Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO)

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the premier first-person shooter in eSports.

Developed by Valve, CS:GO is a game centred around the execution and prevention of terrorist attacks. Players select a side - good army guys or bad terrorist guys - and attempt to complete an objective based on different game modes like bomb defusing, hostage rescue, etc.

Valve sponsors many competitive events throughout the year, called majors, and CS:GO is part of some of the biggest eSports events in the world - Dreamhack, Electronic Sports League (ESL) and the Major League Gaming (MLG) Major Championship to name a few.

The growth of CS:GO has taken the game from $250,000 prize pools for tournaments in 2013 to prize pools of up to $1 million in 2016.

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Call of Duty

Call of Duty is one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time and is quickly becoming an eSports powerhouse.

There is an option for a campaign mode, but the military-centric game has thrived with it's dedication to developing the online multiplayer modes over the last decade, which is vital in competitive gaming.

In multiplayer, two teams square off against each other with a wide range of game modes and objectives available - capture the flag, map domination, search and destroy, etc.

Game publishers Activision took eSports aspirations into their own hands and created the Call of Duty World League, a competitive league for professional and amateur teams in North America, Europe and Australia/New Zealand.

The season culminates with the Call of Duty Championship.

Last year's winner of the inaugural Call of Duty Championship - playing Call of Duty: Ghosts - and $400,000 of a $1 million prize pool was Denial eSports.

The edition of the game being played this season is Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

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Halo

A brand new face in the eSports world but a staple in the gaming community since 2001, Halo is a sci-fi military FPS that helped Xbox break into the console wars more than a decade ago.

Fast forward nearly 15 years and Halo 5: Guardians leads the way for the franchise into the new era of gaming.

Much like Call of Duty, Halo does feature campaign modes, however those aren't used in competitive play. In the multiplayer mode, two teams square off in a variety of game modes - Breakout, Team Slayer, Capture the Flag and Strongholds.

Halo didn't waste anytime setting the bar for first-person shooters in eSports either. The first Halo World Championship will be held from March 18-20, 2016 and has a FPS record $2.5 million prize pool up for grabs.

After a series of regional qualifiers, sixteen teams - eight from North America, four from Europe/Africa, two from Australia/New Zealand, one from Asia and one from Latin America - will make the final tournament to crown Halo's first ever world champion.