Esports

Looking Back On A 2013 Tournament Featuring Tekken‘s Bowling Mini-Game

When Tekken Tag Tournament came out in 2000, the game included a bowling mini-game called Tekken Bowl that became a cult favorite among Tekken players. Unlike Tekken, the bowling mini-game isn’t deep or complicated. You just choose a Tekken character and aim your bowling ball down the lane. But it’s still a competitive game… albeit…

Small Change Impacts How Players Approach Cars In Battlegrounds

Entering a town is a defining moment in any Battlegrounds match. In open fields, you’re safe. You can see for miles, and shots are difficult to track over long distances. Enter a village or town, it’s different. Sixty alive. A car sits vacant in the street. Any other day a gamble, but today, it’s facing…

Top Pro Dominates Tournament With Street Fighter V’s Newest Character

Justin Wong is one of the greatest fighting game players of all time, and he proved that yet again by using a brand new character for the entirety of a Street Fighter V tournament in Canada this past weekend. Whileopinions have been mixed concerning Ed, who was introduced to the Street Fighter V roster on…

15 Years Later, Here’s Why A Gamer Was Duct-Taped To A Ceiling

Few photos from the forum ages of online gaming live in greater infamy than one of what appears to be a human duct taped to the ceiling of a dimly lit basement, his arms reaching out to lightly graze the keys of a Dell mechanical keyboard. Many have laid claim to this image. “I was…

Medieval fighting game For Honor is launching a weekly 1 vs. 1 tournament called the Hero Series with the Electronic Sports League. It begins July 8th and culminates in a live event in Burbank, California.

Valve Announces Big Changes To Dota 2‘s Tournament Structure Going Forward

The biggest Dota 2 event of the year is next month, but that hasn’t stopped Valve from announcing a major overhaul of the esport’s competitive scene to take place after the $20+ million tournament is concluded in August. “For the next year we will be taking a more organic approach to growing the competitive ecosystem,…

Valve Tinkers With Dota 2 Ahead Of TI7 In Latest Patch

Last night, Valve pushed out a small update for Dota 2. Patch 7.06etweaks a slew of heroes ahead of the game’s biggest tournament of the year in August, including Alchemist, whose base agility jumped nearly 50%. Here’s the full list of changes: Neutral small camps: gold bounty increased by 10% Veil of Discord: Recipe cost…

15-Year-Old’s Reaction To Winning Her First Street Fighter V Tournament Is Everything

Last week, a local Street Fighter V event in Ontario, Canada saw 15-year-old “Toffee” take a major step in her competitive career as she sailed past a handful of her fellow competitors en route to tournament gold. Her celebration, a pop-off that was more elation than disrespect, has spread across the fighting game community like…

Sneaky Triple Saves The Round In Counter-Strike Qualifiers

Patience is a virtue, as Miikka “suNny” Kemppi showed in today’s qualifier matches for the PGL Major in Bucharest. His team, Penta Sports, was falling to the offensive push of Mouseports onto the B bombsite, so Kemppi patiently waited in the wings. As one player set up the bomb and two fanned out to cover,…

The Weekend In Esports: Pokémon Championships And Overwatch Contenders

With the Dota 2 TI7 qualifiers behind us and ESL One Cologne yet to begin, this weekend belongs to some of pro gaming’s other scenes. Most notably Pokémon with the North American Championships pitting the best trainers across the continent against each other. Who’s ready for the parade of Arcanine? Below you’ll find where and…

The Conflict Over Custom Loadouts In Arms Tournaments

Arms has been a surprise hit on the Switch, but the competitive-minded players who have latched onto it are having difficulty establishing a standard format for high-level Arms matches. Each fighters in Arms has three default choices for each of their arms. Helix has his Blorb, Ice Dragon and Guardian, while Min Min has Ramrams, Megawatts…

The Fifth Fan-Run Mario Kart World Cup Starts Today

The Mario Kart World Cup kicks off today, featuring teams from 10 nations competing in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch, as well as Mario Kart Wii, a 2008 classic that remains a touchstone for the Mario Kart competitive scene. Both games feature twelve-player races, so each nation will put forward its six…

Inside The Growing Coaching Industry Supporting League Of Legends Teams

Competitive League of Legends has grown past just the five-player line-up. Coaching staff and more people in charge of training, guiding, and managing players are becoming necessary for a successful team eyeing a spot at the top of the League Championship Series. Or so says the coaching staff for the Immortals, who spoke to me…

This Year’s Dota 2 International Will Be The First Without A Defending Champion

For the first time in Dota 2 history, there will be no defending champion at this year’s International (barring the very first). As the dust clears from this week’s regional qualifiers for the biggest tournament in Dota 2, the Chinese bracket has ended in defeat for all five defending champions of last year’s International 6.…

Bikes Are Making A Comeback In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

In my search for the best kart in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, I paid almost no attention to the bikes. Neither did any of the build recommendation websites that I cited. That’s because a lot of the bikes in Mario Kart 8 didn’t used to be viable in competitive play. Turns out, I shouldn’t have…

Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite Aims To Prevent Endless Combos

As the latest installment of the quirky Versus series, Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite wouldn’t live up to tradition if it didn’t have some silly tactics lurking within its code. Capcom’s team-based fighting franchise is as chaotic as it is beloved. Past games have had infinite combos and assist-heavy setups that make avoiding damage nearly impossible.…

Female Esports Pros Hope To Close The Gender Gap

Women remain a minority in the esports industry, but they have always been a presence in competitive gaming scenes. Compete’s video team interviewed four female esports experts about their successes, their struggles, and their different takes on competitive gaming’s gender disparity. Sherry “Sherryjenix” Nhan, a pro Street Fighter player, got her start in an all-female…

My Life In 3,000 Hours Of Dota 2 

I started playing Dota 2 when I was in college, something I wanted to do to distract me from what I thought I was supposed to do. (Everyone gets a Bachelor’s degree today, right?) In high school, I liked fooling around with free music composition software, building quartets and ensembles I’d print and pass out…

When Going All-In Goes Wrong In Hearthstone

Hearthstone lesson #43: don’t bet the farm against a Mage with secrets in play. Pro Hearthstone player Thijs Moldendijk lived out a moment many virtual cardsharks are familiar with when he dumped a series of power-ups onto a Tirion Fordring, going straight for the face of Pavel Beltukov. Thijs knew he had a secret in…

Chun-Li Player Punishes Bison With 38-Hit Combo

Being on the receiving end of a long combo chain is never a great feeling, so I can only imagine what was going through Inuchiyo’s head when Goichi “Go1″ Kishida unleashed a flurry of kicks and punches on him. In this weekend’s Capcom Pro Tour Asia Online 2 matches, Kishida was on game three against…