Esports

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…

This Is What A Pacifist Run Looks Like In A Pro Dota 2 Match

Just because you aren’t good enough to beat the very best doesn’t mean you can’t troll your way into the history books. And whether they know it or not, that’s what Czech player JohnnyCryptoN and his team are on the verge of doing as they battle their way through the Open Qualifiers for this year’s…

Clutch Baron Steal In League Match Is Almost Better Than Winning

Securing a Baron kill can often swing a game of League of Legends in either team’s favor. In today’s matches in the League Master Series in Taiwan, ahq e-Sports’ jungle player made a flashy play to take the advantage for himself. In a best-of-three against Flash Wolves, ahq had lost their mid player and were…

The Weekend In Esports: Counter-Strike Crashes Wembley, Street Fighter V Rivalries, And More

Cloud9 has a shot at taking gold at Wembley against Europe’s finest while Dota 2 teams from across the land compete in the open qualifiers to make it to the biggest tournament of the year coming in just a couple months. Below you’ll find where and when you can catch all the weekend’s biggest events…

Melee Players Discover New Invincible Techniques For Peach

Super Smash Bros. Melee may be sixteen years old, but frame data analysts are still tearing the game apart to find new techniques to use in competition. Two new techniques were uncovered for Peach this week, and while slightly impractical, they’re potent if you can pull them off. Rococo, a Melee player and tournament organizer,…

Mobile Masters Invitational Features Phone Games And Questionable Posture

This is one case where being on your phone mid-match might not get you in trouble with the refs. Amazon is hosting the Mobile Masters Invitational in Newark, and through today and tomorrow, teams will compete in several different competitive mobile games. Competitors use mobile devices, either phones or tablets, rather than controller or mouse-and-keyboard…

Seahawks Linebacker Cassius Marsh Competes In Magic Tournament, Gets Wrecked

Cassius Marsh is known for tackling ball carriers as an NFL linebacker, but the Seattle Seahawk had an unlucky go last weekend playing another game he loves, Magic: the Gathering Marsh was invited as a special guest to last weekend’s Grand Prix Las Vegas, a five-day Magic fest featuring Magic artists, vendors, cosplay, and three competitive…

The Pokémon Company Is Changing Player Names On Pokkén Tournament Streams

Christian “Suicune Master” Patiernoearned his second straight championship belt for Pokkén Tournament at this past weekend’s Community Effort Orlando. You might not have known that, even if you watched the stream, because the commentators and the on-screen overlay referred to him by a slightly different name. At CEO, he wasn’t “Suicune Master.” He was “Sui…

If They Don’t Want To Get Screwed, Esports Players Should Study MLB History

As more and more money has flooded into the esports industry, player rights have been a hot topic across multiple games. Careers in esports can be extremely short, making it all the more important to ensure that players receive their fair share of the profits their work generates. With that in mind, Riot Games, producer…

Then And Now: Talking To Retired Pro Gamers About The Rise Of Esports

Dave “Walshy” Walsh first started competing at Halo in 2002. Back then, the term “esports” hadn’t yet entered the lexicon, pro gamers rarely earned the big bucks, and competitions were all about the love of the game and discovering who played the best. These days, Walshy still works in the pro gaming field as a…

My Search For The Best Kart In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

I wanted to find the best kart to use in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Easier said than done. No one can build the best kart immediately. This game starts out by providing you with all of the racing tracks and all but one of its characters (Gold Mario, who has the same stats as Metal…

NBC Sports will launch a 2v2 Rocket League tournament this summer. Regional qualifiers will air on the FACEIT network, and participating NBC Sports networks will broadcast the final hour of regional finals match-ups on the weekends of August 5-6 and August 12-13. There’s $100K in prize money on the line.

Twitch Is Now The Only Third-Party Place To Watch Blizzard Tournaments

Video streaming platform Twitch announced a two-year collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment today, where the service will receive exclusive third-party streaming rights to tournaments like the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship and Overwatch APEX League. As esports continues to expand, securing broadcast rights will start to become a growing contest in the industry. Much like…

Injustice 2 Pro Proves The Game’s Lightly-Regarded Joker Actually Is A Threat

In the hands of a skilled player, even a weak character can be a winner. Dominique “SonicFox” McLean proved that this weekend when he used The Joker, arguably one of the worst characters in Injustice 2, to kick Batman’s ass. The showdown happened at the Community Effort Orlando fighting game tournament and was a showcase…

After pulling in over 100 competitors in 2016, this weekend’s Capcom Pro Tour premier event in Jönköping, Sweden, DreamHack Summer, only saw 46 players in attendance. That enabled everyone to get points for the circuit rankings, moving them one step closer to qualifying for Capcom Cup in December.

Dota 2 Team Wins Tournament While (Almost) Never Picking The Same Hero Twice

At this last weekend’s The Summit 7, one team decided to challenge itself. Rather than lean on any one hero, Virtus.Pro would go the opposite way: Try to never pick the same hero twice. We’re don’t know why the team decided to play like this—the consensus seems to be it was either to prove some…