Of course, there are a number of horrific duds out there. So for fun, I collected a ton of logos from esports teams around the world and ranked the best and the worst. (According to me)
The best logos are logos that are:
1. Instantly recognizable
2. Evocative
3. Flexible (can be altered for various purposes and work well on merchandise)
4. Look good (Keep in mind that much of this list reflects my own personal tastes)
With that said, here's my list. Which ones do you agree with? Which ones do you like more than the ones I listed? Dislikes?
Favorites
The Top 7
#1. Natus Vincere
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So much to love about this logo. It's uncluttered and easy to read. It's bold and eye-catching. It has an interesting shape, but can fit into all different types of holes. It's extremely customizable; you can take out the "NAVI" font and put that anywhere. A great logo for one of the most iconic esports teams worldwide.
#2. Isurus Gaming
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One of the only Esports teams to try to make a logo in the mold of American sports teams and actually to succeed. This doesn't try to do much more than it has to do. I like it better than similar professional designs. There's the shark, a classic text look for sports teams, the shield background, and a splash of color. It looks powerful and intimidating. Super logo.
#3. Virtus Pro
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I love both of VirtusPro's silver bear designs. This one is very very similar in design to the Isurus one, even the colors are very similar. This one suffers a bit because it's a bit hard to replicate in more simple fashions for merchandise/in game branding. VirtusPro's answer to that problem is pretty great, but it isn't as badass as this primary. This one is a great look online.
#4. Team Liquid
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Maybe the most versatile logo in esports. The horse won't win any awards for flashiness, but it's a workhorse (ha!). It's one of the most simple logos to create or spinoff, and has probably been altered more than any other logo in any game. It can go almost anywhere and on anything. If it fits, it ships.
#5. Cloud 9
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A clever take on the image of clouds and the number nine. Yet at the same time, it's an easily identifiable logo with a lot of potential for flexibility. Cloud 9 hasn't made any good apparel for this logo at all which is a bit of a scandal. Great to see this logo in Dota though.
#6. Curse Gaming
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Simple easy to recognize logo, but with plenty of detail up close. You don't need an art degree to draw something that everyone will recognize as the Curse logo, but the real design has some depth. Good colors. Universally known in LoL.
#7. Fnatic
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Same benefits of the Liquid logo. This logo can be used anywhere on anything. It's extremely flexible, you can flip it, squeeze it, color it, or crop it and it's still recognizable and good looking. The design is fairly clever in the way that you can see all the letters of Fnatic in different abstract ways throughout the design. It's ranked below Liquid because it doesn't quite evoke anything the way that the Team Liquid horse evokes a mascot and a symbol and a history. The Fnatic logo doesn't quite have such a backstory. (At least that I'm aware of). But it's a great looking logo.
Honorary So Sad You're Dead
RIP: Quantic Gaming
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I loved the red steering wheel, and you should too. Bold, not too busy, easy to spot.
RIP: FXOpen Esports
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Is it cheating to use the logo of an actual company that presumably hired a legitimate firm to make their logo? Either way, this is a brilliant logo. It looks great, and when you take a closer look, the Bull/Bear detail is really clever. I'm a sucker for circles, and the colors are classic as well.
RIP: oGs
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Clean and bold. Name is clear and powerful. I'm not sure what the blue triangle represents, but the juxtaposition of a sharp pointy shape and the rounded curves of the oGs text is appealing. And plus, it belongs to a beloved early Sc2 team, so it's got an extra nostalgia factor now.
RIP: vVv
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vVv may have been a poor business and team, but somehow they came up with a logo that betrayed their awful name stylization and actually looks great. This is kind of a retro look in an industry where retro never happened, but who cares. It's simple, it works. You get the point even if you notice that two of the V's that exist on the right side aren't completed on the left.
Funniest Logo in Esports History
Thank You Based Gama Bears
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This is a logo of a bear celebrating. Brilliant.The claw marks on "Bears" too. Hahahaha.
Least Favorites
There is a Special Spot in Hell for Combined Logos
Jesus Christ, EG-TL
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This was the worst thing about EG-TL in Proleague. Way way worse than the results.
Horrifying, Axiom-Acer
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Hands down my least favorite logo ever produced by an esports team. Looks like two logos that don't fit mashed together. Because that's what it is. The only saving grace is that combining two logos like this never works, so I can forgive Axiom and Acer for not trying. Also, they won the league and were a hell of fun to watch.
Honorary So Glad You're Dead
Stay dead: TCM Gaming
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Are you going to tilt the logo so we can see it?
Stay dead: My Intent
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I'm always tempted to buy the My Intent logo on long flights so I can sleep without hurting my neck. I think they sell it in Skymall.
Stay dead: Team eXtensive
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Is that a woman lying down? A half moon and a mountain? It's an "e" and an "X" you say? LOL, no wonder you disbanded.
Stay dead: eSahara
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Worst name, most boring logo.
The Bottom 7
#7. Alliance
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You had one job. You had a simple, evocative name. You had a team destined for success. It is so easy to make a great logo with the letter A. Or this, which is the same basic idea. And then you made the mishapen grey stamp. One of the worst logos simply because of the lost opportunity. Seriously. Pick a neat font. Pick a color. Put A in a circle. That looks great 95% of the time without any additional effort.
#6. Lemondogs
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Unnecessarily long and boring. Just show the head of the dog and stack "Lemon" on top of "dogs". This logo also takes the cake for looking the worst of any logo in miniature.
#5. Core Gaming
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Your logo is 2D. It is not 3D. Stop trying to make it 3D.
#4. IvD Gaming
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I know it's an I, V, and D combined. It looks miserable.
#3. HWA Gaming
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HWA decided to go with an illustration of a mountain lion wearing a headset. From the weird perspective of the ears and top teeth, to the painstakingly drawn whiskers, this logo tries way way to hard in all the wrong places. At some point, someone should've said; "Biz bir kulaklık ile bir puma çekiyorlar, bir dakika bekleyin" ("Wait a minute, we're drawing a cougar with a headset on" in Google Translate Turkish)
#2. Alien Invasion
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Okay, it's faithful to the name of the team. That's about the only positive trait I can come up with. The "E" in "Alien", the avicii take in "Invasion" and the bizarre tagline all kinds of weird. And the sort of desaturated purple really doesn't help either.
#1 compLexity Gaming
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This is without question my least favorite logo in esports. The colors are wholly unremarkable. The 90's want their design back. The text is leaning forward so you know it means ACTION. It doesn't fit anywhere. It doesn't look good on anything. And coL is a pretty big and longstanding organization with a great reputation behind their name. How the hell have they not fixed this yet?
The Greatest Logo in Esports History
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Give it up for Startale!
There will only be one logo that captures my heart, and that's you, Startale.
Alright, tell me what I got wrong. (Don't hurt me)