Esports

‘Smoke Gank Not Weed’ And Other Sights From Dota 2‘s International Tournament

The International 7 has come and gone, crowning a new victor in Team Liquid along the way. Whether you were on the ground in Seattle at the Key Arena or watching from home, there were plenty of sights and sounds to take in, as well as a few good signs. The Juggernaut statue overlooked one…

The Tradition Of Terrible Esports Champagne Celebrations Continues 

The players on Team Liquid just won the most money for a single match in the history of esports, but at the staged champagne celebration they stumbled around like sleep deprived zombies. This is Ivan Borislavov “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov, a truly inventive player who was nothing short of integral to the team’s success at this year’s…

Team Liquid Wins Over $10 Million At International Dota 2 Tournament

Team Liquid are the victors of The International 7, a Dota 2 tournament with over $24 million in prize pool. The European squad will take home the lion’s share at $10,806,301 after an historic 3-0 sweep of team Newbee. Coming up through the loser’s bracket, the five players of Liquid are both the first team…

Dota 2‘s Furion Will Wreck You

He’s the most bad-ass tree in video games and today’s lower bracket finals at this year’s International showed-off everything that makes the hero one of Dota’s best. Team Liquid has never made it to the top four at the game’s biggest annual tournament before, but today they made it all the way to the grand…

An AI Is Beating Some Of The Best Dota Players In The World 

OpenAI used the action at this year’s Dota 2 championships as an opportunity to show off its work by having top players lose repeatedly to its in-game bot. Dota’s normally a team game with a heavy emphasis on coordination and communication, but for players interested in beefing up their pure, technical ability, the game also…

The Weekend In Esports: TI7 Grand Finals, Call Of Duty Championship, And More

A year of practice and a week of stiff competition in the main event all comes down to this as Dota 2‘s TI7 closes in on a winner later today. While home soil favorites EG were tossed out of the proceedings earlier on, a resurgent Team Liquid who has managed an inspiring run through the…

Two new Dota 2 heroes were announced after last night’s matches at The International 7. The rumored Sylph and an unknown fencing animal will both arrive in the post-TI Dueling Fates update.

League of Legends Pro Attributes Poor Performance To Indulging ‘Sensual Pleasures’

Some players blame repetitive stress and high expectations for poor performance. One League of Legends player has a different reason: A little too much lovin’. Newbee’s Li “Vasilii” Wei Jun posted to Chinese social media site Weibo about him being moved to the bench in week six of the LPL season. The pro says he…

Street Fighter’s ‘Beast’ Is Now An Underdog

Daigo Umehara is arguably the best fighting game player of all time, so his relatively poor performance with Street Fighter V since the game’s release in February 2016 has surprised the competitive community. After sticking with series protagonist Ryu for for more than a year, Daigo recently made the switch to Guile taking advantage of…

The penultimate day of The International 7 starts today, where five teams will be whittled down to the top three. Fun fact: Earthshaker has a 75 percent win-rate at the main event.

True Rich Asshole Stan Kroenke Adds Overwatch Team To L.A. Sports Empire

The Overwatch League has added to its rapidly expanding collection of widely loathed traditional-sports honchos, as Stan and Josh Kroenke, owners of Arsenal, the Los Angeles Rams, a dizzying array of Colorado franchises, and whatever is on Stan’s head have bought a Los Angeles team for a reported $20 million The Kroenkes aren’t the first…

We’re on the ground at The International 7 to check out some of the best Dota 2 play in the world. We’ll update throughout the weekend with highlights and pics, and feel free to say hey if you see a lost Eric wandering around Key Arena.

Brilliant Steal At The Dota 2 International Brings Key Arena To A Roar

The best play so far in this week’s Dota 2 International tournament was a steal that was both skillful and reckless. As Malaysian player Tue “Ahfu” Soon Chuan snuck into a pack of opposing Russian players and grabbed the loot they were going for, the crowd watching at Seattle’s Key Arena lost their minds. Tue…

Mario Kart‘s Competitive Scene Is Trying To Master ‘Soft Drifting’

Now that Nintendo has removed the fire hopping advantage from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there’s a different high-level technique players need to master: soft drifting. The only problem? Soft drifting is much harder to pull off in Deluxe than it was in Mario Kart 8 There are two types of drifting in Mario Kart 8…

Playing With One More Life Could Revolutionize (Or Hurt) Smash 4, Pros Argue

Spurred by a Tweet from a top player, Super Smash Bros. pros are debating whether adding one stock, or life, to competitive matches could mean fairer fights or a dissolution of how the game is played. Pros compete in 2014’s Super Smash Bros. 4 with two stocks. High-stakes and punishing, the ruleset makes spectating an…

Paris Olympic Committee Will Consider Esports For The 2024 Games

The Paris Olympic bid committee will consider esports for inclusion as a medal event in the 2024 Olympic Games, according to Tony Estanguet, the committee’s co-president. Estanguet told the Associated Press that talks have been scheduled with the International Olympic Committee and with esports representatives “to better understand what the process is and why it…

Valve Announces Artifact, A Dota Card Game

Valve announced Artifact, a Dota card game, during tonight’s The International 7 matches in Seattle. The digital card game will be out in 2018. It’ll feature lanes, use characters like Bounty Hunter, and have cards like barracks that will push waves of minions down each player’s avenue of attack. It’ll be a card game version…

South Korea’s Overwatch World Cup Team Is Annihilating Everybody Else With Weird Picks And Wild Plays

As one astute observer on Reddit pointed out, South Korea’s Overwatch World Cup team hasn’t just deviated from the meta; they’ve used nearly every hero in the game. Even Hanzo Going into Blizzard’s big, multi-national bash, South Korea was a heavy favorite, but I’m not sure anybody expected them to clean up to this degree.…

Capcom Cracks Down On Paid Street Fighter Costume Mods

Last week, two prominent creators of Street Fighter nude mods and costume mods said they received takedown notices from Capcom. The two modders in question, who go by Brutal Ace and Khaledantar666, both had Patreon pages that solicited donations from fans. Brutal Ace and Khaledantar666’s mods often make use of other copyrighted properties. One of…

A Newcomer’s Guide To Watching Dota 2‘s $23 Million International Tournament

More than $20 million in prize money is on the line this week in The International 2017, a tournament for the video game Dota 2 that can leave new spectators baffled. We’re here to help, in case you want to watch one of these matches and be able to tell a core from a support,…