Esports

The Ups And Downs Of Teabagging In Pro Gaming

When the clock counted down the last 100 seconds, Injustice 2 Pro Series player Dominique “Sonic Fox” McLean knew he’d already won the match. His opponent’s health bar had been reduced to a sliver. All Sonic Fox had to do was kill time. So he started teabagging. As the enemy player cowered on the other…

Canada Cup has given lifetime bans to the players caught cheating in last weekend’s Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite tournament. The ensuing chaos caused by their actions ruined one player’s chances of qualifying for the official Battle for the Stones event in December.

Overwatch League Team Names, Ranked

The Overwatch League is gearing up for its inaugural season in 2018. All of the 12 teams competing in the new esports league have been announced, backed by familiar sports names like Patriots owner Bob Kraft and Mets owner Jeff Wilpon. Some of these names are fun and good; others less so. Here they are,…

Super Smash Bros. Melee Community Has It Tough In Japan 

It was 2am in early September. Yuichiro Takahashi was in his room eating a Crunky chocolate bar, listening to the RWBY soundtrack and staring at the English sentences on his monitor. If anything might help change the Super Smash Bros. Melee scene in Japan, perhaps this would. He pressed publish. The title of the blog…

A Great Match From Korea’s First All-Women Overwatch Tournament

Over the weekend, a Korean company called Inven broadcast the finals of Korea’s first amateur all-women Overwatch tournament. It was a damn good match. The “All For Ladies” tournament actually took place earlier this month, but the finals weren’t broadcast until this weekend. Two teams, Pandora Ladies and 1st.Lady, went toe-to-toe in a best-of-five match,…

Fighting Game Tournament Pool Goes To Shit After Loser Keeps Playing Under Friend’s Name [Update]

While fighting game events allow everyone an opportunity to compete thanks to their traditional, open-bracket format, they have one explicit rule: you only get one shot at winning. A competitor boldly broke this rule at this weekend’s Canada Cup in Toronto, Ontario when he decided his first chance wasn’t enough and participated under an assumed…

SonicFox Suffers Day One Elimination From Injustice 2 World Championship

In a shocking turn of events, Dominique “SonicFox” McLean was eliminated from ELEAGUE’s Injustice 2 World Championship last Friday after losing twice to Christian “ForeverKing” Quiles during the first day of competition. McLean cited audio issues as “detrimental” on Twitter shortly after his first loss, but gave props to Quiles for playing “amazingly well” in…

The woman who was dating a pro League of Legends player who was kicked off his team after an apparent livestreamed domestic abuse incident says he didn’t hit her but smashed things and was enraged enough that she called the police. We’ve updated our story with more details

Russian Dota Team Finally Gets The Major They’ve Been Working Towards

The 2017 season was a heartbreaking one for Virtus.Pro. They took home solid tournament wins, but when it came to the majors, VP always came up just short of the mark. After this weekend in Hamburg, the CIS team can feel a little vindicated by opening their 2018 campaign with a statement: Things won’t be…

Counter-Strike Team Seems To Thrive In Overtime

Overtime can be stressful for any team. That is unless you’re SK Gaming, who in today’s Epicenter grand finals manage to clutch out two wins in extra rounds to take home the big prize. After going an even 1-1 in the first two rounds, SK Gaming and Virtus.Pro were tied and vying on Train in…

Even Game Day Is Tired Of Jigglypuff Mains

Saquon Barkley, running back for the Penn State Nittany Lions, seems to also find time to play some Melee on the side.

Big Buck Hunter Interview Goes About How You’d Expect

Say hello to Jerad, one of the Big Buck HD players from last night’s Big Buck World Championship. The self-proclaimed “messiah of Big Buck Hunter,” he gave quite an interview during last night’s festivities. Though Jerad didn’t make it to the finals, those who did put on a good show of arcade accuracy and speed,…

The Moment You Realize You Qualified For Capcom Cup

This weekend’s Canada Cup is stacked with talent, as players on the bubble fight for the last possible points they can get to make the cut for the upcoming Capcom Cup. Here’s Gustavo Romero, or “801 Strider,” landing the last grab he needed to make this tournament’s top 8 and qualify for the big event…

Dota Tournament Rolls Teams Out In Mercedes-Benz Sedans

This weekend’s ESL One Hamburg is the first major of the 2018 Dota 2 season, which makes it crucial for getting some early points on the circuit. Outside the points and $1 million prize pool, there’s also another prize: a pretty sweet car. Mercedes-Benz is one of the sponsors of the tournament, and part of…

Faker Never Seemed To Doubt His Galio In Close Semifinals Match

In last night’s League of Legends world championship matches, SKT T1’s Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok seemed hell-bent on proving how good his Galio was. In a series that went to game five against home-crowd team Royal Never Give Up, Faker played only Galio, all five games. This isn’t an outlandish strategy in the grand scheme of…

The Weekend In Esports: ESL One Hamburg, Canada Cup, And More

It’s a packed weekend with the last of the Worlds 2017 semifinals and a Dota 2 Major in Germany leading the way. Those events are followed up closely by the Canada Cup fighting game event, the Heroes of the Storm HGC Finals, and Epicenter 2017. Below you’ll find where and when you can catch all…

Overwatch Adding Features To Make Pro Matches More Watchable

“I tried watching a pro Overwatch tournament, but I couldn’t understand what was going on” is a refrain I’ve heard more times than I can count. I totally understand. Overwatch is a blur of lights, colors, and middle-aged men in cowboy costumes even in its chillest moments. Ahead of Overwatch League’s big kick-off, Blizzard’s finally…

Pro Gamer Loses Contract After He Livestreams Domestic Violence Incident [Update]

Chinese League of Legends team Newbee has cut ties with pro Li “Vasilii” Wei Jun after he livestreamed a domestic abuse incident with his girlfriend, and was reportedly called in by the police. During Li’s stream session, according to a translation via Reddit, his girlfriend points out that he is too serious when he plays,…

Sources: Amazon’s Breakaway Is Basically Canceled [Update]

Amazon Game Studios’ hero sports brawler Breakaway is essentially canceled but may reemerge in some form later, two people familiar with plans for the game tell Kotaku No layoffs are planned at the moment for the internet shipping giant’s gaming arm, but the game is on “indefinite hiatus,” a source said. UPDATE (1:51pm): In a…

DreamHack’s Fighting Game Tournament Trophies Keep Breaking

After wrapping up its first Denver outing this weekend, the DreamHack tournament series awarded the champions of their various fighting game events with unique trophies that featured moving parts and the logo of each respective title. Unfortunately, these prizes soon began to fall apart. These problems were first brought to light on Sunday afternoon by…