Esports

How Not To Stop Your Nerdy Child From Becoming A Pro Gamer

Pro gaming has yet to become normalized enough for the parents of America to feel proud of their offspring for pursuing it professionally. At least, not until those children defy all expectations and start making hundreds of thousands of dollars in tournament winnings. Parents of pro gamers told the Wall Street Journal all the tactics…

Riot Games Unbans Tyler1, A Player It Once Called A ‘Genuine Jerk’

Riot Games confirmed to Compete that it has lifted the indefinite ban on Twitch League of Legends streamer Tyler1. Initial news of the ban came from Tyler1’s Twitter account, where he said that, “AFTER 613 DAYS OF INTENSE REHAB I AM FINALLY UNBANNED FROM LEAGUE OF LEGENDS.” Tyler1—a talented player who specializes in playing as…

Two Japanese Guilty Gear Stars Shit-Talked Their Way Back Into The Spotlight

Fighting game veteran Daigo Umehara hosted a series of high-level exhibitions earlier this week as part of his new Kemonomichi event series, and one matchup became the perfect opportunity for two stars with personal grudges to settle their differences in Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 While trash talk is a regular part of the fighting…

A Pocket Of Passionate Players Is The Only Thing Keeping Competitive ARMS Alive

While the Switch as a platform is thriving, ARMS is its redheaded stepchild. In its first two weeks, it peaked at the 13th most popular game on the eShop. Despite being a less popular Nintendo exclusive, some competitors are keeping the fighting spirit alive months after most moved on to other games. ARMS is a…

League of Legends Player Hits Level 300 After Days Of Crushing Bots

Since Riot Games reworked accounts to level infinitely in League of Legends, there has been something of a race as players climb higher and higher. The leader just passed level 300 today. His method? Destroying dozens of bots. Playing under the name “Nolife Raphael,” he was locked in a race for the first to level…

Rocket League Player Argues With Tournament Over Plane Ticket To Scotland

The upcoming Twelve Titans Rocket League tournament will pit 12 players against each other in a winner-take-all one-on-one brawl. Isaiah Sharrieff was set to be one of those players who would play in the tournament in Scotland—until he revealed on Twitter that he had already played his first round and won’t fly to Scotland. In…

Turbo Mode Makes A Game Of Dota 2 Less Of A Commitment

I have something of a Dota 2 habit. Every week, I find time to play at least a few hours of the game—frequently, if not a game a day. But part of my frustration with Dota 2 has always been the time commitment it requires, as games can take upwards of 40 to 50 minutes…

Police Kill 28-Year-Old After ‘Swatting’ Call [Update]

A 28-year-old man was shot and killed by a Wichita police officer after a reported hostage situation call last night. At a press conference this afternoon, Wichita police said it was a false call meant to draw SWAT officers to the scene, an act known as “swatting.” It appears to have been linked to an…

Maddy’s Top 10 Games Of 2017

Every game on this list served as a balm for the depression cave that I lived inside throughout 2017. I’m pretty sure these games happen to be good even if you’re not depressed, since most of them popped up on my coworkers’ own best-of lists, but I had such a dire need for escapism this…

Melee Pro Beats Yoshi Target-Breaking Record By Fraction Of A Second

Masaya “aMSa” Chikamoto is considered the best Yoshi player in the world, and for good reason. He has impressive wins over some of the best in Super Smash Bros. Melee on the lil’ dinosaur, and now, he holds a world record in busting targets as his signature character. aMSa was streaming world record attempts on…

Catherine Players Explain What The Remake Means For Its Competitive Scene

Earlier this week, Atlus announced a remake of its cult-classic puzzle game Catherine. It was an exciting moment for fans of the stylish adult thriller. But amid the list of new features, there was one bullet point that meant the world to a small section of the community: the competitive Catherine crowd. Catherine is a…

An Inside Look At PUBG‘s Second Big Tournament

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is wildly fun to watch, as its victory in the multi-million-player bloodbath that is Twitch has proven, but can it make the transition onto the big stage? I went to IEM Oakland in November to find out. The tournament was in turns thrilling, slow-moving, and hard to follow. With 80 players crowded into…

Eric’s Top 10 Games Of 2017

In 2017, I played a lot of games, but only 10 could make the cut for this blog. Culling the herd to just 10 was heartbreaking and required intense soul-searching. In no particular order, the best games I played in 2017: Battle Chef Brigade It’s exciting enough that a competitive cooking show game got made,…

Xavier Woods’ Most Successful Tag Team Effort Last Weekend Was At A Windjammers Tournament

Xavier Woods and his WWE tag team may have failed to regain the tag titles in the squared circle at last weekend’s Clash of Champions, but Woods fared much better a few days before in some 2-on-2 Windjammers competition. The superstar jumped into the Northeast Championship fighting game tournament and, with his trademark hype levels,…

Tier Lists Are Full Of Shit

Almost no one played as Blanka in Street Fighter IV. This is because the low-tier green Brazilian is weird, doesn’t play like any other character in the game, and is widely considered not to be very powerful. Nonetheless, Street Fighter V is adding Blanka into the game this January after two years without him. I…

Overwatch League Players Keep Getting In Trouble

Overwatch is still young as far as sports go, but if you’re a professional player of anything, whether that means basketball or Russian knight fighting, you’re gonna be held to a higher standard than most. Overwatch League’s players are having trouble with that. There’s still about a month left until Blizzard kicks off the first…

10-Year-Old Street Fighter Prodigy Pops Off On Daigo’s Show

The future of Street Fighter depends on its newcomers, many of whom come up as children that simply play fighting games for fun. One such kid, a 10-year-old named Asuna, made an appearance on Daigo Umehara’s live stream last week to test her burgeoning Street Fighter V skills. During her visit to the BeasTV set,…

Overwatch‘s Top 500 Has An Alternate Account Problem

During a recent stream, professional Overwatch streamer aimbotcalvin pointed out four different accounts in the game’s top 20 competitive ranking list that he said belonged to him. Viewers got angry and said he was hogging slots that other deserving players could occupy. “Earn it,” he replied, laughing. Aimbotcalvin isn’t the only Overwatch player with multiple…

Overwatch Players Are Actually Embracing Moira

It takes Overwatch fans mere minutes to churn out fanart for each newly-released character, but a few long weeks or months to welcome them into their competitive mode teams. But for maybe the first time ever, Overwatch’s newest hero, the mad scientist Moira, has been immediately accepted into the game’s competitive community with wide open…

This January, Rising Thunder will return as Rising Thunder: Community Edition, including local play and the source code for an open-source server. In March 2016, Riot acquired the up-and-coming fighting game and shut off its servers. The team’s been quiet since, but announced today they’ve “moved on to develop something new.”