The video game industry has seen incredible growth and transformation in recent years. What was once a pastime for enthusiasts has now become a billion dollar global phenomenon, with a wide base of players and professionals coming from different parts of the world. Gaming is no longer just a hobby - it has become a serious career and a way of life for millions of people around the world.
More and more competitions and tournaments are being organized, and thus the chance for competitors to show themselves on the international stage is also increasing. The Union of Electronic Sports of Montenegro has been organizing qualification tournaments for several years now, thanks to which our best gamers participate in European and world tournaments. Despite their talent and passion for this increasingly popular industry, they did not achieve any significant results. However, the year 2024 stood out as the most successful so far, thanks to historic successes and the first medals won for our country.
One of the key trends in the modern gaming industry is the increasing representation of women. Once marginalized, women today occupy important positions as programmers, designers, streamers and e-sports professionals. Montenegro is also following this global trend, and more and more women are joining the gaming industry, contributing to its development and success. The female gaming scene in Montenegro has shown enormous progress. After we first had a women's team in the CS:GO title in 2023, which, unfortunately, failed to make it to the World Championship that was held in Romania, the year behind us brought a huge upheaval. The success of Montenegrin female gamers Bojan Goranović i Nevena Marković will be remembered for a long time considering that the two of them brought the first medals ever for Montenegro from a competition.
At the Mediterranean e-sport games in Benghazi, Libya, which were held in August, Montenegro had four representatives in the male and female categories in the titles "e-Football" and "Tekken8". And while the male competitors were standard good, but not enough for medals, Bojana and Nevena managed to return home with a medal in somewhat weaker competition.
The community of simulation of the most important secondary thing in the world of e-Football in Montenegro is large, competitions are held and not only in 1v1 mode. However, this title has not been interesting to the fairer sex until now. Before the competition in Libya, Goranović played e-Foorball recreationally from time to time, and she practiced intensively before the competition. And that was enough for him to win third place on the first day of the Mediterranean eSports Games. The last day of the competition was also significant for Montenegro, as Nevena Marković won another bronze.
This year, the World Federation IESF reduced the number of titles at the World Championship, and Montenegro did not have its representative. But there were other tournaments. The main focus was on simulations.
Another significant success came at the end of the year when the Montenegrin team was led by Cetinje Matija Marković triumphed at the recently held FIA South East Europe 6h of Hungaroring race. In the competition of 22 crews from 11 European countries, the team of the Union of Electronic Sports of Montenegro (SESCG) won first place after an exciting six hours of driving on the Assetto Corsa Competizione platform. This race was held under the auspices of the FIA and the Croatian Auto and Karting Association, and was held in the PISMO Powered by A1 Business Incubator building in Novska, Croatia.
We must not forget the e-footballers Budućnosti, who are currently first in the table after ten rounds in the EPC Balkan 3v3 league. The blue and whites are aiming for the title, and so far they have only one defeat, against the AEL team from Limassol. There will be a break in the regular part of the competition, and at the end of January, the last three rounds will begin, after which the playoffs will be played, in which the best eight will enter.
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