Eric Van Allen's discussions

In certain situations in the past, coaches like Crunch have sat beside players and given advice mid-set. Read more

It also apparently stuns like his proper ultimate does, so get ready for some Aghs/Bloodstone/Refresher Warlock matches. Read more

The really cool thing (I think) is that while it’s promoted and programmed like wrestling, the computer plays out the matches—there’s no method of “forcing” a win or loss without direct human interference. From what I’ve read into, a lot of the storylines end up being written on the fly. Read more

The spectator issue, especially for a layperson, is something that games like Dota 2 tend to struggle with, for sure. It can get difficult to discern if you don’t know what to look for. Some moments are bigger than others (it’s really obvious when Enigma lands a huge Black Hole, for example). Read more

Talance, I want you to know I’m on this. I’ll report back from the trenches of internet Brady fandom. Read more

Reminder that this happened in 1996 and is Brady canon:

Per Capcom’s blog: Read more

I asked a lot of pros, both for the piece and candidly, about the possibility of a new Smash. It seems like they would all still toe the water and feel out if the new one was competitively viable, but consensus was that if a Smash 4 Deluxe (for example) came to Switch, most would jump over. Read more

Rocket League is cross platform, as is Street Fighter. So there’s still a few out there where it works and the input discrepancy isn’t as significant. Read more

Each regional has a separate Xbox One and PlayStation 4 bracket, and then for the grand final, the winner of each individual console tourney plays each other in two games on “home” and “away” consoles, with an aggregate score deciding the winner. Read more

Bojack Horseman is my pick, but I also really dug Legend of Korra. Read more

It does happen at sports events, but granted, those are often of cheering fans, or it’s a segment like kiss cam. Like I mentioned above, some of the shots like the french fry bit and the tongue-piercing are what steer it into strange territory. Read more

My first take was that it was a good idea handled terribly, as random singled-out crowd shots of women with (seemingly) no consent doesn’t look great, especially with some of the clips they included. (Really, with the slo-mo french fry?) Read more

Oh, I’m counting The International they’re about to win.


(But yes it was only four... for now...) Read more

Still trying to find the balance between explaining game mechanics and telling the story, but a good note. I’ll work to break down more stuff like this in the future. Read more

In the span of about two seconds, Sumail (as the small blue creature you see in the top-left corner) drops his ultimate on five players, locking them down with a tether, then silences all the players so they can’t cast spells, shoots his orb through them, attacks, teleports to his orb and zaps them with his Dagon… Read more

Very intentional and not a typo. Read more

Dota, in the case of Dota 2, isn’t technically an acronym. Read more

It’s definitely huge for the region, I mentioned it up top but it bears repeating. South America’s qualifier spot was looked down on by a few folks, but seeing SG prove that no team in Dota is safe was huge for both the region and the team. Hoping SA keeps its qualifier spot for TI7! Read more

Hope I’m not too late to the party...