Esports

The ELEAGUE Cup: Rocket League, Turner Sports’ next foray into esports broadcasts, will invite eight Rocket League teams to compete for a $150,000 prize pool. Twitch and YouTube will broadcast the tournament on December 1-3, and TBS will air three episodes highlighting the teams’ journeys on December 1, 8, and 15.

Living Fighting Game Meme Cryin’ Bryan Finally Gets His Big Win

The grand finals of a recent Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite tournament would have normally passed by without much fanfare, if not for the buzz that passed through the scene as it became known the winning player, a relative unknown named Brian “Abbock” Murphy, was in fact an infamous gamer known since 2012 as Cryin’ Brian.…

Overwatch Star Posts Smug Video About Being Mature, Has His Horny DMs Leaked One Day Later

In the past 48 hours, Brian “Kephrii” St. Pierre has gone from making a smug video about how other Overwatch pros are “rude” and should try being “a better person,” to becoming the center of a truly bonkers scandal in which he admitted to cheating on his wife with multiple female fans. In a statement…

Grizzlies Hire Writer To Blog And Also Do Some Opaque Esports Stuff

Lang Whitaker, a fun and good NBA writer, announced yesterday that he is going to work for the Memphis Grizzlies. The announcement post contains more than its fair share of Players’ Tribune-ese: I had the chance to talk with a bunch of the world’s leading content providers […] So I started looking at it as…

Overwatch Team Fires Manager After Woman Says He Sexually Assaulted Her (Update)

A woman said earlier this week that Max Bateman, former manager of the San Francisco Shock of the forthcoming Overwatch League, sexually assaulted her in September after a drink he gave her made her feel dizzy and confused, and later had her “in and out of consciousness.” Fourteen hours after the woman posted about what…

Why Competitive Games Patch So Much

The Dueling Fates update hit Dota 2 last week after a long waiting period, bringing two new heroes, several new items, map changes, and new abilities and talents; in a week’s time, it’s already been updated, from 7.07 to 7.07b. Patches are nothing new in today’s landscape, but Dota 2 patches are particularly unique. While…

Korean Esports Association Staffers Arrested In Embezzlement Investigation

Three employees of the Korean Esports Association (KeSPA), including a former assistant to chief executive Jun Byung-hun, have been arrested on suspicion of bribe-taking and money-laundering, according to Seoul-Yonhap News. KeSPA, an organization formed by the South Korean government in 2000, oversees the country’s esports industry, which includes some of the world’s best pro gaming…

Fans Are Loving Overwatch‘s New Spectator Tools

With its colorful cast and proclivity for wild plays that are equal parts tactical and mechanical, Overwatch is brimming with esports potential. Problem is, it can be a mess of exploding mechs, screen-engulfing ghost dragons, and middle-aged men in Scream Halloween costumes—too much of a mess, sometimes, to actually sit down and watch. Thank goodness…

Esports Needs To Embrace Its Moments Of Honest-To-God Emotion

The most memorable image from this weekend’s League of Legends world championships wasn’t of the winner’s podium, the trophy, the stadium, or even the freaking dragon in the arena. It was of Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, a godlike figure in League of Legends, brought to tears after a crushing 3-0 loss. Faker is one of the…

Tekken Player Flies Up European Rankings With Tournament Win

Adnan “Blackbeard” Zaman came into Paris Games Week as the 51st player on the Tekken 7 leaderboards in Europe. But a massive run through the Tekken World Tour event this weekend took him all the way up to the top, placing him in the top three of his region just ahead of the world tour…

New Character Contest For Upcoming SNK Game Won By Saudi Artist

Saudi Arabian artist Mashael Barrak has had her character design chosen to be included in an upcoming SNK game after winning a design contest. Put on by Manga Productions, her character “Najd” will make an appearance in an upcoming game, though details have not yet been released on what game that will be. Japanese studio…

Splatoon Player Runs The Wrong Way With Rainmaker In Tournament

This weekend’s Squidstorm 2017 in Boston hosted a number of Splatoon teams both amateur and pro, but few captured our hearts like Squidlife Crisis, whose player “moose” grabbed the Rainmaker and ran the wrong way with it. The objective of Rainmaker in Splatoon 2 is to grab the big golden gun and get it to…

Blizzard Announces New Details About Its Overwatch League

Following last night’s2017 Overwatch World Cup, Blizzard shared a bunch of details about how the game’s upcoming professional league will work, including scheduling, prize money, and how the teams will be split up to create separate divisions. The start date is January 10 of next year. Matches will take place four days a week, Wednesday…

Overwatch World Cup Comes Down To A Fight Over Meters

The 2017 Overwatch World Cup finals saw reigning champions South Korea take on Canada, the mighty titan versus the underdog. There were cheers, excitement, and one very polite signholder in the crowd. South Korea’s upcoming Overwatch League team is called the Seoul Dynasty for a reason: the region’s dominance in many esports also extends to…

A Look At Some Of The Upcoming Hearthstone Expansion’s Wilder Cards

Blizzard has revealed some new cards from the upcoming Kobolds and Catacombs expansion at BlizzCon, and they’re already looking pretty silly. While more will certainly trickle out over the coming days and weeks leading up to next month’s release, it’s fun to theorycraft how these could be used, even if they really have no practical…

Early Impressions Of Hanzo And Alexstrasza’s Heroes Of The Storm Debut

Two new heroes will join the Heroes of the Storm roster: Alexstrasza from World of Warcraft and Hanzo from Overwatch. They’re coming to Heroes of the Storm in the coming weeks, and both characters made their debut on the show floor at Blizzcon 2017. Hanzo didn’t feel hard to pick up and understand, so the…

League of Legends World Finals Had A Freaking Dragon

Last night was the final clash of the 2017 League of Legends World Championships, a climactic rematch between Samsung Galaxy and SKT T1. Before the games started, Riot Games put on a massive opening ceremony including a giant trophy, a live performance of Worlds theme “Legends Never Die,” and a freaking dragon. During the ceremony,…

The Weekend In Esports: BlizzCon, Tekken, And More

The top pros in all of Blizzard’s competitive games will face-off today in a bevy of tournaments. Plus if you’re in the U.S. it’s the end of daylight savings. Yay! Worlds 2017 has come and gone leaving the former champions in second place after Samsung Galaxy proved they wouldn’t settle for a repeat of last…

Sean “Day9”Plott holds court for a small but devoted audience at Blizzcon 2017’s “StarCraft 2 – What’s Next” panel. Day9 just compared the game’s new Protoss skins, to be included in the War Chest, to Overwatch. You know, Overwatch? That other game everyone’s playing downstairs in the expo hall, right now?

After leaving his home in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, Luis Galarza Figueroa made the cut for the Los Angeles Gladiators, one of the 12 teams competing in the inaugural season of the Overwatch League. You can read about his journey in our article here