Esports

Gifts For The Overly Competitive Player

We all love to compete, but as the generation that grew up on Quake and Brood War gets older, we’re not as keen on energy drinks and pop rocks anymore. Joints can ache after an hour’s worth of play, and quality-of-life improvements are a bigger deal than a mild video card increase or another headset.…

Riot Games Admits They Had No Plan In Place For Abusive Pros

The League of Legends Championship Series has issued a 20-month suspension of Li “Vasilii” Wei Jun in response to abusive behavior he displayed last month on his Twitch channel. During one of his broadcasts, the pro gamer screamed and threatened his then-girlfriend and overturned furniture, culminating in a visit from local police. A few hours…

PUBG‘s Second Big Tournament Shows It Still Needs Work As An Esport

Over the weekend, 20 top PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds teams faced off at Intel Extreme Masters in Oakland, California. From inside a series of what we might call PlayerUnknown’s BattleCubicles, squads squabbled over a $200,000 prize pool. When the smoke cleared, a team that didn’t even get invited took top honors, besting big-name teams, without even winning…

Fight Me, Paul Tagliabue, In Real Life Or Street Fighter

Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue doesn’t like the esports trend. He doesn’t bunk with his peers in traditional sports who have leapt to invest in esports teams and leagues. And he doesn’t think esports are “sports.” I think Tagliabue and I would agree on one thing, which is that the term “esports” sucks. It sounds…

Street Fighter Pro’s Wife Does Enough Shit-Talking For The Both Of Them

On Saturday, Marcus “The Cool Kid93″ Redmond fought his way back through the losers bracket in Red Bull Battle Grounds’ Street Fighter V last chance qualifier for Capcom Cup, eventually securing himself the first-place trophy and a spot in the North American Regional Finals the next day. Redmond held his trophy aloft for the cheering…

7-Year-Old Magic Prodigy Can’t Shuffle Cards Yet But Can Kick Adults’ Butts

At the Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix in Portland this last weekend, one young upstart made waves. Dana Fischer runs a Temur Energy deck, finished 5-4 in the tournament, and is also just seven years old. Fischer is accompanied by her father Adam, who sits alongside her during matches. But during the game, he mostly…

Justin Wong Gets Mindfucked By Six Straight Throws

This weekend brought some of the best Street Fighter V players in North America to Boston to compete in one last Pro Tour event before Capcom Cup next month. While there wasn’t a whole lot on the line for many of the attendees, the matches still proved to be fast and furious, with one notable…

The League of Legends Free Agency Hot Stove Is Officially Ablaze

Tomorrow is the start of the free agency period for the 2018 League of Legends Championship Series, and the stove is delightfully hot. This season is kind of like the NBA or NFL offseason, with one exception: there’s blessedly no draft. Contracts expire or get bought out; whoever isn’t on a team is fair game.…

Pro Rainbow Six Team Comes Back From 4-0 Down To Win League Finals

Add Black Dragons to the list of teams that have blown a massive lead in the finals. Ence Esports were in a tough position in the year two, season 3 Rainbow Six: Siege Pro League finals. They were up 1-0 in the series after a strong showing on Oregon, but the other team was starting…

A trailer for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, debuted after the Red Bull Battle Ground finals, showed some new V-Trigger moves for the cast. The Arcade Edition will be playable at the upcoming PlayStation Experience. Hopefully Juri will finally get a buff.

Florida Player Submits Magic: The Gathering Deck List On A Cake

While Wizards of the Coast states that deck lists are required to be submitted, they never really specified how. Congrats to this Florida man on turning in a tasty version of his Eldrazi Tron deck.

Someone At A Smash Bros. Tournament Paused A Bunch Of The TVs On Donkey Kong Shrugging 

The Super FamiCon convention is a celebration of Nintendo and gaming culture. It also hosts a number of competitive tournaments in the Greensboro Marriott’s conference rooms. This morning an attendee who goes by Mossy showed up early only to find someone had put Donkey Kong performing his taunt on as many of the gaming stations…

“Guess what? You’re still a punk!” Marcus “THE COOL KID93″ Redmond’s wife heckles Evo 2017 runner-up Victor “Punk” Woodley after a close 3-2 set at Red Bull Battle Grounds in Boston. (h/t Jacob Wolf at ESPN Esports)

Pro Dota Team Turns To In-Game Chat Wheel To Overcome Language Barrier

The Perfect World Masters kicked things off in Shanghai last night, and one team had to scramble last-minute to find a substitute player. Team Secret’s MidOne had an urgent personal matter, and so his team had to turn to a local substitute and unique method of communication. EHOME’s Chen “Cty” Tianyu was able to sub…

1,000 RuneScape Players Are Trying To Outlast Each Other Against A Zombie Horde

The finale of the Dimension of the Damned event is taking place right now, as 1,000 of the highest scoring players are vying to be the last RuneScape avatar standing against the zombie horde. A competitive mode for RuneScape, competitors start inside the city of Falador, which provides safe haven for them to purchase supplies.…

Midas Mode Turns Dota 2 Tournament Into A Game Show

This weekend marks the start of Midas Mode, a unique kind of Dota 2 tournament that commodifies the game’s mechanics and makes professional Dota a Saturday morning game show. Two divisions, North America and Europe, with four teams each will play it out to determine a winner, with the teams donating their winnings to a…

Overwatch Pro’s Mid-Match Suspension Raises Questions About Blizzard’s Reporting System

Félix “xQc” Lengyel was playing a competitive Overwatch match last night when suddenly, he was booted from the game and informed his account had been banned or suspended—an action that’s sparked discussion over false reporting. Lengyel was mid-match when it occurred, leaving his teammates down a player after the punishment was placed on his account.…

The Weekend In Esports: IEM’s Battlegrounds Invitational

2017’s breakout battle royale game comes to the Oracle Arena in Oakland for its first Intel Extreme Masters tournament. Even if PUBG is all some people ever seem to talk about though it’s not the only thing going on this weekend. The Rainbow Six Pro League will have its third season championship while top Dota…

Giant Arenas Capture The Beautiful Chaos Of 100-Player Battlegrounds

This weekend, scores of players in Busan, South Korea, will compete in a LAN pulled from Ready, Player One’s wildest dreams. Stacked up in double-decker computer hubs, 100 competitors at a time will drop onto the abandoned island of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and scrap, shoot, and crawl until only one person is left standing at the…

Esports Is A Mansion Of Butts, According To This Bizarre Ad

It’s a cliche at this point: Every esports experience starts with you sitting in your DXRacer gaming chair, watching some Dota 2 footage in Windows Media Player, with a half-eaten pizza and several print magazines on either side. Then, a redheaded babe wearing a peaked cap and stiletto pumps rings your doorbell to deliver your…