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EsportsMysterious Street Fighter V Player Dominates Tournament, Donates Winnings To Charity
Last night, an anonymous competitor came out of nowhere to win a popular Street Fighter V tournament. And then, just as suddenly as they arrived, they were gone, but not before asking organizers to donate their winnings to charity. Wednesday Night Fights is a weekly, Southern California-based tournament series that, in the wake of the…
By Ian Walker Published February 25, 2021 -
EsportsConor McGregor Is Obsessed With Nate Diaz’s Gamer Chair
Today, Conor McGregor, famous for falling asleep in public, saw a gamer chair for seemingly the first time in his life. He thinks it’s incredibly funny that it looks kind of like a race car seat, and he really, really wants everybody to know. McGregor, one of the highest-paid people in all of sports, made…
By Nathan Grayson Published February 9, 2021 -
EsportsOverwatch League Announces 2021 Season Details
With around three months to go until Overwatch League Opening Day (for which we still don’t have a firm date), the League has released a new video detailing how the OWL 2021 season will play out. Here’s a look at what to expect. Heck Yeah Tournaments! For the entirety of the first and second seasons,…
By Ash Parrish Published January 15, 2021 -
EsportsAn Esports Team Signed An 8 Year Old, But Nobody Is Sure If It’s Legal
If nothing else, Team 33 certainly made a splash when it arrived on the esports scene earlier this month. In a press release, the previously unknown organization boasted of a Hollywood team house that had already played host to big names like Janelle Monáe, Post Malone, and Drake. But it wasn’t glitz and glamour that…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 21, 2020 -
EsportsStreet Fighter Competitor Begs For Mercy, Receives None
Street Fighter League is, well, an official league for Street Fighter V players, one that makes more room for player personalities to shine thanks to its limited format. Take, for instance, a match from its most recent broadcast, wherein one competitor made a show of begging for mercy from his opponent…to no avail. Ryusei is…
By Ian Walker Published October 23, 2020 -
EsportsI Am Two Shanghai Dragons Wins Away From My First Tattoo
You know how parents quantify the passage of time to an excited child in the number of sleeps? Well, instead of sleeps, I am two Shanghai Dragons wins away from getting my first tattoo. That’s because the Overwatch League Grand Finals tournament kicked off earlier today—much earlier today as, for the first time ever, the…
By Ash Parrish Published October 8, 2020 -
EsportsOverwatch Team with 4-17 Record Could Somehow Win the League Playoffs
Over the weekend, the Washington Justice became the embodiment of Overwatch League playoff chaos. They are other teams’ spoilers and the playoff Cinderellas. They’ve gone from one of the worst regular season performances to knocking out one tournament champ and almost knocking out another. And although their chances of ultimate triumph are still mathematically slim,…
By Ash Parrish Published September 8, 2020 -
EsportsPlayoff Season Is The Best Time To Get Into Overwatch League
You do not need to have watched a single match of the 2020 Overwatch League season to follow the playoffs. Playoffs are the playoffs, you already know the stakes, no background information required. The playoffs themselves will provide their own self-contained narrative that newcomers can understand and invest in. The 2020 Overwatch League playoffs began…
By Ash Parrish Published September 4, 2020 -
EsportsA Racist Overwatch Team Got Banned, But I Still Feel Like Shit
Despite having not played in a while, I love Overwatch. I love its bright and vibrant characters from every part of the world (with one glaring omission). I love its message of hope for better, and how we all have the capacity to affect positive change. As the heroine Tracer says, “the world could always…
By Ash Parrish Published August 17, 2020 -
EsportsRinger Alert: Overwatch League Free Agents Can Now Compete In Playoffs
Now that the pandemic’s torpedoed all of Blizzard’s plans for the Overwatch League 2020 season, the League’s head office is making significant changes to its roster construction rules ahead of the 2020 Playoff season. “The League Office has established the following guidelines in place for roster construction, which includes significant changes to contract lengths and…
By Ash Parrish Published August 12, 2020 -
EsportsI (Almost) Miss When The Shanghai Dragons Were OWL’s Worst Team
