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How ESL is keeping in stride with esports tournament growth

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 9 min

After a couple of decades in the wilderness, esports is coming into its own as a form of mass media entertainment. The global esports viewer base is estimated to grow from 355 million in 2018 to 674 million in 2022, nearly a 90% jump, according to the Consumer Technology Association.

One company that has been in lockstep with this trend is ESL, a tournament organizer that has been around since 2000. At CES 2020, I caught up with Yvette Martinez-Rae, CEO of ESL North America, and Paul Brewer, senior vice president of brand partnerships at ESL North America. They were part of the esports track at CES 2020, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas last week.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.