The competitive gaming landscape is a vibrant, ever-evolving ecosystem, a dazzling spectacle where new champions rise and innovative titles vie for supremacy. The ongoing Esports World Cup, for instance, parades a diverse roster of games, some perhaps unfamiliar to even seasoned fans. Yet, for every new star that ascends, there are others that quietly — or not so quietly — recede into the shadows. This cyclical nature of success and obsolescence is a stark reminder that ambition alone does not guarantee immortality in the cutthroat world of esports. We delve into the compelling stories of five major esports disciplines that once harbored grand visions of professional grandeur but ultimately succumbed to the unforgiving realities of the industry.
Paladins: The Budget Battler`s Unfulfilled Destiny
Launched as an open beta just months after its genre rival, Overwatch, Hi-Rez Studios` Paladins was often perceived as the more accessible, less graphically demanding alternative – or, as some affectionately put it, “Overwatch for your calculator PC.” Despite its cartoonish fantasy aesthetic and familiar class-based shooter mechanics (tanks, damage, support, flankers, and even mountable steeds), Paladins distinguished itself with a unique perk-buying system. What it lacked in Blizzard`s marketing budget, it initially compensated for with an earnest attempt at a professional scene.
Early tournaments kicked off in 2017, drawing the attention of prominent organizations like Virtus.pro, NAVI, NIP, and Team Envy. Hi-Rez even hosted large-scale LAN events, including a $300,000 World Championship in Atlanta in 2019. The ecosystem seemed complete: dedicated broadcast studios, regional qualifiers, and professional teams. However, Paladins faced an insurmountable hurdle that also plagued its more polished counterpart: viewership. Both games were notoriously challenging for spectators, demanding an observer with superhuman agility to capture every critical moment without inducing dizziness or, worse, boredom. While Overwatch could pour marketing dollars into its glitzy League, Paladins simply couldn`t compete. Peak concurrent viewership rarely topped 100,000. In early 2021, Hi-Rez announced the end of official esports support, and by 2025, the game itself is slated to cease active development. The servers may still hum, but the dream of a vibrant professional circuit has long since flatlined.
GWENT: A Witcher`s Gambit That Fell Flat
Born from a wildly popular minigame within The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, GWENT was CD Projekt RED`s ambitious foray into the collectible card game (CCG) genre. It had all the makings of a breakout success, mirroring the legendary origins of Dota 2 from a Warcraft III mod. Official tournaments began as early as 2017, even during its beta phase, featuring mechanics significantly different from its eventual official release. CD Projekt RED’s commitment was evident, staging events in unique, thematically appropriate locales – from historic castles to atmospheric salt mines – adding a delightful touch of eccentricity to the competitive circuit.
With LAN events offering $100,000 prize pools (one of which notably featured former The International champion Peter `ppd` Dager) and online leagues boasting $25,000, GWENT boasted a complete professional season culminating in a $250,000 World Championship. It was beautiful, soulful, and undeniably Polish. Yet, like many CCGs, GWENT struggled to captivate a broad audience, with peak viewership rarely exceeding 50,000. The official release in late 2018 brought visual enhancements but also significant, and often unpopular, changes to its core mechanics and balance. Despite continued support for several more years, the grand, unique LANs vanished, prize pools dwindled, and the final official event, a modest World Championship, took place in 2023. Shortly thereafter, CD Projekt RED handed the game entirely over to its community, effectively ending its official support and, with it, any hope of a professional esports future.
Heroes of the Storm: Blizzard`s Unprofitable Masterpiece
Among the list of departed esports disciplines, Heroes of the Storm (HotS) arguably holds the most melancholic tale. This MOBA, featuring heroes from across Blizzard`s vast universes, was hailed as a revolutionary take on the genre, attempting to innovate rather than merely clone the successes of Dota 2 and League of Legends. HotS found an initial audience, and its esports scene blossomed rapidly. The first World Championship in 2015 saw powerhouse teams like Cloud9, NAVI, MVP, Fnatic, and Dignitas fielding rosters. The professional circuit was robust, with transitional events offering prize pools ranging from $100,000 to $400,000, and a coveted million-dollar World Championship annually at BlizzCon.
