Eric Van Allen

Apparently You Can Just Murder Pitchers In This Baseball Video Game

Look. Pitchers getting hit in the head by batted balls happens all the time, and is no joke. But I dare you to watch this Super Mega Baseball 2 clip from Giant Bomb producer and Mario Maker nightmare creator Dan Ryckert and not laugh: The pitcher’s apparent death is incredibly satisfying, from the ball hitting…

After spending the entire regular season in the 450-seat Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, the Overwatch League grand finals will be in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in July. The playoffs through the semifinals will be in L.A., and the two finalists meet in Brooklyn on July 27-28.

New York Claims Overwatch League Stage 3 Title, Ends Boston’s Undefeated Streak

After dancing around each other as the two top teams of stage 3, the New York Excelsior and Boston Uprising finally settled the score in the grand finals of the stage’s playoffs. New York emerged victorious in a 3-0 win, securing back-to-back stage titles in the Overwatch League. The two teams had played before in…

PSG.LGD Wins Its First Dota Major And Also An Infinity Gauntlet

Fresh off a sponsorship from football club Paris Saint-Germain, LGD Gaming—now PSG.LGD—won this weekend’s Dota 2 Epicenter XL major, getting some prize money, circuit points, and a sweet Infinity Gauntlet. PSG.LGD got its first big points grab in the Dota pro circuit in last month’s Dota Asia Championships 2018, where the team came in 2nd.…

Soulcalibur VI Player Accidentally Goes For A Swim

That’s one way to wake up, I guess. An exhibition was held at Texas Showdown last night for the unreleased Soulcalibur VI. As an unreleased game, that might explain why one move didn’t go exactly as planned. It happens to the best of us. Party Wolf went on to win the exhibition in the next…

Japan’s Yoshi Specialist Beats Top Melee Player

Masaya “aMSa” Chikamoto has been on a tear at this weekend’s Smash Summit 6, and yesterday he pulled off an upset on one of Melee’s best players. Chikamoto is considered the best Yoshi player in the Super Smash Bros. Melee scene, and he hails from Japan, a region that can be tough on the players…

Boston Uprising Closes Out Perfect Stage In Overwatch League

Boston’s 3-1 win last night against the Los Angeles Gladitaors secured a new record in the Overwatch League. Across five weeks and 10 games, the Boston Uprising won every single one and claimed the league’s first perfect stage, weathering some big storms in the process. Prior to stage 3, Boston sat squarely in the middle…

Cavs NBA 2K Player Erupts For 46 Points In Narrow Playoff Win

Today’s playoff bracket pit the Utah Jazz and the Cleveland Cavs’ 2K squads against each other. Brandon “Hood” Caicedo, a small forward for the Cavs, ended up being the game-runner for his team, scoring over half his team’s points. This weekend’s tip-off tournament is the start of the NBA’s brand-new 2K league. It’s a fresh…

The Shanghai Dragons Are Still Winless, But There Is Hope

After last night’s match against the New York Excelsior, the Shanghai Dragons have a 0-29 record in the Overwatch League, besting (worsting?) some of the longest winless droughts in professional sports history. The 29-straight losses beats out the Philadelphia 76ers, whose 28-game losing streak spanned two regular seasons before it was broken with a win…

The Weekend In Esports: Something For Everyone

It’s time for an extremely stacked weekend in competitive gaming. The next couple days are going to be filled with matches in just about every competitive vocation you could imagine. Overwatch, Dota 2, League of Legends, Hearthstone, Counter-Strike, Rocket League, Smash Bros., Street Fighter… there is a Fate/Unlimited Codes tournament this weekend. Honestly, this just…

Here’s Where The Oblivious Anime Man Joke Comes From

An image of a young man mistaking a butterfly for the completely wrong thing has become one of the hottest joke formats lately. And as incredulous as the actual moment is, it isn’t the first time it’s been in the spotlight. The still comes from 1991 anime series called The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird.…

Pro Panda Takes Down Tekken Champ

A top Tekken player was eliminated from Korea Masters today, by none other than a Panda player. Choi “Saint” Jinwoo is considered one of the best in the world at Tekken 7, consistently placing in the top 3. His opponent Rangchu, however, was in the middle of a stellar run in the tournament, and wasn’t…

Street Fighter Player Mounts Comeback From The Magic Pixel

The “magic pixel” is a sliver of health that doesn’t even show up in your fighter’s health bar, an amount so tiny you would probably measure it in subpixels. It was from that tiniest pip of heath that Zeku player Air fought back, and in a rousing match, took the series while barely alive. A…

Pine’s Widowmaker Play Is One Highlight After Another

Kim “Pine” Do-hyeon missed most of the Overwatch League’s second stage, but over the last few weeks, he’s been making up for lost time. Pine has been cutting Widowmaker highlight reels almost every night of stage 3. While he can play other heroes, Pine really excels at the Widowmaker. In last night’s match against Seoul…

Splyce Is Leaving Competitive Counter-Strike To Focus On Other Games

Esports organization Splyce announced today that it will be leaving professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to put resources towards other scenes. Confirming a report earlier this week from Dust2.us, the organization will part ways with its North American roster ahead of a fight against relegation in Season 7 of the ESL Pro League. Splyce co-founder and…

Valve Won’t Release Dota Patches During Tournaments Anymore

The most recent Dota 2 patch landed right on top of the currently ongoing Epicenter XL major. A big shift in gameplay riled up some folks in the community, and now, Valve is adjusting the way it will release future updates. Valve announced yesterday that “for upcoming majors where the Thursday patch would land during…

Attack Torbjörn Makes A Surprise Appearance In The Overwatch League

During last night’s Overwatch League matches, Houston’s Jake Lyon backed off after his team took the first point to switch out his hero. Turns out it wasn’t to Sombra or maybe his signature Junkrat; it was Torbjörn. A momentous moment for Torb mains, and a horrific omen for everyone else. While this isn’t the first-ever…

The Weekend In Esports: Conquest! 

The windy city will host the start of a new tournament series today across three different fighting games. The Red Bull Conquest series is made up of local tournaments across North America, in Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and Guilty Gear. The whole idea is to feature each region’s best, to determine which home crowd…

God of War Players Uncover A Secret Hidden In The Collector’s Edition Map

Players are working their way through God of War’s endgame for every secret and bonus, and one has been found in an unlikely place: a cloth map that came with the game’s two collector’s editions. The map turned out to contain a particularly complex puzzle. If you don’t want to tackle it yourself, it’s all…

StarCraft Player Holds Out Against Overwhelming Zerg Swarm

In today’s NationWars V matches, Netherlands’ Kevin “Harstem” de Koning had his back against the wall with a massive Zerg swarm coming his way. At a unit deficit and against a horde of angry alien bugs, Koning held the line, making every pixel of life on his units count, and pulled off a truly incredible…