Esports

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…

Gwent Gets An $850,000 Tournament Series

Gwent, the in-universe card game from The Witcher 3, has been in beta as a standalone game since last May. Today, developers CD Projekt RED announced a new season-based competitive mode called Gwent Masters. Separate from the ranked mode already available to Gwent players, Gwent Masters will allow players to compete in online tournaments that…

Pro Overwatch Had A Weekend Of Upsets

The first “real” season of Overwatch’s official minor league, Contenders, kicked off over the weekend, and it was characterized by underdog teams repeatedly flipping the script. It began on the UK side of things, with top-ranked European team eUnited losing 1-3 against the recently-founded Team Gigantti. Gigantti, a team made up of former members of…

Turns Out Madden‘s Referees Make Human Errors Too

Even the AI refs in Madden need glasses. Over the weekend, at the FIFA Interactive World Cup, a questionable offsides started to make me wonder: What if the refs in video games are programmed to, on occasion, get it wrong? In Madden, for example, there’s a “challenge” system that mirrors NFL football. If you think…

EA just announced sign-ups for the closed alpha of Battlefield 1 Incursions, a new 5v5 competitive mode that allows only one vehicle per team. The alpha, which debuts for selected players in September, will feature a scaled-down version of Battlefield 1‘s Giant’s Shadow map. Sign-ups end August 26 at 11:59 pm PDT.