Esports has huge viewership potential. Last year alone, 22 million viewers watched esports broadcasts, according to NewZoo.
Such giants of the Russian market as Megafon, MTS, Tele2, Tinkoff Bank and other major brands do not ignore eSports. And the more solid sponsors, the more money the participants of the competitions have. Some of them earn hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars during their careers.
To select the best of the best in the world of Russian eSports, Forbes magazine experts did three things:
- We calculated the money (prize money, salaries and advertising contracts of players, invested funds of investors and revenue of eSports companies in 2018).
- We studied the influencing factor:
- how many times a particular player has won tournaments and what his personal statistics are;
- how often a particular team is mentioned in the media and what is its status;
- how quickly the business is growing financially and in terms of audience;
- how big is the audience of the broadcasts and YouTube channels, how prestigious is the tournament being organized, etc.
- We interviewed independent journalists specializing in eSports topics, as well as representatives of popular resources: Cybersport.ru, Cyber.Sports.ru, Kanobu, Igromania.
The result is a list of the most influential people in Russian and post-Soviet cybersport according to Forbes. Perhaps after reading it, you will stop scolding your children for playing too much.
10. Yaroslav Komkov
- Age: 33 years old
- Co-founder of Winstrike holding
- Company/organization: Winstrike
Before trying himself in the eSports field, Yaroslav worked in the film industry and journalism. He helped Sports.ru with the promotion of the eSports section, which eventually grew into an independent project.
This was followed by the creation of the Gamer Stadium club, but Komkov and his senior partner had different views, and Yaroslav independently launched the Winstrike project. This holding organizes tournaments, helps teams find sponsors, and does many other things related to eSports.
In September, the capital hosted a stage of the BLAST Pro Series world series in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive under the auspices of Winstrike. The prize fund was $250,000, and the tournament was sponsored by brands such as Toyota, Samsung, and others.
9. Alexey Solo Berezina
- Age: 29 years old
- Games: Dota 2
- Company/organization: ESforce Holding (Virtus.pro)
The captain of the Virtus Dota 2 team did not always strive for victories. Perhaps gamers have forgotten, but the RuNet remembers the story from 2013, when Berezina bet a hundred dollars on his team's loss and received 322 dollars.
When the tournament organizers found out about this, Solo was disqualified for life. However, he admitted his guilt, apologized, and the disqualification period was reduced to a year. The meme "322" remained as a memory of this, denoting a fixed match in various eSports disciplines.
Now, being one of the strongest Dota 2 players not only in Russia but also in the world, Solo consistently demonstrates good play, and even at The International 2019, which was a failure for Virtus.pro, he did everything in his power, according to Cybersport.ru.
8. Daniil Zeus Teslenko
- Age: 31 years old
- Games: CS:GO
- Company/organization: Na'Vi (before 2019)
Not many people manage to win the CS:GO World Championship even once. But Danyil Teslenko, captain of the Na'Vi team, managed to do it as many as five times. With the proud title of a five-time champion, he left the eSports arena in 2019.
By the way, this year Teslenko published a book, “In Spite of. The Path to Victory,” in which he tells in the first person about his long and winding path to the top of gaming fame.
7. Anton Cherepennikov
- Age: 36 years old
- Co-founder of ESforce Holding
- Company/organization: ESforce Holding (until 2019), "ICS Holding"
One of the most famous people in Russian eSports actively contributed to the revival of the Virtus.pro club and helped it develop into one of the largest eSports organizations in the world - the ESforce holding.
However, in 2019, Cherepennikov decided to step away from the world of eSports and focused his efforts on his multidisciplinary IT structure, ICS Holding, whose interests lie in the field of telecom media and technology.
6. Roman Dvoryankin
- Age: 33 years old
- General Manager Virtus.pro
- Company/organization: ESforce Holding
The main Russian eSports club Virtus.pro is always on everyone's lips. But how many people know who runs it? Well, if you didn't know, it's time to get acquainted.
