How to Follow Sports in 2026: The Beginner’s Guide for Gamers Who Want More
If you play a competitive game regularly, there is a natural drive to become better at it. You can try to learn using the videos, but if you want to watch your favorite game played at the highest levels, esports is the answer.
But with the already established circuits and stories, how does one get into esports? How does one go from a casual player to an esports fan?
This is our attempt to help you close that gap.
What Makes Esports Different From Watching a Random Stream
If you are already watching gaming content of your favorite game via content creator streams, esports are just a level higher. They are the highest form of skill expression with the very best in the world competing against each other in a structured format.
While the structure is seldom the concern, you watch players of similar calibre play the game you play at the highest level, trying to outplay each other.
The esports tournament structure usually only adds to this fun, especially when you are knee-deep in it. The group format can make or break your favorite team’s tournament. Watching the Swiss draws or unveiling a Playoff bracket only adds excitement to the fixtures.
All of this culminates in a single team standing on top, after taking down the strongest opponent or maybe just defeating the right opponents in the right order.
The Four Games Worth Following Right Now
The best way to get into esports is by watching the professional scene of the game you play. Most games now feature an esports tab or in-game event, helping you ease into the professional scene of your favorite game.
But if you are looking to enjoy esports as a separate entity, four of the most exciting and popular esports right now are: Counter-Strike, VALORANT, DOTA 2, and League of Legends.
Counter-Strike is the easiest of the big four esports to get into. With a legacy of 20 years behind it, the 5v5 tactical shooter is easy to understand and boasts one of the most passionate fan bases that supports the game live. The core of the esports scene is the bi-annual 32-team, Valve-sponsored Major.
Riot Games’ VALORANT is a direct counterpart to CS but features abilities that add a layer of excitement to the game. One of the youngest esports out there, VALORANT’s strength lies in the structure of the VCT system that runs on multiple levels before culminating into Champions at the end of the year.
If the abilities are of your taste but not the shooting aspect of VALORANT, Riot’s 2009 MOBA offering League of Legends is the choice. Currently sitting on top as the biggest esport in the world with a 13-year legacy, League truly shines as the best the esports world has to offer. Faker, arguably the greatest esports player of all time, is also the face of the game.
DOTA 2 is Valve’s LoL, but a more serious player/fan base. The scene’s structure follows the open circuit approach, with the year culminating in the Valve-sponsored The International that is inaugurated by Gabe Newell every year.
Obviously, following these means tuning into the streams and catching the action live. But when do these tournaments start? What teams are playing? And the exact schedule for the tournaments?
Where to Check Esports Results
If you are getting into esports, the biggest struggle you might face is the availability of information.
Liquipedia is an amazing website, but it doesn’t deal in live scoreboards or provide the latest news on the esports scene. It’s only good for tournament overviews and raw data presented in a proper way.
If you want the latest news and live scoreboards, you have to visit HLTV, which is specific to Counter-Strike esports. A similar site for VALORANT is vlr.gg. Similarly, League of Legends has Sheep Esports covering the broader news and esports.
Moreover, for lesser-known esports like Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch, Call of Duty, Rocket League, there are no known outlets that provide the same breadth of information.
If you want to follow multiple esports but don’t want to deal with so many outlets, Strafe.com is the answer. The website provides a tournament overview, a match calendar, live game scores/streams, and the latest news at your fingertips.
The Strafe App also features a Calendar tab that allows you to check and follow upcoming games for all your favorite titles in one place. It notifies you of the latest happenings in the esports world.
Building Your Esports Schedule
Now that you have the best tool in Strafe at your fingertips, how do you really build a schedule around tournaments?
Let us consider the four big esports and how to build a schedule around them:
Counter-Strike
The best time to get into CS esports is during one of the bi-annual Valve-sponsored Majors. The dedicated in-game section featuring schedules, teams playing, and Pick’Ems for the Major helps with the entry. From there, you can pick and choose a few teams to support and watch them in different events.
Apart from the Majors, the following are the most prestigious tournaments for CS:
- IEM Cologne
- IEM Kraków (previously Katowice)
DOTA 2
Similar to CS, DOTA has multiple tournaments throughout the year, but the best time to get into it, especially if you are playing the game, is during the International, which features in-game events.
VALORANT
With Riot Games controlling the structure, VALORANT is much easier to get into. To start with, you can simply follow the regional league of your choosing i.e. Americas, China, EMEA, or Pacific. Moreover, with each league catering to the geographical location, it is much easier to get into. From there, you’d be fed into a Master’s and eventually the Champions.
League of Legends
While League follows the same structure as VALORANT, so you can either choose to follow a regional league or the LCK, the best region in the LoL esports ecosystem.
Apart from the big four, every esports circuit, big or small, including the structured ones, culminates in an end-of-year conclusive tournament. This is arguably the best time to start watching any esports for the following reasons:
- It is the biggest tournament of the year for the respective esports, thus the best production value.
- Most circuits ensure the best teams and best storyline to attend these tournaments.
- Naturally, it showcases the best talent playing the game to its maximum limits.
- In-game events celebrating the tournament
So, once you see these in-game events, just tune in to the tournaments using the official channels and from there follow the team that you most connect with.
But what if you want to start right now—how should you get into it? The answer is simple: choose any player or team. The reason can be as simple as their name or they represent your country. Either way, choose one and start following their games, using them as a launchpad.