Overwatch League’s Countdown Cup concluded over the weekend with the (unsurprising) crowning of the San Francisco Shock and the Shanghai Dragons as the winners of the North American and Asian regions, respectively. The Shanghai Dragons are my team. I braved their inaugural 0-40 season when the Dragons did not win a single game. I am…
By Ash Parrish Published August 11, 2020 -
EsportsCall Of Duty Players Compete In Person, Despite Tournament Officially Moving Online [Updated]
Video on social media appears to show Call of Duty: Modern Warfare players gathering in person during an amateur tournament, American Gaming Network’s Indianapolis Open, despite the event officially being moved online due to concerns over covid-19. According to Dotesports, AGN Indy was to be the first American LAN tournament hosted during the coronavirus pandemic.…
By Riley MacLeod Published August 1, 2020 -
EsportsEsports Community Pissed Over Saudi Partnership Deal [Update: Riot Cancelled Deal]
Yesterday two major European esports brands—the Counter-Strike Global Offensive tournament organizer BLAST Premier and Riot’s League of Legends European Championship division—announced a sponsorship deal with NEOM, a 500 billion dollar techno-city funded by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The announcement is drawing waves of criticism from esports personalities and fans. Update: 7/29/2020, 9:50…
By Ash Parrish Published July 29, 2020 -
EsportsMario Kart Wizard’s Clutch Play Reveals The Game’s True Depth
I’ve never really thought of Mario Kart as a game with “plays” à la League of Legends or Street Fighter, but I’m more than happy to have been proven wrong by this amazing moment from a weekend Mario Kart 8 tournament. Bassem “Bear” Dahdouh is a prolific tournament director in both the Smash and traditional…
By Ian Walker Published July 28, 2020 -
EsportsYes, Daigo Umehara Is Still Winning Street Fighter Tournaments
I’m not going to mince words: Daigo Umehara is the greatest fighting game player of all time. His legacy added a new footnote over the weekend when he dominated a stacked Street Fighter V tournament. And it’s strange that folks still managed to be shocked by the results. Umehara faced down several incredible Street Fighter…
By Ian Walker Published July 27, 2020 -
EsportsFastest-Ever Overwatch League Match Is 19 Minutes and 23 Seconds of Misery
The fastest match in Overwatch League history took place over the weekend, with last year’s champions, the San Francisco Shock, beating the brakes off the Vancouver Titans in a blisteringly fast match that ran just 19 minutes and 23 seconds. The extremely brief match surpassed a record set just the week before when the Los…
By Ash Parrish Published July 27, 2020 -
EsportsPokémon Esports Broadcasts Are Simply The Best At Reaching Out To Newcomers
Maybe it’s weird, but I enjoy watching Pokémon far more than playing it. I haven’t seriously played a Pokémon title since SoulSilver in ‘09, and haven’t finished one since Pokémon Blue way back in the ancient yester-year of 1996. Yet despite my apparent aversion to all things Pocket and Monster I am obsessed with Pokémon…
By Ash Parrish Published July 7, 2020 -
EsportsSomeone At American Dad Is A Big Fan Of The Overwatch League
In the grand tradition of primetime animated shows mining contemporary pop culture for content, American Dad’s most recent episode featured esports as its topic of the day. In a clip shared by TBS, the show’s main character is tasked with assassinating a North Korean general while he attends an Overwatch League match in Hong Kong.…
By Ash Parrish Published May 19, 2020 -
EsportsTop Overwatch Team Loses Entire Player Roster Amidst Allegations Of Mismanagement [UPDATE]
Between covid-19 and countless other difficulties, Overwatch League’s make-or-break third season has gone as far off the rails as anyone could have imagined. Now, after losing a star player to Valorant last week, the league has lost one of its top teams. At least, temporarily. Today, the Vancouver Titans, last year’s second-place team behind championship…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 6, 2020 -
EsportsOverwatch MVP’s Mid-Season Departure For Valorant Doesn’t Bode Well For Blizzard
Jay “Sinatraa” Won isn’t just any Overwatch League player. After a stellar 2019 in which his team, the San Francisco Shock, took home championship gold, he was declared the league’s MVP. This means that the game’s developers at Blizzard will release an in-game skin to commemorate his exploits. Yesterday, during the middle of season three,…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 29, 2020