Esports

Pokkén Tournament Match Reignites Debate Over Supposedly Boring Fighting Game Strategies

Winning by any means necessary is a core staple of fighting game competition, but it’s still unsettled whether fighting game pros need to entertain spectators while trying to do so. It’s been an issue in Street Fighter for decades, and top Super Smash Bros. players have even been booed for their controversial approaches to competition.…

Controller Mod Forces A Controversial Rematch During Smash Melee Major

On Sunday night, the Super Smash Brothers: Melee tournament at Shine 2017 forced a controversial rematch between William “Leffen” Hjelte and Daniel “ChuDat” Rodriguez, partway through the Top 8 finals. It all came down to a new rule about a Melee controller modification. Shine 2017 is the first Smash Bros major to require the use…

Melee Player Starts Trend Where Fans Raise Chairs Over Their Heads After Victories

Johnny “S2J” Kim started a chair-raising trend this past weekend at Shine 2017, a Super Smash Brothers major at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston, MA. It all started during Saturday’s Melee pools and lasted through the rest of the weekend. On Saturday, S2J clawed his way up through the loser’s bracket, culminating in…

It’s Nice To See Daigo Win A Major Street Fighter Tournament Again

It’s been almost a year since Daigo “The Beast” Umehara has won a premier level SFV tournament. That changed earlier today when he took first place at the Hong Kong Esports Festival, a victory many in the fighting game world were glad (and possibly relieved) to see the aging star a achieve. Ever since the…

Tweek and MK Leo have a little fun talking with their nametags before their next game at Shine 2017. Tweek would go on to take the set 3-0, defeating Leo’s Corrin, Bayonetta and Toon Link.

Wrestling Continues To Grow On Twitch With TripleMania XXV

While many were watching one circus in a ring last night, a different, better one was taking place on Twitch. Streaming exclusively to the platform was the AAA Lucha Libre Worldwide TripleMania XXV, a spectacular wrestling event featuring high-flying maneuvers and death-defying drops. Wrestling is no stranger to Twitch—amateur and themed wrestling events like WCPW and…

This Guy Prefers To Play Smash Bros. Melee With The Controller Upside Down 

And it’s mesmerizing. Nooch is a sixteen-year old burgeoning speedrunner and Smash Bros. enthusiast. He was attending Shine 2017 this weekend, his first ever major Smash tournament, when god-tier Melee pro Juan Manuel “Hungrybox” DeBiedma spotted him on the floor and took this short video. Nooch apparently plays at lot of games with the controller…

Menat will be the next character to join Street Fighter V’s roster. The Egyptian-themed orb wielder will be available Aug. 29, bringing a little bit of Rose back to Street Fighter

Quake Champions Finals Pit Young Blood Against Seasoned Pro

Two eras of competitive Quake clashed in Dallas today, as the first world championships were held for the early access Quake Champions, awarding $1 million in prize across the tournament. 19-year-old Nikita “Clawz” Marchinsky came into this year’s Quake World Championships Duel as the young Quake Live talent, taking down players like “cooller” to earn a…

Longzhu Gives The World More Reasons To Ban Jayce

In the lead-up to last night’s finals in the League Champions Korea summer playoffs, Longzhu Gaming made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that any opponent should probably ban Jayce against them. Kim “Khan” Dong-ha, top lane player for Longzhu, boasted an 8-1 record on the transforming League of Legends champion during the summer season.…

Players Fall Like Dominoes In Rainbow Six: Siege Finals

Just like in your favorite horror movie, checking the downstairs basement one-by-one in Rainbow Six: Siege isn’t a very good idea. In today’s Rainbow Six: Siege Year 2, Season 2 finals, Penta Sports was set to defend their title as Pro League champs. On the way there, in a semifinals match against Team Fontt, Penta…

The Weekend In Esports: The Summer Grinds On

Outside of some fighting tournaments, this weekend’s goings-on are mostly confined to play within each game’s respective summer league. You’ll find teams from across the likes of Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Counter-Strike focused on grinding out victories in their respective tables, while in the world of fighting games pros face-off in New England,…

Three Pro Players’ Strategies For Mastering Magic: The Gathering’s Modern Format

Magic: The Gathering’s Modern format is one of the most beloved ways to play the game. Its pool of over 11,000 cards offers players a huge variety of powerful strategies to pilot to success. Some players use it to dominate others. Some use it to tinker. Talk to top pros and you’ll hear about a…

Battlegrounds Tournament Rules Result In Confusing Upset

The Gamescom PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Invitational hopes to prove that the popular battle royale game has what it takes to become an esport, poor camerawork aside. But as the tournament continues, quirky tactics and unorthodox wins have raised questions about the rules. Each match of the tournament is broken up into three rounds, with winners decided…

Madden 18‘s New Story Mode Is Actually Pretty Touching

Madden NFL 18 has a story mode, a first for a Madden game. Called “Longshot,” it follows the career of fictional would-be quarterback Devin Wade. Unlike Madden 18’s Ultimate Team mode, which allows you to feel like an all-powerful football god who can make record-setting numbers of touchdowns per game, Longshot isn’t about winning. Instead,…

Top Genji Player Can’t Compete In Blizzard’s Overwatch League Because He’s Just 16

This week, Seoul, Korea’s Overwatch League team announced their player roster. Unsurprisingly, they opted to basically snatch up Lunatic Hai, the two-time winners of South Korea’s biggest Overwatch tournament, APEX. There were, however, a couple curious omissions. Overwatch’s pro scene, largely the result of a series of smaller, unaffiliated tournaments held over the course of…

Top Lucioball Players Create Strategies Blizzard Never Imagined

Overwatch’s Summer Games end on August 29, which means there’s not much time left to get good at Lucioball. Except no one is that good at Lucioball, even the players ranked in top 500. But while players who hate it have already gone back to playing Rocket League, the competitive Lucioball players left standing have…

Gamescom’s Big Battlegrounds Tournament Kicks Off With Exciting Gunplay, Lousy Camerawork

The PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Invitational tournament kicked off today at Gamescom. The first major round of solo matches was full of badass snipes and tense finishes. Unfortunately, viewers missed plenty of these moments thanks to some shoddy camera work. Solo matches can get particularly chaotic in Battlegrounds, as 100 players fight it out to see who…

Blizzard Making A Bunch Of Changes To Overwatch‘s Competitive Mode

Overwatch’s fifth competitive season was not the game’s finest hour. Doom and gloom dominated the proceedings, and no, those aren’t the names of Reaper’s shotguns. For season six, Blizzard is changing things up, albeit with a series of tweaks, as opposed to a total overhaul. The biggest news is that competitive seasons will be shorter…

Overwatch Pro Leaves Wedding Reception, Wins Big Match, Goes Back To Reception

Over the weekend, Overwatch pro Joonas “Zappis” Alakurtti had a decision to make: attend a friend’s wedding, or play his first match in Blizzard’s $100,000 Overwatch Contenders tournament. He chose both. Alakurtti is a member of Finnish organization Team Gigantti, a team with a solid backbone (its members previously played Overwatch for major org Ninjas…