Eric Van Allen's discussions

That does, although you could arguably call it stream peeking as well. Either way, you’re still matched up against that player, which falls under the general umbrella of stream sniping. Read more

It’s a really thin line between trying to play against your favorite streamer for fun, and trying to intentionally sink their games. There’s a lot of inherent trust in your audience and the internet in general that they’re going to have honest intentions. Read more

Yes, the moles lurking in his friends list. It really is an impressively dedicated group. Read more

I still think it’s interesting how other esports use maps as part of the strategy (Smash stage selection and CS:GO map strength come to mind), but Dota is so variable due to heroes already that keeping the map the same helps and lets teams, like you noted, build strategies based on that constant. Read more

Woops, I was setting my fantasy team for the day and had Miracle on the mind. Thank you for giving me a heads up. Read more

It’s only weird when Treant Protector does it. Read more

Yup, just one map in Dota 2. The size of the map is much larger than other multiplayer games though, and there’s a lot of variables in play too. It sounds weird from the outside, but even that one map has changed a lot over the course of Dota history (cliffs have moved, new buildings, different tree placements and… Read more

My understanding is that drink tickets come mainly through Salmon Run. I’ve been on a 24/7 turf war binge though, so I haven’t seen any myself yet. Read more

To make it super simple: Read more

Good spot, updated for clarity. Thanks! Read more

To your first point, I came to Dota after playing a lot of League and a large amount of the disconnect there is that heroes in Dota 2 have a turn rate. Read more

I find myself drifting towards area control / paint-layer as well, and my two favorites have been the Aerospray (for Turf War) and the Slosher. The paint bucket in particular is really effective, and if you like disruption, the Aerospray has a Curling Bomb Launcher special that tends to scatter most teams to the wind… Read more

Kirk was mentioning earlier today that he was finding success with the motion controls on split Joycons, rather than with the Pro controller. I don’t know if it’s latency or not, but the tactile feeling of moving your controller to aim is probably a little more natural with Joycons. Read more

ESIC has a list of prohibited substances on their site, I’m assuming ESL would pull from the same list. Read more

There’s some games this week. Pyre and Sundered are both this week, two of the indies I’ve had my eye on for a long time now. Totally forgot Hey! Pikmin was a thing.  Read more

Yes, the whole match between those two was incredible, the super was just the cherry on top. Really showed how good of a spectator game this could be once its out. Read more

No Yamcha or Mr. Satan announced yet, just Saiyans and villains. Read more

Awesome photos! Read more

Hey, thanks for pointing that out, had only found the game two clip. Will update the post to accurately reflect. Read more

It’s also backwards compatible on Xbox One, but otherwise yes. Read more