The History of FPS Esports: From Doom to Valorant

First-person shooters (FPS) are one of the oldest genres in competitive gaming. Organized shooter tournaments go back to the mid-1990s, and the genre's biggest title, Counter-Strike, has had a professional scene for more than 25 years. This article covers how FPS esports got here, what sets the main competitive shooters apart, and where to follow them.

See also our articles on MOBA, RTS, battle royale, fighting game and card game esports.

Before the genre had a name

The first-person shooter predates home PCs. Maze War, written in 1973 at NASA's Ames Research Center, put players in a wireframe maze where they could see and shoot each other, and was later played over networked computers. Spasim (1974) on the University of Illinois PLATO system did something similar with spaceships. Through the 1980s, games such as MIDI Maze (1987) on the Atari ST let several players hunt each other over linked machines, which is about as close to a LAN tournament as that decade got.

Maze War gameplay — Maze War (1973), the NASA Ames maze game usually credited as the first first-person shooter.

id Software and the 1990s breakthrough

The genre took its modern form at id Software. Wolfenstein 3D (May 1992), a reimagining of Muse Software's 1981 stealth game Castle Wolfenstein, set the template of fast movement through a 3D-looking world. It was single-player, though, and the competitive side of the genre really started with Doom (December 1993). Doom's network mode introduced "deathmatch", and Microsoft's Deathmatch '95 event, run to promote Windows 95, is often cited as one of the first organized esports tournaments.

Wolfenstein 3D gameplay — Wolfenstein 3D (1992) set the look and pace that later competitive shooters built on.

Quake (1996) moved the genre to true 3D and, just as importantly, to playing over the internet. Its movement tricks such as strafe-jumping and rocket-jumping rewarded mechanical skill in a way spectators could appreciate. The Red Annihilation tournament at E3 1997, won by Dennis "Thresh" Fong, famously awarded John Carmack's own Ferrari as the top prize. QuakeCon, which began as a fan LAN in 1996, still runs every year in Texas.

Doom II gameplay — Doom II. Doom's network deathmatch is where competitive FPS play began.

Quake Live gameplay — Quake Live, the free-to-play continuation of the Quake III Arena duel scene.

The arena shooter era peaked around the turn of the century with Quake III Arena (1999) and Unreal Tournament (1999). Early pro organizations such as the Cyberathlete Professional League (founded 1997) built their first circuits around these games, and duel players were among the first people anywhere to earn a living from playing video games.

Unreal Tournament 3 gameplay — Unreal Tournament 3. Arena shooters dominated competitive FPS before team-based tactical games took over.

From arena duels to team shooters

The big shift of the 2000s was from one-versus-one reflex contests to team games built on economy, utility and coordination. Those are easier for viewers to follow, and they support five-player organizations with sponsors, coaches and analysts. Nearly every major FPS esport today is team-based.

Counter-Strike (1999 onwards)

Counter-Strike started in 1999 as a Half-Life mod made by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess Cliffe, and Valve soon took it over. Its round-based format, with attackers planting a bomb, defenders stopping them, and money carried between rounds, has barely changed in 25 years, which is a big reason the scene has lasted so long. Counter-Strike 1.6 carried the early 2000s, CS:GO (2012) took the game global and introduced Valve-sponsored Majors in 2013, and Counter-Strike 2 replaced CS:GO on the Source 2 engine in September 2023.

The professional calendar is run by tournament organizers rather than Valve. ESL, BLAST, PGL and others run the big events, and Valve sanctions two Majors a year. Since 2025 Valve's rules have also required invitations to come from open, ranking-based qualification rather than closed partner leagues, so smaller teams have a clearer route to the top events.

CS:GO gameplay — Counter-Strike. The bomb-defusal format has carried the biggest FPS esports scene for over two decades.

On Esportsresults, the CS2 page lists pro matches with live map and round scores. Our CS2 power rankings are an Elo rating calculated from finished matches since July 2025, and CS2 transfers lists roster changes as we spot them.

Halo (2001 onwards)

Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) proved shooters could work on a controller, and Halo 2's online play on Xbox Live made it the flagship game of Major League Gaming in the mid-2000s. That period brought console esports onto North American television for the first time. Halo's competitive scene is smaller now, but it remains the foundation of console FPS esports.

Halo Infinite gameplay — Halo Infinite, the latest entry in the series that defined competitive console shooters.

