Tournament Platforms for Amateur Esports Teams
Bogdan LashchenkoOnline gaming has grown increasingly popular over the past few years, and with that, so have competitive games. While most gamers stick to the in-game matchmaking service when playing, Counter-Strike heavily relies on third-party platforms, especially regarding the growth of its competitive and professional scene. Anyone looking to go pro moves away from Valve’s matchmaking, but the question is, out of all the platforms, which one is the best for distinguishing yourself and becoming a professional player? In this list, we’ll take you through the best platforms while also presenting their pros and cons. So let’s get into it!
ESEA
Owned by ESL, ESEA is one of the leading third-party platforms in Counter-Strike. With servers in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, Latin America, and even South Africa, it’s one of the most popular alternatives to Valve’s in-game matchmaking. The platform offers a wide array of features such as 128 tick servers, an industry leading anti-cheat, and a league system. While it’s the platform used for all ESL and IEM qualifiers, ESEA also has five divisions: Open, Intermediate, Main, Advanced, and Premier. It’s a great tool for newly-formed amateur teams to play against other squads of a similar level; starting from Open, eventually reaching the semi professional level in Premier, and even the professional level by qualifying for ESL Pro League. ESEA’s other main feature is its PUG platform, which allows players to focus on their individual performance. ESEA also recently released Refrag, which allows players to learn new utility lineups through NADR, view strategies in real time with Restrat, and learn which spots to prefire with the aptly named Prefire. While most of ESEA’s services are available through the purchase of Premium, which costs $6.95/month, Refrag is only available to users who purchase Insider, which costs $14.95/month. All in all, ESEA is insanely popular and genuinely considered a go-to for anyone looking to go pro.
FACEIT
With a rivalry nearly matching that of Coca Cola and Pepsi, FACEIT is ESEA’s main competitor in Counter-Strike. As a PUG platform, ESEA has historically been more popular in North America, while FACEIT has largely been the choice in Europe. Besides EU and NA, FACEIT is also available in Southeast Asia, Oceania, Latin America, and South Africa. While FACEIT doesn’t feature a league system like ESEA, it is also very commonly used for various qualifiers outside of ESL and DreamHack’s circuit. FACEIT’s main advantage, however, is that it isn’t just a Counter-Strike platform, it’s also a third-party service for other popular titles such as TF2, PUBG, R6 Siege, Rocket League, etc. As such, users can choose to get a game subscription, which gives access to Premium Matchmaking, account ELO, Leagues and Ladders for a chance to win prizes, or Premium, which gives access to all of that and much more across all games. FACEIT is also accessible for free if you’re wanting to test out the services beforehand or if you’re just a casual player.
WePlay Compete
WePlay Compete is the newly-created tournament platform of Ukrainian tournament operator WePlay Esports. As of right now, WePlay Compete is only available in Europe and Eastern Europe, but features a wide range of tournaments every day. There are 1v1 tournaments with various weapons, such as rifles, AWPs, or pistols, 2v2 tournaments, and even 5v5 tournaments. The prize pool varies depending on the nature of the tournament, but placing in the top 3 guarantees that you walk away with a Steam gift card. Given that WePlay Compete is newer in the space, there aren’t as many users, which means you’re more likely to place higher in the tournaments and stand-out to potential teams. It’s a great way to earn money, especially if you’re confident is your individual skills, and with daily tournaments for EU and CIS, there’s always an opportunity to win. WePlay Compete also features tournaments for Dota 2 (1v1 or 5v5), Mortal Kombat 11, Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so there’s something for everyone. WePlay Compete even has a Premium feature for $4.99/month, which gives access to unique tournaments with higher prize pools, gives you priority support from admins, and allows you to distinguish yourself further.
Esportal
Esportal is a third-party matchmaking service based in Sweden. While Esportal’s main market is the Nordic countries, it also has servers in Poland and the DACH region. Esportal works with Nordic esports organizations such as Astralis, HAVU Gaming, and 777 Esports to create tournaments for the various Nordic countries and develop those local scenes. The platform focuses on creating an environment free from toxicity by removing cheaters, trolls, and even people who purposefully go AFK. Much like how Uber has a five-star rating for its customers and drivers, Esportal allows players to rate each other, thus discouraging people from engaging in potentially negative behaviour. Esportal also operates on a freemium business model, allowing players to test the services for free, but also offering two subscriptions: Prime and Premium. Prime gives players access to Prime matchmaking, which requires everyone to use their microphones and communicate throughout the game, Prime tournaments, and priority support from admins, all for ~$4.12/month. Premium, which costs ~$11.79/month, includes all the Prime bonuses, offers a wide range of statistics, gives random skin and gear drops after games, and gives access to Star Gathers, in which players can play with pros or other high-profile players and guarantee one rare drop. While Esportal only operates in Europe and doesn’t have a team league, it is a great alternative for PUGs and is being used by an increasing number of Nordic tournament operators for qualifiers.
Challengermode
Challengermode doesn’t operate as a PUG platform, but only as a tournament platform. Much like FACEIT, Challengermode operates over a large number of games, such as Counter-Strike, Dota 2, League of Legends, Rocket League, VALORANT, and Teamfight Tactics. Challengermode organizes its own events, but also works with outside brands, such as OMEN by HP and Red Bull, to organize events. The prizes vary immensely on what tournament you register for, and so too does the cost for Premium. You can sign up to play in Marathon Weeks’ 1v1 CS:GO aim tournaments, but if you wanted to play in their Premium tournaments, you would need to buy a Marathon Weeks Premium subscription for ~$2.35/month, which would allow you to play in any of their Premium tournaments on Challengermode. So while Challengermode isn’t great for becoming a professional player, it’s a good platform if you’re looking to participate in a variety of tournaments in different games. It’s worth mentioning that Challengermode is only available in Europe, North America, and South America, but it really depends on what tournaments are happening at that point in time.
Regional platforms
While ESEA and FACEIT are available nearly everywhere, there may be a more popular local alternative depending on where you live. In Latin America, for example, GamersClub is the most popular third-party platform. In China and parts of Asia, 5EPlay is the popular alternative. In India, it’s SoStronk. In Oceania, LetsPlay.Live hosts some CS:GO tournaments. As for South Africa, VS Gaming is one of the main tournament operators. These platforms are crucial in developing and sustaining the local scenes, and may often do a better job of serving these regions than the titans of ESEA and FACEIT.
PopFlash
The final platform on this list is PopFlash. PopFlash is a simple alternative to setting up scrims with your team, or even with a large group of friends. While there are a wide number of other scrim platforms available, with ESEA even having its own service, PopFlash really stands out by its ease of use. The person creating the lobby must be a PopFlash Supporter ($4.99/month), after which they send the lobby link to their friends, and once 10 people are in the lobby, you can launch the match and connect to a server. Currently, PopFlash has servers in North America, Europe, Oceania, Turkey, and Singapore. It’s straightforward, and is growing in popularity with streamers who want to play with their community without the hassle of managing invites.
Bogdan Lashchenko – content manager at EgamersWorld.Bogdan has been working at EGamersWorld since 2023. Joining the company, he began fillin the site with information, news and events.