The Russian Esports Federation celebrates its 25th anniversary on March 24, 2025! For a quarter of a century, the federation has been engaged in the development and popularization of esports and has been actively working in all 89 subjects (provinces) of the Russian Federation.
In 2001, Russia became the one of first countries to recognize esports as an official sport. Since then, esports has been actively supported at the state level. For 25 years, the federation has held more than 10,000 national, international and other tournaments, bringing together more than 2,500,000 esports players from all over the world. In 2024, the Russian Esports Federation held up to 7 tournaments a day only in online format!
Over the years, Russian esports players have repeatedly loudly declared themselves in the international arena. Since the World and European Championships, Russian esports athletes have repeatedly brought home medals of all merits. To this day, despite numerous sanctions and restrictions, Russian players win their teams at major international professional tournaments and become the best players of the year in their respective programs.
The real decoration of the Russian esports scene are the grand LAN finals. Today, most fans gather at the final stages of the Russian Esports Federation competitions, including:
- The Championship of Russia;
- Russian Cup;
- RESF Open;
- The BRICS Championship;
- Open esports student games (OXY);
- All-Russian Student Esports League;
- National Student Esports League;
- School Mindsports&Esports League;
- Russian Electronic Football Cup;
- The Electronic Football Championship of Russia.
Participants of the largest tournaments under the auspices of the Russian Esports Federation compete not only for titles, but also for an impressive prize pool. For 25 years, the federation has paid more than 300,000,000 rubles to the winners of the competitions.
The scale of RESF’s national and international competitions is increasing every year. In 2024, on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, an international esports competition, the Cyber Vostok Championship, was held in Vladivostok. In October 2024, the LAN finals were held for the first time at the Bolshoi Sports Palace, one of the main venues of the 2014 Olympic Games. BRICS Esports Championship has become a notable event among the fighting games community.
In addition to the growing number of athletes and countries participating in the tournaments of the Russian Esports Federation, the improvement of the esports infrastructure and competition venues has been particularly noticeable in recent years. Today, more than 3,000 computer clubs operate in 89 regions, and their number is growing by 15-20% annually.
In 2024, a significant event took place – the federation had a mascot, manul Smerch, which was presented on October 17 at the XII International Sports Forum “Russia – a Sporting power” in Ufa. From that moment on, Smerch became an integral part of all the events of the Russian Esports Federation. Smerch energizes athletes to win and gives fans an unforgettable experience of the finals. As part of the 25th anniversary, the federation took care of manuls from the Moscow and St. Petersburg zoos.
Over the 25 years of its existence, the Russian Esports Federation has actively strengthened its role on the social agenda. Every year, the federation actively participates in state forums: the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Eastern Economic Forum, the “Russia – a Sporting Power” Forum, and the All-Russian Student Sports Festival “ASSC.Fest”, the World Youth Festival, the International Exhibition-Forum “Russia” and others. The Russian Esports Federation maintains contacts with charitable foundations. As part of the LAN finals of the Russian Esports Cup, the federation and the DobroFON charity program implemented the “From Heart to Heart” project. Every year, more and more scientific articles, educational and methodological manuals on esports are published, and various studies are conducted with esports players. Representatives of the federation constantly conduct educational programs in the All-Russian children’s centers “Artek”, “Smena” and “Orlyonok”.
The Russian Esports Federation sincerely thanks all the athletes and fans who care about esports. We very much appreciate the warmest wishes and greatest congratulations that our colleagues from other countries expressed. We are 25 and continue moving forward to the big future of esports together with all you, colleagues and friends!
