Eric Van Allen

The invites for the next Dota 2 major in Kiev were announced today. Eight teams receive a direct invite to the tournament, while a mixture of regional invites, Battle Cup Champions and the winners of the open qualifiers will fill out the field. Below are the directly invited teams: 1. Wings Gaming 2. OG 3.…

Riot Risks Stifling Creativity In League By Banning Players With Unconventional Strategies

Last week, a player who goes by “Take the Draw” in League of Legends was handed a 14-day ban. The punishment wasn’t because of the champion they played, but the way they were playing it—and now, Riot risks setting a precedent for how you have to play the game. At the start of a normal…

New Hearthstone Expansion ‘Journey To Un’Goro’ Adds Quests To Matches

Blizzard unveiled the next expansion for Hearthstone today, bringing with it a series of mechanical adjustments and a massive overhaul to deck-building options in April 2017. Dubbed “Journey To Un’Goro” and slated for an April release, the set will be prehistorically themed, filled with dinosaurs and primal elements. Some of the more intriguing cards already…

Dota 2 Team Accused Of Peeking At Match Stream, Which May Or May Not Be Cheating

An amateur Dota 2 team lost during the StarLadder FastCup this weekend when their wards—temporary items that provide crucial vision of the map—were picked off one-by-one, with alarming accuracy. The other team was not clairvoyant, but rather appeared to be getting outside information. “Stream sniping” is the act of viewing another player’s stream to gain…

Rocket League Player Nails The Crossbar For Huge Upset

Though played with rocket-powered cars, Rocket League is still soccer at its core, and a shot right at the crossbar can still beat the goalie out for a huge goal. Alexandre “Mout” Moutarde, a sub for The Leftovers, played with two others in the Rocket Royale today under the guise Northern Tactics. The three got put…

Lifecoach Retires From Hearthstone, Citing Imbalance In Competitive Scene

Hearthstone’s balance woes continue to take their toll on the competitive scene, as popular pro player and streamer Adrian “Lifecoach” Koy announced his retirement yesterday. A former professional poker player, Koy is well-known for his analytical approach, often counting the numbers and possibilities for as long as the game clock will let him each turn. According…

Team Liquid Likely Secures Kiev Major Invite With StarLadder Victory

After missing December’s Boston Major and struggling the past few months to stay abreast of a tough European Dota 2 scene, it looked like Team Liquid might have to go through the gauntlet of European qualifying for the upcoming Kiev Major. Performing well at the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season Three finals was their best hope…

Unknown Kirby Player Upsets Top Smash 4 Pro At Frostbite 2017

This weekend’s Frostbite 2017 is a tournament solely devoted to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. In the pools, anyone is fair game, as Elliot “Ally” Bastien Carroza-Oyarce learned after getting upset by a relatively unknown Kirby player. Carroza-Oyarce is one of the best in the game, ranked in the top three on community site…

Tales Speedrunners Race Through Grand Epics In A Few Hours

For a certain subset of folks, speedrunning—the art of beating a video game as quickly as possible—is their window into competitive gaming. But if speedrunning Super Mario World is a 100-meter sprint, a Tales race is a marathon: superficially similar but wildly different. This weekend, the RPG Limit Break channel on Twitch is streaming a…

Surprise Marine Flank Secures Win In Global StarCraft II League Quarterfinals

Siege tanks can’t hit flying units, a fact Cho “Maru” Seong Ju was reminded of in last night’s Global StarCraft II League Code S match against Kim “Ryung” Dong Won. The series was at a 2-1 advantage for Kim, but Cho was looking to make a resurgence on the fourth map. Pushing ahead with a…

Dota 2 Shoutcaster Calls Out Camera Operator For Missing The Big Fight 

When the last big teamfight of a Dota 2 match could decide the outcome entirely, it’s usually helpful to actually see the fight play out on stream. In last night’s group stage match between Team Liquid and Vici Gaming J, at the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3 finals, the camera operator (often referred to as…

The Next Dota Major Is Already Running Into Issues

The Kiev Major, the second and final major of the Dota 2 season before the next International (Dota 2’s world cup), is facing a raft of problems. Travel issues, ticket scalpers, and changing dates are dredging up ghosts of majors past. In December, it was announced that the Kiev Major would take place from April…

Hearthstone Arena Going To Standard Will Make Drafts Less Awful

Blizzard announced significant changes to Arena mode for its upcoming “Year of the Mammoth” patch, so hopefully players won’t draft so many 0-3 runs. When the patch goes live “near the end of February,” Arena will switch from a wild format to standard, limiting the cards available to those recently released, the same limited card…

Xbox Beats PlayStation Again In Regional FIFA Championships

Rafael “Rafifa13″ Fortes took home the title in this weekend’s Miami Regionals in FIFA Ultimate Team, beating LucasRep98 3-1 and earning a spot in Berlin for the Championship Finals. The Regional finals, broadcast on ESPN2, showcased the two platform winners playing against each other. Fortes, who hailed from the Xbox division, continued his platform’s reign…

Counter-Strike Pro Promises To “Crush” Opponent, Backs It Up In Dominating Fashion

When Astralis bested Virtus.Pro in the grand finals of the ELEAGUE Major in January, Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye tweeted that his team “underperformed” in its 2-1 victory. A member of Virtus.Pro took offense, and promised to crush Astralis when they next met. That meeting happened today, in the semifinals of DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017. Over…

FIFA Pro Puts Away Two Goals In Under A Minute At Miami Regionals

In this weekend’s FIFA ‘17 Ultimate Team Regionals, one player put up a quick double that reminded me of my casual matches against friends. Rafael “Rafifa13″ Fortes, using a combo of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, took an early lead in this match with two goals against his opponent, Javier “Janoz CFI” Muñoz. FIFA Ultimate…

Some Hearthstone Players Challenge Themselves To Spot Lethal Combos

Hearthstone players have been playing “spot the lethal” for years. Similar to chess puzzles, where a board state is laid out and you try to achieve checkmate in a certain number of moves, “spot the lethal” asks if you can figure out how to drop your opponent’s life to 0 in a single turn. YouTube…

A Hacker Is Allegedly Flooding Counter-Strike Lobbies With Bots

Counter-Strike players are currently coping with an exploit that allows bots to spam text and partake in games without being kicked. The attack allegedly comes from one person who claims to be organizing the hack and bots in a somewhat concentrated effort. The proof comes by way of a wall of text that some bots…

North Seizes Double Overtime Win At DreamHack Masters Las Vegas

A fevered back-and-forth series between Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squads Gambit Gaming and North took game two of the DreamHack Masters Las Vegasquarterfinals match to double-overtime. After North established a 10-5 advantage during the first half, Gambit surged back in the second with a 10-5 of its own, forcing the game into the first OT. A…

League of Legends Pro Dances Before Pushing For The Win

In game two of today’s series between Splyce and Roccat, top lane player Martin “Wunder” Hansen chose to counter Roccat’s Shen pick with the mad alchemist Singed. The results? Fairly impressive. Hansen was in prime form in game two of the series, looking comfortable on the pocket pick of Singed. In the clip above, you…