Maddy Myers

Mario Kart‘s Competitive Scene Is Trying To Master ‘Soft Drifting’

Now that Nintendo has removed the fire hopping advantage from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there’s a different high-level technique players need to master: soft drifting. The only problem? Soft drifting is much harder to pull off in Deluxe than it was in Mario Kart 8 There are two types of drifting in Mario Kart 8…

Paris Olympic Committee Will Consider Esports For The 2024 Games

The Paris Olympic bid committee will consider esports for inclusion as a medal event in the 2024 Olympic Games, according to Tony Estanguet, the committee’s co-president. Estanguet told the Associated Press that talks have been scheduled with the International Olympic Committee and with esports representatives “to better understand what the process is and why it…

Capcom Cracks Down On Paid Street Fighter Costume Mods

Last week, two prominent creators of Street Fighter nude mods and costume mods said they received takedown notices from Capcom. The two modders in question, who go by Brutal Ace and Khaledantar666, both had Patreon pages that solicited donations from fans. Brutal Ace and Khaledantar666’s mods often make use of other copyrighted properties. One of…

Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon, a teen girl Overwatch phenom, will be the first female pro gamer to compete in OGN Overwatch APEX. ROX Orcas has signed her, according to ESPN. Geguri fans will recall that her haters wrongfully accused her of cheating at last year’s Nexus Cup. She didn’t cheat; she’s just that good.

GameCube-Only Controller Rule In Smash Melee Competition Raises Eyebrows

Five prominent Super Smash Brothers: Melee tournament organizers and players have formed a competition committee and released a recommended ruleset for tournament play, including a lengthy section imposing a “tentative ban” on the use of non-Gamecube controllers. The ruleset writers explained that the 16-year-old classic Gamecube controller is “somewhat intrinsic to what we consider ‘playing…

Seven Months After Smash Bros. Tournament, Organizers Say They Can’t Pay The Winners

Some of the world’s best Smash Bros. players say they are owed thousands of dollars for their performances in a tournament called BEAST 7 held in Sweden last February. Adam “Armada” Lindgren, the first place winner in the event’s Super Smash Bros. Melee bracket, tweeted yesterday that BEAST 7 had yet to provide “an explanation…

Dota 2 Commentator Refused Entry To US For Tournament

Dota 2 commentator Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg was tapped to provide live commentary for The International 7, one of the world’s biggest annual esports tournaments. This year, TI7’s prize pool climbed to a historic $23 million, the largest in esports history. Unfortunately, Ahnberg won’t be at the event after being turned away at the United States…

The Stripped-Down Fantasy Strike Demo Makes You Focus On Fundamentals

Fantasy Strike takes recognizable moves from other fighting games but removes the difficulty of performing those moves, meaning there’s no joystick twirling or lengthy combo strings required. I played the free demo of Fantasy Strike this past weekend. It feels it was created by someone who wanted to break the habit of using the joystick…

Two beloved game modes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered—Prop Hunt and Slasher—may become permanent additions depending on fan votes. Prop Hunt, in which one team spawns as inanimate objects and the other team hunts them down, is in the lead! Vote for Prop Hunt or for Slasher via Twitter before August 1st.

Want To Do Better At StarCraft II? Leave The Music On

The StarCraft soundtrack helps me win. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. In 2010, shortly after StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty came out, the Idle Thumbs podcast put out an episode that discussed whether leaving StarCraft’s in-game soundtrack on can help you focus and play better. The argument in favor came from…

Call of Duty Commentator Raises Funds For Anti-Bullying Charity After Getting Kink Shamed

Call of Duty commentator Jack Campbell left his esports career behind last month in the wake of the internet’s response to leaked screencaps that implied he had a foot fetish. In his goodbye video, Campbell explained, “This has now affected my personal life, my family, and me personally… It’s too much for me now, and…

Finland Out-Dances Russia, Great Britain At In The Groove World Cup

Markus “Hippaheikki” Kokkonen just secured a second first-place finish in this year’s In The Groove World Cup. The Finnish dance gamer is a well-known champion in Europe’s In The Groove scene, having placed first in the Doubles tournament at last year’s EuroCup. He scored first in yesterday’s Doubles tournament at the World Cup. There are…

CM Punk Consoles Street Fighter‘s Punk, One Punk To Another, About Losing

Victor “Punk” Woodley has had a tough week. After months of first-place finishes on the Street Fighter V competitive circuit, most notably the $150,000 top prize in the Eleague SFV invitational, Punk experienced serious heartbreak in the Evo 2017 finals this past Sunday. Evo is the biggest, longest-running fighting game tournament in the world, and…

Last Year’s CS:GO World Champions Still Haven’t Been Paid Their Prize Money

On October 9, 2016, Team Argentina placed second in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive World Championships, winning $20,000. But months later, they still haven’t seen the money, and other teams who competed and won prizes say they haven’t been paid either. “The CS:GO Argentinian Team didn’t receive their payments yet, and we also never received our…

ESPN Makes Street Fighter Player Change Character’s Thong Due to ‘Broadcast Standards’

On Sunday night, ESPN aired Evo 2017’s Street Fighter V finals. During Ryota “Kazunoko” Inoue’s match, in which he played as the character Cammy, ESPN requested that Kazunoko change the character’s costume from her default thong leotard to her formalwear DLC outfit. (Cammy does not wear pants in this formal outfit, either, but she does…

Smash Bros Player Is Still Beating World Records In Melee‘s Home Run Contest

The Home Run Contest mode in Super Smash Brothers looks straightforward. You choose one of the game’s fighters and face off against an inanimate sandbag. As a 10-second timer counts down, you try to inflict as much damage as possible on the bag. Depending on how much damage you dole out, the bag could end…

Bob Kraft, Jeff Wilpon Now Own Professional Overwatch League Teams

Blizzard Entertainment has announced the franchise owners for the first seven teams in the Overwatch League, and the list includes a couple of familiar names. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft will own the Boston Overwatch team, and New York Mets COO Jeff Wilpon will serve as franchise owner for the New York City Overwatch…

Call of Duty Pros Defend Commentator Who Was Kink Shamed

On Sunday night, Call of Duty commentator Jack Campbell announced his departure from the esports scene and his plan to deactivate his Twitter account. Campbell’s love life has become a topic de rigeur for Call of Duty fans in the past month, in spite of Campbell’s attempts to stave off fans’ speculation. The situation came…

Looking Back On A 2013 Tournament Featuring Tekken‘s Bowling Mini-Game

When Tekken Tag Tournament came out in 2000, the game included a bowling mini-game called Tekken Bowl that became a cult favorite among Tekken players. Unlike Tekken, the bowling mini-game isn’t deep or complicated. You just choose a Tekken character and aim your bowling ball down the lane. But it’s still a competitive game… albeit…

The Fifth Fan-Run Mario Kart World Cup Starts Today

The Mario Kart World Cup kicks off today, featuring teams from 10 nations competing in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch, as well as Mario Kart Wii, a 2008 classic that remains a touchstone for the Mario Kart competitive scene. Both games feature twelve-player races, so each nation will put forward its six…