Roman Dvoryankin, with the help of investments from Alisher Usmanov (5th place in the ranking of the most influential people in eSports in Russia) and using his own management talents, allows the Virtus to stay afloat and successfully compete with foreign clubs.
Under his watchful eye, the Virtus.pro team, participating in Dota 2 tournaments, achieved its most famous victories. Which, however, did not prevent it from disbanding after an inglorious performance at The International 2019. Two ex-Virtus players, Roman RAMZEs Kushnarev and Pavel 9pasha Khvastunov, moved to other teams.
5. Alisher Usmanov
- Age: 66 years old
- Investor, ESforce Holding
- Company/organization: ESforce Holding
Although Alisher Burkhanovich himself is from the generation that did not play computer games, he actively promotes the development of eSports in the former USSR.
Usmanov's Mail.ru Group acquired the leader of Russian eSports, the holding company ESforce, for $100 million. And in 2019, it transferred 51% of ESforce shares to the international game publisher Modern Pick. But not for money and not for free, but for a "small share" in Modern Pick. The Vedomosti publication valued it at 16%.
4. Alexander Kokhanovsky
- Age: 36 years old
- Founder of Na'Vi, DreamTeam, co-founder of ESforce Holding
- Company/organization: Na'Vi, DreamTeam
Cyber wars as part of the famous Ukrainian teams eXtremely Bad and GSC Pro-Team are a thing of the past for Alexander Kokhanovsky.
And in the present, he works at Zero Gravity Group, which includes the Na'Vi eSports club and the DreamTeam platform, which helps aspiring eSports players find teammates, hone their gaming skills, and earn virtual rewards and real money.
3. Vitaly V1lat Volochay
- Age: 33 years old
- eSports commentator
- Company/organization: Maincast
Commentators are loved and hated almost as much as athletes in any sport. And computer games are no exception. Vitaly Volochai is the most popular commentator of eSports competitions in the post-Soviet space.
Volochai has extensive experience as a commentator in various disciplines, as well as participation in the RuHub project (he was one of its co-founders). However, last year this studio, along with other ESforce assets, was absorbed by Mail.ru Group, and Vitaly, together with another ex-representative of RuHub, Andrey x3m4eg Grigoriev, founded his own company Maincast in Kyiv.
2. Alexander S1mple Kostylev
- Age: 22 years old
- Games: CS:GO
- Company/organization: Na'Vi
In 2018, Alexander became the strongest CS:GO player in the world according to HLTV.org, one of the leading sites dedicated to Counter-Strike. So far, no athlete from the former Soviet Union has been able to take S1mple's title.
And although there are periodic rumors that Kostylev intends to leave Na'Vi, his cooperation with the main eSports club of Ukraine has successfully continued from 2016 to the present day.
Esports Earnings estimates Alexander's prize pool at a minimum of $540,000. And his salary could reach tens of thousands of dollars per year.
1. Roman Ramzes Kushnarev
- Age: 20 years
- Games: Dota 2
- Company/organization: Evil Geniuses
Not every young person in Russia can boast that they have earned over $1.7 million in their career through their own efforts. But this is exactly the amount that, according to Esports Earnings experts, Roman Kushnarev has received in prize money for all his games since 2015.
Roman is the first Russian eSports athlete to become an ambassador (promoter to the masses) of the Head & Shoulders brand.
He is also the first player in the post-Soviet space to score 10 thousand points in Dota.
Ramzes started playing this game back in school to kill time. And he received his first fee of 1000 rubles for local tournaments at a club in Novokuznetsk. It is unlikely that the young man thought that at 18 he would be able to buy himself an apartment with the fees from the tournaments.
Roman does not plan to rest on his laurels. Having parted ways with the Russian team Virtus.pro in September, he moved to the American Evil Geniuses. The amount of this transfer (with bonuses) is from 250 thousand to 300 thousand dollars.
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