Players and Teams Worth Following
If you can’t find a team or a player worth supporting, we are here to help. Let’s take a look at the big four again, starting with Counter-Strike.
Counter-Strike 2
Currently, Counter-Strike 2 esports is led by Team Vitality, which houses arguably the greatest CS prodigy ever—Matthieu “ZywOo” Herbaut—the current best player. If his sheer talent isn’t enough to convince you, his legend might. Born on the same day as Counter-Strike 1’s official release, the French superstar is CS esports’ ‘the One’.
Of course, there’s the undisputed CS:GO GOAT who’s trying to grind back to the top, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. Playing under the BC.Game banner, the old king is trying to climb through the ranks to reclaim his throne and his journey is worth witnessing.
If you don’t want to follow the best, just follow FaZe Clan, they play like they are paid to entertain. At the previous Major, they went on from the first stage to the Grand finals of a 32-team Major, when every bookie counted them out. They are also currently in a bad place, which means this is the time they get back on that FaZe bs.
VALORANT
Despite being relatively new, VALORANT is not shy of superstars and stories. But a few definitely shine brighter than their peers.
Our first recommendation: Erick “aspas” Santos. The Brazilian Superstar who is known to carry teams on his back and make opponents look like kids. Aspas is the pinnacle of how to play the Superstar in VALORANT.
If you like to watch a team play, though, you should watch Fnatic. Playing in the EMEA League, led by Jake “Boaster” Howlett, Fnatic are one of the most consistent teams in the five years of VALORANT, they regularly qualify for big events and make deep runs.
But, there is no team as fun to watch in VALORANT as Paper Rex. The W Gamers are as chaotic as they are brilliant. They make deep runs in tournaments and yet make it look like it’s just 5 friends playing the game and having fun, not to mention the insane highlights each of them farm.
League of Legends
If we are talking League of Legends, there is only one player really worth talking about—Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. The first Hall of Legends inductee and arguably the greatest esports player of all time, the South Korean’s legacy remains unmatched.
Moreover, Faker isn’t a relic of the past, he is actively competing and only last year achieved a Worlds’ three-peat. This is 12 years after he won his first Worlds in his debut year. And the fashion in which he wins these trophies is also entertaining. There is very little Faker hasn’t achieved in esports and with still atleast 3 years left in his contract, he is the Past, Present and the Future of LoL esports.
DOTA 2
In the case of DOTA 2, Team Liquid remains the organization with the one of the longest legacies. With two Internationals titles, they are still one of the top dogs of the scene, meaning a high level of gameplay. Another big name would be Team Spirit, the Russian powerhouse that consistently leaves their mark on big tournaments.
If you aren’t the fan a of the top dogs but still want to latch onto legacy, you can follow OG, arguably the most entertaining organization of DOTA 2, who won back-to-back Internationals—a feat yet to be replicated and the #1 Anime Betrayals in the history of Esports.
The reason to follow a team/player doesn’t have to be anything grand, it can be small and personal. Especially with the esports organization collaborating with other IPs, those can act as a gateway into esports.
Once you have the team/player you want to watch, and know when their games go live (using Strafe), where can you actually watch these games?
Where to Watch in 2026
Twitch is not just the platform for streamers, it is also the place to go for watching esports. Especially with the rise of plug-ins, Twitch streams aren’t just plain VODs but feature interactive elements e.g., schedules, brackets for PGL tournaments, game details for LoL esports etc.
Almost every esport/game has a dedicated channel on Twitch that streams the professional games live. This includes the two Riot Games’ League of Legends and VALORANT, where the Riot Games and VALORANT channels broadcast the biggest tournaments live.
For CS and DOTA, the channels are based on the tournament organizers, thus the main channels for catching action live is:
Counter-Strike
- ESL CS
- BLAST Premier
- PGL
DOTA
- ESL DOTA2
- BLAST DOTA
- PGL DOTA 2
The same also applies for YouTube, where the games have the official channels broadcasting the tournament live. In case of CS/DOTA 2, official broadcasts can also be found on TOs main website.
To ensure you don’t miss a live stream of your favorite game, make sure to follow the channels on the platform of your choosing.
Mistakes New Esports Fans Make
The biggest mistake you should avoid at any cost as a new esport fan is trying to watch everything at once. Always choose one esport and either a tournament or a team to follow. Trying to watch everything can quickly turn a fun experience into a mechanical activity.
Try to avoid Reddit discussion and do not take people’s opinions as facts. This can affect your experience early on. The easiest way to go about this is forming your own opinion after watching the game you love for a long time. Moreover, most Redditors have been following the game for a long time and omit context in a lot of their discussion, which you might not understand.
Instead, watching informative videos on YouTube about the teams/tournaments can help you slowly understand the narrative, stories of every team.
Once you are comfortable with the esport, you can occasionally tune into watching tier 2 events or regional leagues. Especially if an upcoming player is being discussed a lot, you can watch a few official games. Remember it is not important to follow every tier of the game, only what you can manage.
Now that you have all the information, go on, pick your poison. Be it CS, VALORANT, LoL or DOTA, or any other game you play. Start slow, choose a team/tournament/player or just tune into the Worlds/Majors or the Internationals and just watch the action unfold!
