Eric Van Allen

League of Legends‘ World Champions Suddenly Can’t Stop Losing

After this week’s League Champions Korea matches, the reigning world champions of SKT T1 have gone 0-8 in the last two weeks. It’s an unprecedented slide for a team that has been the de facto best in the world. SKT T1 is a three-time world champion, whose roster includes not just the god of mid…

Valve Closes Annual Dota 2 Merch Shop Amid Community Backlash

WeLoveFine, a nerd-goods merch company, won’t play host to this year’s Dota 2 International Secret Shop, Valve announced last night The Secret Shop, Valve’s seasonal memorabilia shop that opens once a year for The International, has been run through WeLoveFine for the last couple Internationals. For the Dota 2 community, this has been a point…

The Best Moments From Evo’s Dragon Ball FighterZ Tournament

This past weekend, competitors at Evo 2017 got to put the upcoming Dragon Ball FighterZ through its paces in a side tournament. From tons of excellent, flashy super moves to impressive tag techniques, players showcased the surprising depth in this six-fighter demo. A few pros were kind enough to give us their detailed opinions on…

Tokido Battles Back Through Losers Bracket To Win Evo Street Fighter V Championship

Two titans of Street Fighter V clashed in Mandalay Bay, one on an undefeated streak and the other pressing on through the gauntlet of the loser’s bracket. After a bracket reset, longtime Street Fighter pro Tokido beat Punk 3-0 to take home the Evo 2017 championship trophy. Victor “Punk” Woodley came into the top eight…

Bayonetta Pro Upsets Smash‘s Best To Win Evo Championship

Super Smash Bros. For The Wii U made two big debuts today: One, its first Evo Sunday showing, and the second on national TV, as it aired live on Disney XD and ESPNU. It’s fitting that in this year of new horizons for Smash 4, one player would take the opportunity to make his presence…

Two Of BlazBlue‘s Best Go The Distance In Evo Championship Match

In a grand finals match that almost went the full distance, Ryusei Ito has emerged as the victor of Evo 2017’s BlazBlue Central Fiction tournament. After a litany of technical woes plagued the game’s pools yesterday, the top eight that took the stage at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas were some of Japan’s finest. Ryusei…

Jedah will be joining the roster of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite this coming September. The Darkstalkers character was shown off during a showmatch at Evo 2017 and “is bae,” according to Compete contributor Ian Walker.

Man Solves Rubik’s Cube In 5.4 Seconds At World Championship

Amidst a weekend of fighting game championships and other major tournaments, the world’s finest Rubik’s cubers have descended upon Paris for a record-breaking world championship. The world championships fall under the WCA, or World Cube Association, regulations. All puzzles have to have colored parts and must be scrambled before competition using computer-generated random scramble sequences.…

The final day of Evo 2017 kicks off this morning with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3‘s swan song tournament. BlazBlue, Tekken 7 and Super Smash Bros. For Wii U follow, culminating in Street Fighter V at 10 p.m. ET.

Player Offers Opponent Cash To Stop Infinite Combo

Step three of getting infinite combo’d: Bargaining. At AnimEvo, a side tournament was held for one of the most hype games ever made, Hokuto no Ken. Based on the Fist Of The North Star anime, this game has everything from one-hit instant kill moves to dribbling, and of course, infinite combos. In the grand finals,…

Yellow Card Ruling On Melee Coaching Stirs Controversy

Super Smash Bros. Melee players Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma and Zachary “SFAT” Cordoni both accrued yellow cards for receiving mid-set coaching TKduring their match in the top 16 at Evo 2017. The first instance occured when Debiedma called up his coach, Luis “Crunch” Rosias, after a game one win. After Cordoni bounced back to tie the…

Day two finals are underway at Evo 2017, starting with Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2. Top 8 play will continue throughout the night, with Injustice 2 and Super Smash Bros. Melee to follow on the Evo Twitch channel

Evo’s Catherine Tournament Is Off To A Dramatic Start

While the main event continues today, AnimEvo is going strong with its many side tournaments, including the puzzle game Catherine A 2011 game made by Atlus, the story-driven game’s competitive mode has a cult following that culminates each year at Evo. This year’s event is already off to a strong start, with Geordi (called the…

Mike “OlafRedland” Spragg displays his Evo wristbands after making it out of his Street Fighter V pool. Competitors this year receive a special wristband designating them as “official pool survivors” if they make it through their double-elimination bracket.

Tracer Ultimate Fizzles Out In Overwatch World Cup Match

Some days, you just can’t get rid of a good pulse bomb, so the game does it for you. As group B matches continued this morning in the Overwatch World Cup 2017 Shanghai Qualifiers, one moment caught viewers by surprise. Thailand’s Sasalak “NzNr” Wannarak seemed to land a pulse bomb, Tracer’s sticky bomb ultimate, on…

How Three People Crushed Final Fantasy VII In Less Than Eight Hours

By the time it was Final Fantasy VII’s turn on the Summer Games Done Quick schedule, the trio of runners were already tired. A mixture of nerves and anxious excitement had kept them from getting a full night’s sleep, and starting at 1 a.m., they were about to steer the graveyard shift through eight solid…

How Exactly Does Dota 2 Come Up With Over $20 Million In Prizes For Its Biggest Event?

This year’s International has broken the record for largest prize pool in esports at over $20,700,460 and still climbing. That record was set by last year’s International, which broke a record set by the previous year’s. This presents a mystery to the uninitiated: Exactly where is all this money coming from? Dota 2‘s International is…

Quake‘s Rocket Jumps And Railguns Are Still Satisfying In 2017

Ah, the sights and sounds. Rocket jumps and railguns, even that grimacing marine, bringing me right back to those good ol’ days of Quake Quake Champions may still be in the throes of open beta, but qualifiers for the 2017 World Championships are running throughout the day, where the modern Quake best compete to earn…

The Coolest Techniques From Arms‘ First Major Tournament

Nintendo’s shiny new Switch fighter had its first major outing this weekend at 2GGC’s Arms Saga, where 50 entrants showed up to throw hands (or controllers, depending on your preferred playstyle). The top eight play was tense and diverse, with many different approaches and fighters. Two Byte & Barq players made the playoffs, and Spring…

The Counter To Doomfist? Take A Seat

As players flood into the public test servers of Overwatch to find uses and counters for the new villain Doomfist, one player has found a rather interesting one: sitting down. In a highlight posted on the Overwatch subreddit, after popping off a four-kill ultimate, McCree player “Quesogard,”decides to walk onto the point and take a seat…