Esports

Dota 2 Commentator Reveals She’s Been Diagnosed With Cancer 

Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden, one of Dota 2‘s most prominent casters and streaming personalities, revealed earlier today on her Twitch channel that she has cancer and will start undergoing treatment for it later this week. “Well I have breast cancer,” she told her viewers during her daily Dota 2 stream. “It hasn’t spread. It’ll…

Pros Continue Reviving Old Rivalries At The Latest Smash Bros. Melee Tournament

This was the scene in the Tropicana Showroom Theater in Atlantic City last night after the day’s Smash Bros. Melee matches had wrapped up as some of the game’s beloved pros tried to resurrect a decades old rivalry between East and West coast players. In the middle was Ryan “The Moon” Coker-Welch, a top-ranked player…

Street Fighter Pro Brings Down The Champ At Compete Event

In the last block of the night at our “Can You Beat An Esports Champion?” event, Du “NuckleDu” Dang was the first pro to drop all day. Kevin “Die3mini0n” Landon, a professional Street Fighter player himself, took down NuckleDu in a tense mirror match-up. Both players were on Guile, exchanging blows and projectiles in a…

Here’s To That Guy Creeping Around The Witcher 3 Card Game Tournament 

Meet Gaunter O’Dimm. Or at least some dude dressed as Gaunter O’Dimm, a mischievous, devil-like bloke from The Witcher 3 and competitive gaming’s own Vanna White. His job is to walk players to their seats and stare at the camera like that theater undergrad who is all about getting into character and strolling around the…

Watch Street Fighter Pros V. Jamokes At Our NYC Event

Starting now and going into the night, Street Fighter V pros Bryant “Smug” Huggins, Justin Wong and Du “NuckleDu” Dang will take on a crowd of challengers live from our New York offices. Throughout the day, visitors can stop by to play the pros, and after they fail (or succeed), they can stop by the…

The Weekend In Esports: League Of Legends, Madden 17, And The Gwent Challenger Finals

The weekend’s competitive gaming starts with a card game inspired by a Polish fantasy series and ends with two people calling last-minute plays in a virtual recreation of NFL football. Aren’t esports great? Below you’ll find where and when you can catch all the weekend’s biggest events in competitive gaming. Let us know what you’ll…

Survey: 42 Percent Of Esports Viewers Don’t Play The Games They Watch

Not everyone who watches the Super Bowl plays football, and it turns out the same is true for the League of Legends World Championship. According to research done by analytics firm Newzoo, 42 percent of esports viewers surveyed do not actually play the games they watch. Specifically, Newzoo studied the esports viewing habits of people…

Blizzard Responds To Controversial Rumors Of $20 Million Overwatch League Buy-In Fee

Blizzard’s official Overwatch League is supposed to be the thing that catapults Overwatch esports to the next level. This week, though, it’s become an ominous cloud hanging over the scene. In the past nine days, nine days, no less than five esports organizations have dropped their Overwatch teams. Why so many? And why now? A…

Dota Pro Counters Time Travel With Map-Wide Grappling Hook

In today’s qualifier matches for Dota’s The Summit 7, Natus Vincere’s Danil “Dendi” Ishutin found himself warped away from a fight by Vega Squadron’s Disruptor. With seconds to save himself, Dendi landed a chain onto a nearby tree and took a journey through space and time. Disruptor’s “Glimpse” ability warps an enemy hero back to…

You’re Invited To Take On Top Street Fighter V Players In NYC This Weekend (Or Watch Others Try)

The concept we had was simple. Pit some of the world’s best pro gamers against regular folks. So that’s what we’re doing this Saturday. Do average gamers stand a chance against these guys? The elite players: Nuckledu, Justin Wong and Smug, all ready to battle you in Street Fighter V Their opponents: You! Or others…

Can Magic’s Latest Expansion Save A Stale Meta-Game?

The release of a new Magic: the Gathering expansion is usually a joyous event for players, and this spring’s ancient Egypt-themed Amonkhet set should have been an easy hit. Instead, players are reeling from a competitive scene that has lately been dominated by a couple of overpowered cards, and hoping that Amonkhet can breathe fresh…

Ex-WWE Announcer Emcees Video Game Wrestling League Finale

Wrestling fans might be used to hearing Justin Roberts introduce names like John Cena, Daniel Bryan or The Undertaker. But for the finale of the Video Game Championship Wrestling series, Roberts himself took to the mic to announce the entrance of rejected Street Fighter concept Zubaz and the dark lord of Hyrule himself, Ganondorf. The…

Five Pro Gaming Teams Drop Overwatch In One Week [Update]

It’s been a gnarly handful of days for the professional Overwatch scene. Since last Tuesday, four organizations have dropped their Overwatch teams, citing a lack of certainty about Blizzard’s upcoming Overwatch League and potentially prohibitive costs they’ll have to pay in order to join it. Today, esports organization compLexity bid farewell to their Overwatch team…

Tekken 7 Pros Booted From UK Championship On Suspicion Of Collusion

Justin “King Jae” Nelson’s third place finish in Sunday’s UK Tekken 7 Championship Birmingham Qualifier won him a spot in the upcoming finals at MCM London Comic Con. But because of alleged collusion between him and Charmel “C-Krizzle” Miedji Koloko during their match in the third round of the loser’s bracket, both players were banned…

A note to readers: Our recent story about a supposed group of transgender gamers being denied entry into an esports tournament was based on a hoax. Please see the original, updated story for more. We apologize for the mistake.

Ten Years Ago, Dead Or Alive Launched The Careers Of The Highest-Paid Women Pro Gamers

Vanessa Arteaga had been playing fighting games since she was a child, long before she became one of the highest-paid women in competitive gaming history—but her tens of thousands in winnings still pale in comparison to the millions that her male peers have made in competitive gaming in the years since. Her older brother started…

Street Fighter Pro Annoyed That Two Big Tournaments Are On The Same Date

Joshua “Wolfkrone” Philpot dominated the roster on Friday night’s Eleague Street Fighter V bracket, earning himself one of the slots in the playoff bracket on May 26. The only games Wolfkrone lost were to Kun “Xian” Ho, the winner of Final Round 20 and a big contender to win Eleague. In the end, Wolfkrone went…

League Revising Rules After Trans Players Rejected From Women’s CSGO Tournament [UPDATE: Hoax]

UPDATE 5/9/17 12:00 PM: This story seems to have been based on a hoax designed to get BuzzFeed and, by extension, other sites to publish an inaccurate news article. Sly Buehl Rigilio is quoted in a new article on Infowars saying that he and his friends posed as trans women to trick BuzzFeed “for the…

M. Bison clone “Ed” will be the next combatant to enter the ring in Street Fighter V. The psychokinetic teen is the first character inSFV to not require motions for special moves, and will be playable in the upcoming CFN Beta on May 11 through 14.

Smash 4‘s Competitive Scene Is Thriving, But Can It Take The Next Big Step?

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U often toils in the shadow of its predecessor, the GameCube classic Melee. Yet in the backyard of the live music capitol of the world, surrounded by more established games, DreamHack Austin showcased a $10,000 Smash 4 tournament that was electric to watch. It seemed a premonition of greater things…