earlier in the year, and only in the latter months of 2023, Monte launched the Monte Gen roster, an academy Counter-Strike team. Monte Gen is already following in the footsteps of the main team, having recently won their first online tournament: United21 Season 8: Division 2.
Scump moving into community casting
Scump is a name known to any Call of Duty esports fan. He’s a world champion and competed for well over a decade, mainly under the OpTic Gaming banner. Scump has built up a successful Twitch channel for himself over the years, with his most popular content being his live streams of his POV competing in various esports events.
In early 2023, Scump retired from Call of Duty. He decided to remain under the OpTic Gaming organisation, but now as a streamer instead of a professional player. Since becoming a full-time content creator, Scump’s most popular content has become his watch parties for various esports events, where he has become one of the most-watched community casters in esports.
Scump’s transition into full-time streaming has been hugely successful, and throughout 2023 he has accumulated 26M Hours Watched. At the Call of Duty League 2023: Stage 3 Major, organised by Activision in collaboration with OpTic Texas, Scump set a new peak viewership record for his channel: reaching over 180K concurrent viewers during the Grand Final. Not only was this a personal record for his channel, but he also became the most popular broadcaster of the entire event.
Although Scump is a Call of Duty player through and through, he hasn’t restricted himself as a live streamer and community caster. Scump has become the face of the North American esports shooter scene, covering the esports disciplines with the most history in the region, like Call of Duty and Halo.
At the Halo World Championship 2023, Scump received over 54K Peak Viewers and 557K Hours Watched. This made him the second-most popular broadcaster of the entire event, falling only behind the official Halo Twitch channel. He was by far the most popular community caster of the event, receiving more than double the average concurrent viewers of tarik, who briefly covered the tournament.
With Esports Charts PRO, users can browse Scump’s player page and dive into the detailed statistics for all of the tournaments he has played in. Explore which of Scump’s moments were the most popular in broadcasting, or the viewership statistics for the tournaments of any of your favourite esports disciplines.
Between players, organisations, and casters, 2023 was a year to remember for esports. Viewership records were set, new teams exploded onto the international stage, and live streamers continued to grow their audience in the midst of it all.
Notable mentions
Donk (CS2, Team Spirit): Donk is a current rising star in the Counter-Strike scene, and quickly becoming a favourite player for many. He began 2023 competing with Team Spirit Academy, but after some dominant performances throughout the first half of the year, he was tapped to move up to the main roster. With Team Spirit, he has already won many online and offline events, and most recently was named MVP at BetBoom Dacha, becoming the second-youngest-ever player to receive the award at 16 years old.
Demon1 (Valorant, Evil Geniuses): Demon1 became a well-known sharpshooter, and sometimes antagonist, for the Valorant scene in 2023, but some fans might be surprised to learn that 2023 was his first year in the tier-1 scene of the esports discipline. After signing to Evil Geniuses, the roster quickly developed into a top-tier team under potter’s guidance as a coach. Demon1 was awarded MVP at the Valorant Champions 2023 event, and he helped his team to become world champions in only his first year of tier-1 competition.
Peyz (League of Legends, Gen.G): Peyz began competing in professional League of Legends at only 15 years old with Gen.G Academy. He would quickly advance to the Gen.G Challengers team, and after strong performances in tier 2, he advanced to the main Gen.G Esports roster just as 2022 ended. He needed no time to adjust to top-level play, winning Rookie of the Year awards, MVPs, and winning both Splits of the LCK with Gen.G. Although Gen.G could only manage a top 8 finish at Worlds 2023, the future looks bright for the Korean organisation with such budding talents.
2024 promises to be a successful year for esports, not only in terms of viewership but also competition. Various esports disciplines reached new viewership records, whilst also hosting competitive games and new faces. Keep on track of the ever-changing esports landscape with Esports Charts data analytics, the objective way to follow esports.
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