Esports have grown big in the last decade, and competitive gaming is becoming increasingly popular amongst different demographics, as is gaming viewership. Experts expect the global esports market to continue growing steadily until 2029, and, according to data on the website of consumer and market data company Statista, they estimate it will grow to around 5.9 billion US dollars within the next few years.
This growth in popularity and the recovery of the gaming market from challenges such as a slowdown in investment and reduced sponsorship deals is good news for esports teams. These started to appear on the horizon when it became clear that competitive gaming didn’t have to be a solo endeavor and also had career path potential. Some teams have become very successful. Below is a look at successful esports teams in the last few years.
Team Liquid
As of October 2025, Dutch-founded Team Liquid is the most successful team in terms of winnings, having walked away from tournaments with more than 56 million dollars in total. Originally, the team started out as a StarCraft clan but became a professional esports team while remaining a community of esports lovers at heart. As well as competing, it has created a massive resource, Liquipedia, for gaming fans.
Team Liquid has won more than 70 premier tournaments. They play various games competitively, including “Dota,” “League of Legends,” “Counter-Strike 2” and “VALORANT,” but are especially known for their success in “Dota” and “League of Legends”. In 2024, the team won The International 13. Other recent successes include 1st place at PGL Wallachia Season and, both in 2024 and 2025, 2nd place at the Esports World Cup.
T1
T1 is a highly successful esports organization based in Seoul, South Korea. “VALORA|NT,” “League of Legends” and “Dota 2” are particular areas of team expertise, and its “League of Legends” outfit has won multiple “League of Legends” world championships (2013, 2015, 2016 and 2023.)
The team’s top player is the hugely successful “League of Legends” mid-laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, who exploded onto the scene in 2013 and has remained with T1 ever since, becoming not just a key player of the team but a favorite of the fans. Given the team’s success in LoL, and the presence of “Faker” on the team, T1 might be your preferred choice if you like to bet online on “LoL” contests.
T1 started in 2003 as SK Telecom T1 and was a collaboration between the legendary StarCraft player BoxeR (Lim Yo-Hwan) and South Korean telecommunications company SK Telecom. In 2019, US entertainment company joined T1 to take the team to the next level and rebranded SK1 Telecom T1 as “T1.” In 2020, the team announced it was partnering with Red Bull.
Team Spirit
Russian squad Team Spirit are big in the “Dota2” world and stunned the world when they went from being underdogs to winning The International 10 in October 2021. The team started out in 2015 under CEO Nikita “Cheshir” Chukalin and was formed with players from teams such as Cyber Anji, Polarity, Empire and LQ. Their International 10 victory was the product of numerous roster changes throughout six years of hard work, and they’d not just prepared themselves by spending lots of hours on “Dota2,” but also training mentally and physically. This gave them the strength to power through when Invictus Games sent them into the lower brackets, where they could have gone out easily.
Although “Dota2” is Team Spirit’s forte and the team won the Dream League Season 25 Grand Final in March 2025, the esports pros are also strong in “CS2.” In March 2025, they emerged as champions at IEM Cologne 2025, and in May 2025, they defeated Astralis 3-1 in the grand final at PGL Astrana 2025. This year, they signed a deal with Canadian gaming chair company Blacklyte in April 2025.
Evil Geniuses
North American organization Evil Geniuses (EG) began life in 1999 and entered the Counter-Strike arena in the early 2000s. It won its first CS championship in 2009 and became the IEM IV American Champions. The team would go on to leave its mark on “League of Legends,” “StarCraft,” and “Dota2” and win more than 215 championships, one of its biggest wins being the 2015 Dota2 Asian Championships.
In 2021, EG entered the VALORANT space and became a founding member of the 2022 VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) International League. In 2023, they became VALORANT World Champions. The organization celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024.
Esports have taken off in popularity in the last decade, and some notable teams have made their mark on the competitive front in recent years. Other strong teams to follow include French esports organization Team Vitality and UK team Tundra Sports.