Battlefield (2002 onwards)

Battlefield 1942 (2002) was built around large maps, vehicles and dozens of players. That made it an enormous casual hit and a hard esport, since 32-versus-32 battles are almost impossible to follow as a spectator. Battlefield clan leagues existed, especially in Europe, but the series never developed a lasting pro circuit and is included here mostly as a contrast with the five-a-side games that did.

Battlefield 4 gameplay — Battlefield 4. Large-scale combat made Battlefield a casual hit but a difficult spectator esport.

Call of Duty (2003 onwards)

Call of Duty was played competitively on PC from its early years, but its esports identity is on console. The Call of Duty Championship started in 2013, and in 2020 Activision replaced the open circuit with the Call of Duty League, a franchised league of city-based teams playing four-versus-four. Because a new Call of Duty comes out every year, the competitive game changes every season. That keeps the scene fresh, but players have to relearn maps and weapons every autumn.

Call of Duty Warzone gameplay — Call of Duty: Warzone. The franchise changes its competitive title every year.

Follow Call of Duty League matches on our Call of Duty page.

Rainbow Six Siege (2015 onwards)

The Rainbow Six series started in 1998 as a slow, planning-heavy tactical shooter. Rainbow Six Siege (December 2015) wasn't conceived as an esport, and its launch was rocky, but its destructible walls, operator abilities and one-life rounds turned out to make excellent competitive viewing. Ubisoft's Pro League began within months of release, and the scene now runs on regional leagues feeding international Majors and the Six Invitational, the game's world championship, held each February.

Rainbow Six Siege gameplay — Rainbow Six Siege. Destructible maps and one-life rounds make every engagement high-stakes.

See live and recent results on our Rainbow Six Siege page and the current order on our R6 power rankings.

Overwatch (2016 onwards)

Blizzard's Overwatch brought the "hero shooter" to esports: each player picks a character with unique abilities, so team composition matters as much as aim. The Overwatch League (2018–2023) was the most ambitious franchised experiment in esports, with city-based teams and multi-million-dollar franchise fees. It ended after the 2023 season and was replaced in 2024 by the Overwatch Champions Series, a more conventional open circuit.

Overwatch gameplay — Overwatch. Blizzard's hero shooter tested the franchised city-league model in esports.

Our Overwatch page carries the Champions Series and other pro matches.

Valorant (2020 onwards)

Riot Games released Valorant in June 2020: a five-versus-five, round-based, bomb-plant game in Counter-Strike's mold, with Overwatch-style character abilities layered on top. Riot runs the competitive structure itself. The Valorant Champions Tour has, since 2023, been built on partnered international leagues (Americas, EMEA and Pacific, with China added as a fourth in 2024) feeding international Masters events and the season-ending Champions, with the open Challengers tier underneath. In just a few years it has become the second-largest tactical shooter scene after Counter-Strike.

Valorant gameplay — Valorant. Riot's tactical shooter combines Counter-Strike's round structure with character abilities.

Follow VCT matches on our Valorant page, see our Valorant power rankings, and track roster moves on Valorant transfers.

Which FPS esport is the biggest?

Counter-Strike, measured by number of tournaments, professional teams, all-time prize money or how long it has lasted. Valorant is its closest rival and draws very large audiences for its international events, particularly in Asia-Pacific. Rainbow Six Siege and Call of Duty each have dedicated scenes with their own structures, and Overwatch rebuilt itself as a smaller open circuit after its franchise league ended. If you're new to FPS esports, Counter-Strike's Majors or a Valorant Masters event are the easiest places to start.

What makes a shooter work as an esport

Looking back over three decades, the shooters that lasted as esports have a few things in common:

Readable rounds. Short, self-contained rounds with a clear objective (plant the bomb, wipe the team) give viewers natural moments of tension. Huge sandbox modes, like Battlefield's, rarely do.
Stability. Counter-Strike's core rules have barely changed since 1999, so skills and storylines carry over for years. Games that are rebuilt every year, like Call of Duty, have to rebuild their competitive game as well.
An open path to the top. Scenes where new teams can qualify into the biggest events tend to outlast closed leagues, as the end of the Overwatch League showed.

Those patterns explain why a 25-year-old bomb-defusal format is still at the top of the genre, and why every new tactical shooter is measured against it.