HotS esports, by all appearances, was an S-tier discipline: high-quality production, dedicated studios, enthusiastic live audiences, and renowned team tags. Blizzard even initiated a collegiate league in the US, mirroring traditional sports models. However, beneath this glossy veneer, whispers of financial underperformance began to circulate. Blizzard had entered the MOBA arena late, struggling to contend with the established giants, and wrestled with a suitable monetization strategy. Then, a month after the successful conclusion of the 2018 World Championship, Blizzard dropped a bombshell: the immediate freezing of the esports scene. HotS esports was not a comatose patient; it was a functioning, albeit unprofitable, operation. The sudden, decisive cut-off marked the end of professional HotS. While community-funded events have since surfaced, they are mere echoes of a once-vibrant past. By 2022, Blizzard formally ceased active development on the game itself.
Wild Rift: Riot`s Late Mobile MOBA Gamble
When Riot Games, the undisputed titan behind League of Legends, announced a mobile adaptation – Wild Rift – the industry held its breath. The combination of the world`s most popular MOBA with the burgeoning mobile platform, spearheaded by a company renowned for its esports prowess, seemed an infallible recipe for success. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, timing. Riot was woefully late to the mobile MOBA party, a market already dominated by established behemoths like Honor of Kings and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB), both celebrating their fifth anniversaries by the time Wild Rift launched in late 2020. Capturing significant market share and establishing a competitive esports base was an uphill battle.
Drawing on their extensive experience, Riot launched its first tier-1 championship a year after release, featuring a $500,000 prize pool and teams like Team Secret and TSM. Despite Riot`s best efforts, viewership was lukewarm, peaking at a modest 62,000 viewers. Undeterred, Riot went all-in for the inaugural Wild Rift World Championship a year later, deploying their full marketing arsenal: cinematics, music videos, elaborate stage designs in Singapore, and celebrity endorsements. The prize pool was boosted to an impressive two million dollars. Yet, the outcome was not just disappointing, it was catastrophic: peak viewership dropped to a mere 54,000 viewers, failing to even sustain interest into the playoffs. For context, Honor of Kings commanded nearly 400,000 concurrent viewers, and MLBB regularly breached several million. Months later, Riot announced the cessation of esports support in all regions except Asia, where a scaled-down, localized scene quietly persists. While Riot now experiments with entertainment-focused “Wild Rounds” featuring content creators, it’s a far cry from the global professional circuit it once envisioned.
Auto Chess: The Genre That Burned Too Brightly
Remember the unprecedented “auto battler” craze of 2019? It began with the humble Dota Auto Chess custom map, which not only boosted Dota 2`s average player count by 25% in months but also spawned an entire new genre. Valve launched Dota Underlords, Riot unveiled Teamfight Tactics, and the original creators, Drodo, released a standalone version aptly named Auto Chess, backed by Dragonest. At that moment, auto battlers seemed poised to be the next big thing in esports, fueled by insane initial interest – the mod alone garnered 7 million unique players and 300,000 average concurrent players.
Drodo and Dragonest naturally believed their standalone title would inherit this fervent enthusiasm. Early, smaller events had already begun with the custom map, but the standalone Auto Chess made a grand entrance, announcing a million-dollar World Championship. At the time, only a handful of top-tier esports titles could boast such a prize pool. The 32-player international tournament took place in Shanghai, but official broadcasts were exclusively for the Chinese audience, making Western viewership metrics impossible to gauge. The outcome, however, spoke volumes: after the Auto Chess Invitational 2019, the creators` appetite for significant esports investment seemingly vanished. Smaller events continued, but the dream of million-dollar championships was over. The last known international tournament was in 2021, and the broader hype surrounding the auto battler genre, affecting all titles, faded even sooner. The official Auto Chess website has seen no news updates since 2023, a silent testament to a genre that blazed bright and then quickly flickered out.
The stories of Paladins, GWENT, Heroes of the Storm, Wild Rift, and Auto Chess serve as poignant reminders of the esports industry`s inherent volatility. Whether it`s intense competition, elusive viewership, internal financial decisions, or simply being too late to the party, the path to esports longevity is fraught with peril. These games, despite their ambition, innovation, and significant investments, ultimately failed to capture the sustained attention and economic viability required to thrive. Their professional scenes now reside in the unsung graveyard of esports, cautionary tales echoing through the vibrant arenas of today, reminding us that even the most promising ventures can fall silent when the audience, or the business model, doesn`t quite click.
